| Author | Message | ||
     Hambcastle |
Had all my oil in the left fork leak out, and I'm getting ready to do my first fork rebuild. First of all, can I unscrew the cap off the top while it's still on the bike (weight off the front end) to service up the oil to buy me some time? My Uly is my primary ride. Maybe I can try the 35mm film trick under the seal to get it to seal up again. | ||
| Mnrider |
Yes you can screw the cap off on the bike. | ||
| Skifastbadly |
I think you'd have a difficult time with that approach. You can unscrew the top, but I have no idea how you'd correctly measure the oil level. Better off to bite the bullet and change out the seal. Lots of information here: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/641088.html?1309662479 | ||
| Hambcastle |
I wasn't looking at adding the oil on bike as a permanent fix, but I want to ride it while I'm waiting for parts/tools to come in. Maybe I can compare to the good side to get the level close. I just wanted to know if anything will come flying out, or what I can screw up by pulling that cap off on bike. | ||
| Hambcastle |
Some oil is better than no oil. | ||
| Rays |
Are you sure that you have lost all of the oil? A little oil goes a long way when it is weeping out a fork leg - you would have one hell of a mess if all of it had leaked out. I have been in a similar position and ridden to work for several days (about 50 miles each day) with a rag zip-tied around the fork bottom of the old '06 Uly and oil spots all over the front cylinder and still had quite a bit of oil in the leg when I changed the seal. The rebound adjuster is locked to the damper rod and to remove the cap completely you have to get a spanner onto the flat of the rebound adjuster outer and then remove the cap. I haven't tried to undo the cap in situ and leave it attached to the damper rod but assuming you can, you would need to push the fork bottom up to get the cap to clear top of the fork leg. You could add oil at that point but it would be a complete guess about quantity / level. This is the sort of gap for topping-up you could expect - the leg could be pushed up further but you would only have the gap between the spring space and the fork tube to work with. BTW - you wouldn't have to remove the preload adjuster as is shown in my photo.  To push the leg up you would really need to have the wheel and guard removed so you could deal with that leg in isolation - particularly if you are trying to do this by yourself. The 35mm film trick is definitely worth a try - everything to gain and nothing to lose. Have a good close look at the fork leg to make sure there are no stone nicks or hardened insect remains either. | ||
| Stevem123 |
Loosen the upper triple clamp before trying to remove the cap. It will not come loose if you don't. | ||
| Tootal |
Loosen the upper triple clamp before trying to remove the cap. It will not come loose if you don't. Great advise there! That big screw only requires roughly 140 INCH POUNDS! But if it's being squeezed by the tree clamp it will be much more! I just finished doing both of mine. It's just a little time consuming but nothing too hard. If you are doing the film trick you'll need to remove the dust cap first to get to the seal up inside the fork. I just put some of Fork Skins on mine to keep from having to do it again. Here's a link: http://www.pcracingusa.com/ForkSkins-Long_p_77.html I bought the long ones and cut them in half. They completely cover the fork tubes and then I have them on the outer tube for about an inch. I put a wire tie around it there and they are working great! You can give the other half to a friend or keep them in case you were to rip one. (Message edited by tootal on September 15, 2012) | ||
| Tootal |
Hmmm, the link must not work on an edit. Let's try this: http://www.pcracingusa.com/ForkSkins-Long_p_77.htm l | ||
| Tootal |
Xbimmer put these on and had a picture of them. Here's a link: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/476586.html?1251757275 |
