Re:Changing the Fork oil - How do you do it??

[marty400]

Hiya All,

Re:Changing the Fork oil - How do you do it??


I've had a look at the haynes manual. It goes on about dropping the forks out, dismantling the fork altogether, THEN putting the oil in, before putting it all back together again.


The Forks on my cbr400 look like it has an "oil drain screw" at the bottom of each fork.
Can I change the oil with the forks still in the yokes etc?


Is it simply best to get the forks out completely, and get the EXACT amount of oil into each fork???

Hope you can advise

Cheers
Martin

[Sligeach]

forks do indeed have a bolt at the bottom of them, this bolt holds all the fork internal in place.
i would say that it would be possible to do it with them on, but you would need a paddock stand that unloads the front suspesion like an abba stand or one that attaches to the headstock.

i would NEVER attempt to do them on the bike tho, it would be far more ball ache to do it that way, but like i say is possible if you want to endure the ballache

just loosen the top cap with the forks still in the yokes,
unbolt caliper
unbolt front wheel
remove mudgaurd
take the forks out of the yokes
take off the cap off the fork and turn it upside down and pump a few times.
fill forks according to the haynes

[marty400]

forks do indeed have a bolt at the bottom of them, this bolt holds all the fork internal in place.
i would say that it would be possible to do it with them on, but you would need a paddock stand that unloads the front suspesion like an abba stand or one that attaches to the headstock.

i would NEVER attempt to do them on the bike tho, it would be far more ball ache to do it that way, but like i say is possible if you want to endure the ballache

just loosen the top cap with the forks still in the yokes,
unbolt caliper
unbolt front wheel
remove mudgaurd
take the forks out of the yokes
take off the cap off the fork and turn it upside down and pump a few times.
fill forks according to the haynes

Thanks for that DC!

Will get the forks dropped out in that case!

Cheers
Martin

[DiscoDan]

i would NEVER attempt to do them on the bike tho, it would be far more ball ache to do it that way, but like i say is possible if you want to endure the ballache

Further to that the amount of fork oil you put in is very important and can have a big effect on handling (hands up everyone in the room who's caused hydraulic lock but overfilling forks?). You'll never get an accurate measure of how much to put in by draining and measuring

[LozVTR]

Im in the process of sorting my forks out. what fork oil would people suggest?

cheers

Loz

[Sligeach]

straight into halfords and get some castrol 10W

[LozVTR]

cool, thanks very much.