Change fork oil
- Thread starter nobbyjohn
- Start date
Both of them threads are great threads, but don't cover changing the oil while the forks on on the bike. Let me try to explain a how to. There are a couple tricks to get it back together.
1. lift the bike and remove the front wheel
2. On the bottom of your fork tubes, the little pointy things are held on by a set screw. Remove them.
3. Up through that hole is a socket head cap screw bolt. Remove that bolt. Oil, and sludge will drip out.
4. Remove the cap off the top of the forks. Wrapping the inside of the socket with tape will help protect the chrome.
Note: there is a spring in there, but nothing you can't hold down with your hands.
5. Take some brake cleaner and spray down the tube, to clean out the sludge.
6. Now for the tricky part, getting that bolt restarted in the bottom. I use a long wooden dowel rod, to slide down the inside of the tube, to push on the part the the bolt screws into. It has a spring on the bottom too, so the bolt won't reach.
Put a dab of silicone on the head of the bolt to seal it.
7. Add 10 oz of oil in each fork, and put the caps back on.
8. Reinstall the little pointy things on the bottom.
9. Reinstall front wheel and wipe all your finger prints off.
That should do it.
1. lift the bike and remove the front wheel
2. On the bottom of your fork tubes, the little pointy things are held on by a set screw. Remove them.
3. Up through that hole is a socket head cap screw bolt. Remove that bolt. Oil, and sludge will drip out.
4. Remove the cap off the top of the forks. Wrapping the inside of the socket with tape will help protect the chrome.
Note: there is a spring in there, but nothing you can't hold down with your hands.
5. Take some brake cleaner and spray down the tube, to clean out the sludge.
6. Now for the tricky part, getting that bolt restarted in the bottom. I use a long wooden dowel rod, to slide down the inside of the tube, to push on the part the the bolt screws into. It has a spring on the bottom too, so the bolt won't reach.
Put a dab of silicone on the head of the bolt to seal it.
7. Add 10 oz of oil in each fork, and put the caps back on.
8. Reinstall the little pointy things on the bottom.
9. Reinstall front wheel and wipe all your finger prints off.
That should do it.
Only problem with that Tapio, is the sludge gets up in the seals. I tried that once, and a week later the seals were leaking bad.
it is recommended to change the bushings @10k miles anyway, but my experience tells me that is too long. should be closer to every 8.5k miles. better to go ahead and do it all and be safe. teflon goes away fast with the extended rake, especially the K9 and Chopper.
You know wood I was rummaging through some very old posts and it was mentioned that one of the techs at Big Dog back in the day said it be best to change them every 5k.
I think I'm sitting at about 7500 at the moment. Will be doing them soon actually.
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when shane and i did mine, the teflon lining on the brass bushing was virtually non-existent. when it is gone you are running on the brass, which isn't as bad as running steel on steel, but still not good. the teflon itself, in my opinion, is extremely thin, but if it were any thicker, as it wore it would allow more slop in the forks. so, i guess we live with what we have and change them a little more often than we think we should need to.