Changed My Fork Oil Today

[James Burleigh]

When I took Lee's course few weekends ago (we're on a first-name basis), he used my bike as an example when discussing rebound damping. So with the class gathered 'round, and after bouncing the front and fooling with the clickers, he finally dialed them as tight as they would go, but it still had too much pogo-stick action for his satisfaction. So he said "You need to change the fork oil." I thought to myself, "My forks have oil?!" :blink:

I guess you're supposed to change the fork oil every year or so. Hell, that's more often than I flip my mattress. Now, I've had the bike (an '05) since April '06, when I bought it used with 1,700 miles on it. Here it is three years later, and it's got 60,000 miles on it. So I guess I shoulda changed the fickled finger of fluid f**kin' fork oil sooner. What is the g*ddamned point of bein' on the Forum if nobody bothers to mention this kinda sh*t. Sheesh...! :glare:

So I suckered Silent into riding the 45 minutes up to my house today to help me out. He had changed his Gen-II oil recently and apparently knew which end was up. I also invited my new BMW R1200RT friend, Elmer, over whom I'd met a few months ago at the AAA parking lot and have been trying to get together since. We were all going to go for a ride after adjusting our suspension, but once Silent foolishly agreed to help with the fork oil, the day turned into a tech day. Besides, it was 100 degrees out.

Elmer decided to change his final-drive oil. It's recommended that you don't have to change it for the life of the bike, but Elmer decided he wants to change it routinely, at every service, because, you know, BMW rear-ends tend to, well, blow up an' all.... You will not believe what he had to go through to change it....!

Good thing my neighbor across the street makes extra money buying, fixing, and selling Harleys. Dude was our tool back-up man. He wasn't even upset when we (Silent really) busted a cheap-ass Taiwanese box wrench. But apart from that, Silent hauled a bunch of tools up in his bags, including a floor jack.

Even in the garage it was HOT!

First we needed music. So I rigged my Garmin sat radio to a couple speakers, and we had classic rock all day.

Silent brought his entire garage up in his saddlebags.

Forks removed and looking like some hideous creature from Alien.

The only casualty was cracking off the mounting hole on my front fender. Anyone got a fender for sale? :angry:

Forks disassembled and awaiting the new oil. After reading the specs on quantity of oil required, I had to run to Cycle Gear to pick up the oil, a 45-minute round trip. Then when I got back I had to go out again because it seems I have two forks.

Letting the oil drain out with the help of bungy cords. We settled for 24 minutes instead of the Warchild-recommended 24 hours. h34r:

The oil was black and stinky like Old Michael's hair. uke:

My job was to stay out of the way!

Oh yeah! My job was also to clean the forks with some 409.

Elmer felt more confident changing his rear-end oil with Silent around. Here they discuss a proctologist's fluid extractor.

Elmer had his maintenance manual on-line. Those BMW guys! Here Silent gets grease on Emer's screen.

Elmer's bike. Yeah, it's purdy, but it ain't no FJR....

Here's the R1200RT with the rear tire removed. Say what? To change the rear-end oil?! Yep. <_< I have been known to change my own final-drive oil, without Silent's help. And I did it in about 13 minutes. It took Elmer a couple of hours.

The oil is out! Half-way through, only an hour to go..... :clapping:

Well, Elmer finally got his tire back on all right and skedaddled on home for a family event. After I (well, Ray) got my forks and tire back on, we set the front pre-load, doing all those fancy measurements that account for stiction an' all. Then set the rebound and compression damping on the front and the rebound on the rear.

After all was said an' done I took my newly oiled and adjusted suspension for a spin, and man-o-man what a difference. :yahoo: I felt like Ben Spies, and looked like him too.

A GREAT BIG FORUM THANK YOU to Silent for coming up to my patch to help me with this project. :clapping: We hadn't seen each other in many many weeks, so it was great having the NAFO twins back together again.

JB...Out.

 

[happyPuppy]

Great post and funny as hell. It sounds like a good time. Rock on!

 

[rockmurf]

What he said. I know there is alot written about changing the fork oil but since it is now in the owners manual it just doesn't seem to get done. What condition were the forks and springs in and is all you did was change the oil?

 

[johnny80s]

What type of oil did you put in?

 

[escapefjrtist]

Great read JB...So I would imagine you'll have one of these reports once a year or so, yes?

And what's with 100 degrees in the Bay area, musta lost that on shore flow.

--G

 

[FJRONAMISSION]

Good on you Ray for helpin out us less oiled people.......

B.

 

[dcarver]

Fun read Hans! Good on Ray too!

 

[GPRIDER]

There have been a few write ups over the years about this. That's how I found out how to do it. It is kind of a whipping to do it all, but needs to be done at some point. I was doing it about once a year on my 04. Haven't done it on the 08 yet, but it's coming soon.

GP

 

[Silent]

It was a good day of tech. Even if the main reason for going up was working on my suspension I'm glad we managed to get JB's bike in a better, safer state. Since he regularly commutes with his son, his bike was more of a priority.

What he said. I know there is a lot written about changing the fork oil but since it is now in the owners manual it just doesn't seem to get done. What condition were the forks and springs in and is all you did was change the oil?

All of the hard parts were in good shape. They weren't leaking so there was no reason to disassemble the forks completely. We did flush the forks about 3 times for the left tube, and about 5 times for the right tube. There was way more garbage coming out of the right tube than the left. By the tie we were done, the oil from both tubes was about equal in color, without a lot of gray particles. We refilled with 5 wt oil, I don't recall the specific brand, and I set Hans's suspension to what mine are set at as a starting point for adjustments. Turned out to be fairly close with just minor adjustments needed so far.

With the proper tools on hand, and all the required oil available, it shouldn't take more than a couple hours to do the job. Of course that also depends on how long you let the forks hang and drain.

 

[CHRIS_D]

It was a good day of tech. Even if the main reason for going up was working on my suspension I'm glad we managed to get JB's bike in a better, safer state. Since he regularly commutes with his son, his bike was more of a priority.

What he said. I know there is a lot written about changing the fork oil but since it is now in the owners manual it just doesn't seem to get done. What condition were the forks and springs in and is all you did was change the oil?

All of the hard parts were in good shape. They weren't leaking so there was no reason to disassemble the forks completely. We did flush the forks about 3 times for the left tube, and about 5 times for the right tube. There was way more garbage coming out of the right tube than the left. By the tie we were done, the oil from both tubes was about equal in color, without a lot of gray particles. We refilled with 5 wt oil, I don't recall the specific brand, and I set Hans's suspension to what mine are set at as a starting point for adjustments. Turned out to be fairly close with just minor adjustments needed so far.

With the proper tools on hand, and all the required oil available, it shouldn't take more than a couple hours to do the job. Of course that also depends on how long you let the forks hang and drain.

Great write up JB!!

Silient would you mind answering a guestion... How in the world does the the rods come out of the fork? :dribble: When I did mine I could not get the spring or rod assy out like you have pictured above. I just ended up dumping the old oil out, flushed with some trans fluid, then drained and refilled with clean oil.

 

[DaveInMn]

Entertaining writeup! Thx for taking the time to do it....

 

[exskibum]

Silient would you mind answering a guestion... How in the world does the the rods come out of the fork? :dribble: When I did mine I could not get the spring or rod assy out like you have pictured above. I just ended up dumping the old oil out, flushed with some trans fluid, then drained and refilled with clean oil.

From Memory:

There's a nut above the sleeve spacer tube (on top of cartridge tube) just below the fork cap (see nut to right of beer bottle in pic, above sleeve spacer). The cartridge tube (inside the sleeve spacer) is screwed into the bottom of the fork cap and the nut is locked against the fork cap to keep it all in place. After you have the forks off and screw off the fork cap, the innards are still attached, as you noted. You have to hold the fork cap with a wrench and break that locked nut loose with another wrench. Then you simply thread the fork cap off the threaded cartridge tube. Once the cap is off, you thread off that nut, pull off the sleeve spacer tube, pull out the inner damping adjustment rod, and take off the big flat washer (to immediate left of beer bottle) that is holding the top of the spring down with assistance of the sleeve spacer. Spring comes out next.

 

[Silent]

Yea, what he said B)

I'm gonna guess page 4-80 to 4-84 (since mine isn't handy atm) in the manual for the Gen 2. Same procedure for the Gen 1.

Ohh and don't mix up the parts, those are stationed in the same way the forks are hanging. B)

 

[Bounce]

What he said. I know there is alot written about changing the fork oil but since it is not in the owners manual it just doesn't seem to get done. What condition were the forks and springs in and is all you did was change the oil?

it's not?

it's in the ss of periodic maint ( https://www.fjr-tips.org/maint/maint.html )

and at the venerable FJR1300.info site ( https://fjr1300.info/maint/ )

and in the shop manual

you'd think y'all wanted someone to do it for you... er... nevermind.

 

[CHRIS_D]

Silient would you mind answering a guestion... How in the world does the the rods come out of the fork? :dribble: When I did mine I could not get the spring or rod assy out like you have pictured above. I just ended up dumping the old oil out, flushed with some trans fluid, then drained and refilled with clean oil.

From Memory:

There's a nut above the sleeve spacer tube (on top of cartridge tube) just below the fork cap (see nut to right of beer bottle in pic, above sleeve spacer). The cartridge tube (inside the sleeve spacer) is screwed into the bottom of the fork cap and the nut is locked against the fork cap to keep it all in place. After you have the forks off and screw off the fork cap, the innards are still attached, as you noted. You have to hold the fork cap with a wrench and break that locked nut loose with another wrench. Then you simply thread the fork cap off the threaded cartridge tube. Once the cap is off, you thread off that nut, pull off the sleeve spacer tube, pull out the inner damping adjustment rod, and take off the big flat washer (to immediate left of beer bottle) that is holding the top of the spring down with assistance of the sleeve spacer. Spring comes out next.

I wasn't able to remove the lock nut from the rod (the one that's underneath the fork cap). I did unscrew and remove the fork cap from the rod which then left the nut on top of the sleeve spacer. At this point I wasn't able to remove the nut from the top of the sleeve spacer. My problem is that the nut and the sleeve spacer would just turn within the fork. I'm trying to remember... Isn't this nut threaded to an inner tube that's within the spacer? If I remember I had no way of holding this inner tube, so that I could loosen the nut it's threaded on. So what's the trick to removing this lock nut once the fork cap is removed? Thanks!!!

 

[Geezer]

I wasn't able to remove the lock nut from the rod (the one that's underneath the fork cap). I did unscrew and remove the fork cap from the rod which then left the nut on top of the sleeve spacer. At this point I wasn't able to remove the nut from the top of the sleeve spacer. My problem is that the nut and the sleeve spacer would just turn within the fork. I'm trying to remember... Isn't this nut threaded to an inner tube that's within the spacer? If I remember I had no way of holding this inner tube, so that I could loosen the nut it's threaded on. So what's the trick to removing this lock nut once the fork cap is removed? Thanks!!!

This is where a pneumatic impact wrench comes in handy. It will spin that nut off easy peasy.

 

[exskibum]

I wasn't able to remove the lock nut from the rod (the one that's underneath the fork cap). I did unscrew and remove the fork cap from the rod which then left the nut on top of the sleeve spacer. At this point I wasn't able to remove the nut from the top of the sleeve spacer. My problem is that the nut and the sleeve spacer would just turn within the fork. I'm trying to remember... Isn't this nut threaded to an inner tube that's within the spacer? If I remember I had no way of holding this inner tube, so that I could loosen the nut it's threaded on. So what's the trick to removing this lock nut once the fork cap is removed? Thanks!!!

Yeah, that'd be a problem. Sounds like someone (contrary to all the good instructions out there, as Bounce referenced) lodged the nut all the way onto the threaded rod and then torqued the end cap down on that to give you that problem.

I'd try to get two nuts matching the diameter and thread pitch of the nut and rod, put them both on the rod, tighten them against one another, and use those two nuts as the point from which to hold the rod with one wrench while you loosened the object nut from the rod. Then put it back together correctly (without bottoming the nut onto and cranking it into that rod).

 

[JimLor]

exskibum - great idea! I had problems removing those nuts the first time I did it, wish I had thought of your idea before grabbing the top of the rod with pliers - worked out ok, but was certainly risky.

 

[FJRBluesman]

What type of oil did you put in?

I hope Crisco, it's more greenerer. B)
Just when I was loosing faith in JB having to go twice to Cycle Gear, I noticed he mentioned nothing about needing to buy beer. He was well prepared.

Great write up, I need to do the same oil change. I'll use your post as lessons learned and invite Silent over.