Changing Fork Oil

[wannars125]

Quick question, I've got to do some maintenance on the forks and haven't done anything like this before. The service manual gives me the required amount of fork oil to put back in the fork but says to check it with a measuring guage to check it's at a certain level.

Question is, if I've followed what it says and filled it up with equal amounts of oil on both forks it should be ok right?

You may say get the measuring guage but at over £200 for a the tool, there's no way I'm spending that kind of money!

The Haynes manual doesn't mention about doing this check either.

[Guest]

Not necessarily, There could be some gunk, or dirt or some kind of solid material at the bottom which will affect the level of oil in the fork. Hence the measuring tool. Cant something like an oil dipstick be used? Why is this tool £200?

go to a garage?

[karma]

If I rember correctly, the measuring guage is used to measure from the top of the forks to the top of the oil when you have re-filled. I did this a couple of years ago on a VFR without a £200 tool. I used a Steel rule with fine increments on.

Dave

[Martyc]

Isn't it measured by the air gap at the top, I.e with a ruler?

[eastanglianbiker]

when i have done them in the past i done it with fork leg fully pushed down into lower leg(compressed), filled to top edge then expanded fork leg to full extent inserted spring and put fork top back on never caused any problems

[wannars125]

Some sound ideas. I think the tool is so expensive because it's a genuine suzuki one.

[Phill_vtr]

I use a syringe (borrowed from work) with a bit of tube on it. Measure from the end of the tube, a distance equal to the air gap and mark the tube with a line. Once the correct amount of oil has been put in, pump the fork inners a few times to get the oil in and the air out. Before you put the springs back, compress the outer (this is true on my bikes but don't know if it's true on all bikes) and put tube into fork leg until mark is flush with the top and draw out excess oil.

If you want a proper tool for this there are plenty of cheaper ones about like

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Motion-Pro-Fork-Oil-level-tool-Gauge-meter-/190438226783?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2c5700bb5f

[flipper]

when i have done them in the past i done it with fork leg fully pushed down into lower leg(compressed), filled to top edge then expanded fork leg to full extent inserted spring and put fork top back on never caused any problems

 

Then you have too much oil in the fork. The oil should be filled to the height specified with the leg compressed and spring removed.

The tool for measuring oil level can be purchased on ebay for about £12 - £14.

[wannars125]

Cheers for the help people!