Fork oil change

[Unicycle52]

On my last bike (99 Concours) I could do a shortcut fork oil change by removing the front wheel and removing the allen bolts above the axle (at the base of the damping rods) and drain the oil from there. Plunge the forks up and down, flush, repeat, fill, and re-assemble). In order to be able to keep the damper rod from turning when I tightened the bottom allen bolts I made up a tool from a large threaded rod and double nutted the end of the rod with nuts with an outside hex dia. of 15/16". The rod was lowered into the top of the forks and fit perfectly in such a way as to keep the damper rod from turning. No need to remove the fork brace, calipers and fork tubes.

The question is: Is there a way to do this on the FJR? The trick would be to keep the internals from turning when I tighten the bottom bolt above the axle. Any tools or a gig I can make up?

Bill Hamilton

Massachusetts

 

[evil_henchman]

The question is: Is there a way to do this on the FJR?

Nope.

 

[madmike2]

The question is: Is there a way to do this on the FJR?

Nope.

Nope, too!

FJR Tech is your friend. I have it as a "favorite" along with Bounce's site. Good information and loads of help.

 

[FJR919]

Ideally you don't want to just change the fork oil you also want to flush out all the old stuff and remaining contaminants. I like to use the fork oil that I'll be refilling it with as the flushing agent to avoid any dillution of the new fork fluid. Take the forks off, drain them, flush them thoroughly and refill. After you see the crap that comes out you'll be glad you did. At least I was when I changed and flushed at 8000 miles.

 

[radman]

An excellent flush oil, readily available and inexpensive, is ATF, any flavor. Personally, since the tubes are disassembled anyway, I use 3M 08880 brake cleaner, wash the springs down and fill the tubes, pump a few times, drain. Add an ounce of fork oil, pump, drain. I do this yearly.

 

[Geezer]

I just did the fork oil change on my FJR. Pulling the tubes is not difficult if you have the instructions from FJRTech.

One interesting thing, I drained my fork tubes, put in a few ounces of ATF, pumped it a few times and poured out the ATF. I did that process three time for each fork tube and used over a quart of ATF in total. I then hung the tubes upside down to drain. They hung for a week (hey, it's winter here...) and the stuff that dripped out was still pretty nasty looking. I perform this maintenence once a year so they had about 20K miles on them since the last flush and fill.

 

[radman]

I just did the fork oil change on my FJR. Pulling the tubes is not difficult if you have the instructions from FJRTech.
One interesting thing, I drained my fork tubes, put in a few ounces of ATF, pumped it a few times and poured out the ATF. I did that process three time for each fork tube and used over a quart of ATF in total. I then hung the tubes upside down to drain. They hung for a week (hey, it's winter here...) and the stuff that dripped out was still pretty nasty looking. I perform this maintenence once a year so they had about 20K miles on them since the last flush and fill.

Thats why I like to use brake cleaner for flushing out the crap. The fork oil finish (or ATF) is just to lube everything up again for assembly.

 

[Geezer]

Thats why I like to use brake cleaner for flushing out the crap. The fork oil finish (or ATF) is just to lube everything up again for assembly.

I am always very cautious about using solvents in places with rubber seals and such. Do you get the brake cleaner out of there quickly or is it OK if it sits a while?

 

[radman]

I am always very cautious about using solvents in places with rubber seals and such. Do you get the brake cleaner out of there quickly or is it OK if it sits a while?

I have yet to see any deleterious effect from that specific brand and number-the 3M 08880, even long term, on rubber or any other material other than paint-and even paint is fairly safe to use it on, as long as it's not allowed to soak. I often use it to remove sap and rubber bump marks (think shopping cart hits) on the car. As long as the paint is well cured-you're good. I have used this brake clean on Franks forks since new-in the manner described above, and all components, including seals, are perfect. Have done so on many other bikes as well. the only caveat is that ALL BRAKE CLEANERS ARE NOT THE SAME!!!!! Some (especially cheap stuff) are pretty nasty. I get a very good deal on 3M, being in the business, so I buy it a case at a time, and use a lot and use it often. Almost be worth doing a group buy, I pay $1.75 a can for it, if not for shipping costs.

 

[Geezer]

Thanks Rad. I'll have to see if I can get that particular brew locally.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

An excellent flush oil, readily available and inexpensive, is ATF, any flavor.

You can even use ATF as your 'fork oil'. It may not be the ultimate in damping qualities but it's pretty darned good. It may also be a little light, viscosity-wise, compared to what the manufacturer called for?

ATF is a very high quality lubricant and has a high VI (viscosity index) -- that means that it doesn't change much as temperature changes (near constant viscosity over a wide range of temps). This tends to make an auto trans shift right -- can also be nice for front forks. ATF also tends to keep seals soft -- and, is really 'standardized' across the industry.

At one time, Honda specified ATF as fork lube (maybe still does...?).