How many of you guys are like my dad and never change their fork oil? He's had a 1986 shadow for about 10 years now, I called and asked and he's never changed/checked his. I decided to change my fork oil and this is what I got out of the left leg...
it was thick.. and the spring and spacer were covered in thicker, greasy, poopy looking "crap". It must have gotten water in it at some point. I flushed it out with some fresh atf, worked the forks, drained it again, and refilled with new. In a few hundred miles i'll probably change it again if the seals don't leak. I talked my dad into changing his, ya'll should too!
I've never changed fork oil just to change it. Never held on to a motorcycle longer than a couple of years and my dirt bikes blow seals often enough to keep the oil from getting too old. If your oil looked like it did, why didn't you completely disassemble your tubes, scrub everything out and go ahead and replace the seals and bushings while you were there?
It's on the list, along with some springs. I pulled the springs and spacers out and cleaned them, cut the spacers down and put them back in. Flushed as good as i could with ATF. I have a lot more stuff to do before i pull the forks apart. Like make a seat, riding on a bungee corded sweatshirt isn't very fun.. and put fenders on, as salty/muddy water isn't very tasty!
This is why I always remove the tubes when I do fork oil. I spray a half a can of carb cleaner into each tube and work them then drain. I then switch to atf fill work and drain till it runs clean, I have never had to replace a seal.
Yeah you have to be mindful of what you use on rubber parts. Carb cleaner is probably the worst product. If you already have the seals out, then no harm no foul.
Been doing it this way for years and like I said never had to change a leaking seal. The cleaner is in there for about 2 minutes before it is dumped and replaced with ATF. The ATF is cycled and dump about 2 times and then fork oil is put in.
The hardest part for me with the forks was seating the new seals with a make-shift PVC tool. Everything else really just slid on or apart and was a breeze. Progressive fork springs are only $68, I only planned to do seals and oil but on a whim I ordered the springs and they really are firmer. Used 15w hydraulic oil as well.
Perhaps using a second pvc pipe on top of the pvc driver, that is, pounding the pvc driver with second pvc pipe would have speedy upped the process. Heck, use an extra long pvc pipe and you could drive the oil seal in upside down.
I used the old seals turned upside down and light weight cheap plastic often found in the $5 cheap tool selection and tap carefully/gently the new ones in. Be sure to put oil on the OD of the new seals.
Just follow the change interval in your service manual. If the seals aren't leaking, they're fine. I'm putting in new fork oil @ 8500mi., but only because I'm changing fork springs.
I changed everything up front at 15K miles. The oil was discolored and the forks felt "soft" and compressed fairly easily. They had never been serviced.
I changed everything up front at 15K miles. The oil was discolored and the forks felt "soft" and compressed fairly easily. They had never been serviced.
I just purchased new seals, bushes and the progressive springs.. my front end is wayy too soft and bottoms out easily.
I had actually opened the top of my forks, used a syringe and pulled out as much fork oil as I could. I then replaced it with 15W oil, but my ride is still on the soft side with too much front end dive under braking.
I'm hoping the new bushes + stiffer springs + complete flush with 15W oil will help. I may slightly overfill the forks to help stiffen them up temporarily until I get the parts.