Long story short, while I was cleaning the Magna (1986 VF700C) I noticed that the right fork dust seal was abour half way up the fork, the top "C" clip and what I'm assuming is the fork seal weren't seated properly. Further investigation showed fork oil on the caliper on the right side. I gently tapped the fork seal, "C" clip and dust cover back into place and sprayed the caliper and pads with a generous helping of brake cleaner.
Is there a way to check the fork oil level or am I looking at draining the tube and replacing it with new oil? I don't want to take the bike out again until I get the fork oil where it's supposed to be. Then I can check to see if the seal leaks.
There is really no way to check the fork oil level however if the bike is not bottoming out it won't hurt anything unless it is leaking then the fluid on the brakes can damage the pads. Fork oil capacity for 86 magna right fork is 18.4 oz. and the left fork is 18.9 oz. I would ride it to check and see if it is leaking if it isn't then drain it and fill it with new oil if it is leaking then replace the seals.
I pulled the caps off of both forks and I heard some air escape from both of them when I depressed the air valves. Not sure if that means the seals are still good or not.
I made a dipstick out of a scrap piece of rod I had sitting around and checked the "good" fork. I filled the other fork to match, replaced the caps and repressurized the forks back to 6 psi with a bicycle pump I had clipped to my old 10 speed.
I went for a brief gentle ride, not really knowing what to expect, and it all seemed good. I parked front wheel of the bike on a piece of cardboard overnight and I didnt see any signs of leakage the next morning.
Still confused as to what caused the seal and the retaining clip to pop out like that.
If it doesn't leak the seals are good. Cann't imagine how that retaining clip came out I replaced the seals on mine not to long ago and the retaining clip was a bear to get out and back in however it did have a little bit of rust on it. If it doesn't leak after riding it for awhile you might want to change the fork oil out.
Snap rings have different edges on the two sides, a rounded side and a "locking" or square edged side. Most likely the clip was not installed properly, if the rounded side was put in facing up it could have slipped out.
What does bottoming out sound like? I've been hearing this weird chirping noise from somewhere up there recently...