| Author | Message | ||
     Fullpower |
greetings from alaska. i am trying to ween myself off of hi priced proprietary fluids. what is the nearest metric equivalent to Harley-Davidson(tm) Fork Oil type E? i wish to use an easier to obtain brand such as PJ1 or Bel-Ray, and would like to use a similar viscosity. also has any one drilled and tapped a drain port into the XB12 forks yet. seems like a terrible waste of time to have to remove the forks from the bike just to change fork oil. whats up with that?? | ||
| Keith |
Fullpower, If you have a service manual and a couple of special tools, it is not a bad job. I did it for the first time on my XB a couple of months ago. I purchased the tools and the oil from Traxxion Dynamics. I highly recommend them. If you need any help, give me a holler. Keith | ||
| Shawn_9r |
keith, I was looking at the fork compression tool(Traxxion Dynamics) and would I be able to change the fork seals with that or do I still need the tool from the manual? Thanks, Shawn | ||
| Keith |
Hey Shawn, WHen I serviced the forks, I did not change the seals. When you use the two or three tools that Max recommends, you can do pretty much everything including get to the seals. I don't think you need the tool from HD shown in the manual. You will need a friend to remove a clip when you compress the spring. I don't know if any special tool are required for actually changing the seals themselves. I may try that at 20K mile check up. Are yours leaking? Keith (Message edited by skully on September 04, 2004) | ||
| Chainsaw |
Would tapping inverted forks even work? Taking the forks off does make a fluid change a bit more complicated. Maybe PitBull will make a Rotisserie Bike stand for the XB's. Fork oil would drain pretty nicely if the bike was upside down!  | ||
| Shawn_9r |
Keith, yes they are starting to leak. H-D wants $250-300 to replace the seals. The tool in the manual runs like $150 then I add parts and shipping...I am looking at the same price as H-D would cost. But if I could get away with the Traxxion part that would be sweet. | ||
| Keith |
Take a look at the manual and see if any other tools are needed to get to the seals. Keith | ||
| Darthane |
Shawn, I just bought all the tools needed to change out my fork oil from Traxxion for like $80 (now hopefully it gets here soon, RtR is only two weeks off!). Spidey went and bought some PVC pipe, cut it in half, and used that to seat the seals on the S2 front end he put on MJ. I think that is the only specific 'tool' you need that relates to the seals. | ||
| Shawn_9r |
Thanks a lot for all the info guys. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Still interested in if anyone knows the metric weights for the fork oil that compares to the HD fork oils... | ||
| Vaughn |
My CRF450R has Showa forks and uses 5w fork oil. Almost all new inverted forks use 5w from what I have seen. I use 5w fork oil for the inner (damper) chamber and Mobile 1 0w-20 synthetic for the outter (oil bath). | ||
| Keith |
Wyckedflesh, Memory says that Traxxion Dynamics recommended that I put their "Racing Fork Oil" in my XB9S forks which I believe is 7 weight. Keith | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
this stuff?  yup lists as 7wt and is made for them by Maxima according to their site. | ||
| Keith |
Yep, that's it! I'm quite happy with the results. Keith | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Picked up a bottle locally from Cyclegear. Thanks Keith/Keith. If you figure out how to make your sliders with delrin/teflon inserts let me know. I like the aluminum ones you have but like the delrin/teflon personally. | ||
| Slowby |
type E is like 15 wt |
