| Author | Message | ||
     Motorbike |
I am planning to change the fork oil on my 08 XT as part of regular maintenance only. The bike has only 12,500 miles. (I would have done it at 10,000 but I was still riding it). I don't plan to replace seals or bushings or any other internal parts. It's not broke and I'm not planning to fix it, no reason to. Also I know the XT has completely different forks than the X. My service manual talks about complete disassembly but I don't need that right now. I only want to change the fluid. I have never done a fluid change on inverted forks before. Just how much do I need to disassemble the forks to drain the oil and refill? Do I really need a spring compressor? Any tips? A local H-D dealer offered to do it for me for 1/2 hour labor but I don't trust them. How would I know they even changed the fluid? Or not? Thanks. | ||
| Froggy |
Don't bother changing the oil then | ||
| Motorbike |
The fork oil is supposed to be changed every 10,000 miles. I figure this type of regular maintenance will prevent having to replace seals, bushings etc. Why should I wait until it breaks? I change my motor and primary oil at regular intervals too and, as far as I know, they are not broken either. | ||
| Desert_bird |
You'll find the fork oil is in perfect shape, same for all the internals and seals. Many HD dealers quickly revised the manuals recommended timing for replacing fluid to 20K miles or more (at least the honest ones) because they found that there was no reason to go through the trouble it it nothing ain't broke to begin with. If you really want to get into it, do a search here. I just did mine for blown seals and posted as well. The original bushings were in fine shape (30K miles) There is plenty of info. you don't need a spring compressor but it's nice. | ||
| Bpt |
I did mine at 20K and could have waited. The fluid looked great, I replaced the slide bushings while I was there, they were inexpensive. I may wait until 50K for the next service. H-D has moved their first fork service to 50K now. | ||
| Afsoc_commando |
Here is a video of a guy doing it with basic tools... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIe1esOIobQ I have 14k on my 2009XT and I am only taking the forks off this winter to put skins on them to keep them clean and contaminants off the seals. | ||
| Ourdee |
Blue is at 30k and I'm going to wait another 20k. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
I concur with others here that you should wait to change the fork oil. If you do change the fork oil now, you still might blow a seal just a few thousand miles down the road and have to do it all over again and it is a bit of a pita. What you might consider doing is to order both seals and both dust seals and just wait it out to at least 20K miles which to me would be a bit more reasonable than doing it every 10K miles. Come 20K miles, you might then wait another 10K miles. At least you'll have all the seals on hand when the time comes. I really can't imagine changing fork oil every 10K miles just because the manual recommends it. Remember that you are riding a street bike, not a trail bike. | ||
| Motorbike |
Thanks for all the great replies! The general consensus seems to say that I should wait and I think I will do just that. I tend to be overly cautious with this bike because I like it so well. I need to concentrate my efforts (and money) this winter on getting the brake lever travel issue and possible warped rotor fixed before spring. | ||
| Fdl3 |
With so few miles, why can't the fork oil just be drained and filled? Loosely...remove fork, remove cap, drain oil into measuring container, pump fork several times to get out most of the leftover oil in internals, add the same amount of oil that came out, pump fork several times to remove air, replace cap, install fork. | ||
| Motorbike |
I was kind of wondering that too with my original post but now I think I will just wait a while. I have no experience with fork disassembly and repair even though I've owned quite a few bikes. I never kept any of them long enough to need any major service. Thanks. | ||
| Luftkoph |
20k top old bottom new picture doesn't show well ,but a fair bit of coating from the bushings is gone  | ||
| Djohnk |
I just did my forks a couple of weeks ago. I think it went pretty easy. Could probably do everything in less than an hour next time I do it. After wandering around Lowes for a few minutes I chose this: http://low.es/T08uUw and this: http://low.es/TD9ZqF to compress the forks. I threaded the tape through the hole where the axle goes, and put the hooks in the holes on the tube in the fork after cutting the tape to length (I used one hand to compress, the other to place the hook - easy). I used a pipe cleaner with a mark from a sharpie to measure the fork oil level. I actually paid some money for a real 43mm fork seal driver, and I think it was worth it. I think next time I will do it like the above video, looks even easier. It was relatively cheap for all the parts and the fork oil, so I pre-ordered and replaced everything. My bike just turned over 50K miles, and I bought it at about 30K. It was the first time I did the service, and for all I know the probably the first time the service was ever done. The old fork oil smelled rancid, and the bushings were worn like the above picture. The dust seals were cracking. I had no leaks, but the suspension now feels much better when going over bumps. |
