I learned something new

I was replacing fork seals and filling the forks with some fresh oil. My usual method is to take the wheel and fender off and add oil while moving the slider up and down. It takes a long time. So I put my hand over the fork tube and in a couple of strokes it had sucked down all the oil. Repeat a few times until the 150 cc has gone down the forks.

I just put the bike on the center stand, undo the top nut and adjust the forward tilt of the bike by shimming the back wheel up until there's a good space to put the "straw" of my siphon. Then I inject the fork oil as fast as it will drain past the spring, only slowing down my pressure if the fluid begins to back up... I use this siphon (link below) and fill the siphon up with 180cc's of fork oil and squirt the whole thing into the fork tube... I don't care if the oil goes into the damper because the damper will purge the air after a few pumps and there's plenty of room for the oil without purging the damper to create space..

Considering that I've drained and refilled my fork oil more than a dozen times in the last few months (testing a modification) I found this to be the best way. The siphon lasted about a year, and maybe 25 transfers before the plunger got leaky and I bought another one. It's an amazon thing...

seattle##gs said:

I was replacing fork seals and filling the forks with some fresh oil. My usual method is to take the wheel and fender off and add oil while moving the slider up and down. It takes a long time. So I put my hand over the fork tube and in a couple of strokes it had sucked down all the oil. Repeat a few times until the 150 cc has gone down the forks.

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Or, get an old damper rod. Screw a coupling nut on one end with some Locktite to make a "tool". With the springs out and the damper dropped, just pour the oil in. Take the "tool" and screw it onto the dropped damper. Drop the spring over the "tool" and pull up. Grab the damper rod with long nosed pliers, unscrew the "tool", put the thick washer on, then the nut, then the top bolt. Start to finish under 2 minutes.

Are 850 mk3 forks different? It took about a minute to refill my forks. They seem to work fine, so I don't think they're faulty.

It took longer working against the fork spring, to get the top bolt to catch the thread and go back on! In the end, I positioned the handle of my mallet on the bolt head and pushed it down with my chest, as I turned the nut with a spanner/wrench!

Mart UK said:

Are 850 mk3 forks different? It took about a minute to refill my forks. They seem to work fine, so I don't think they're faulty.

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They are the same, tell us how!

I just poured it in, slowly, but not REALLY slow. Odd.

Mart UK said:

I just poured it in, slowly, but not REALLY slow. Odd.

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Every time I've tried the standard way, it took REALLY, REALLY slow not to get it all over the place. It's not so much getting it to go down. It's getting it past the springs sticking up through the top of the fork tubes. I suppose if you use really thin oil it might be easier especially if you have a nozzle on the container.

My way, the actual pouring in the of the oil takes less than 2 seconds and there is no possibility of making a mess.

BTW, if you use a standard depth socket and stuff it with paper or a rag so the top bolts only go in far enough, you can use a rachet, push down on that and get it started - just be sure not to force it when starting the threads. It's also very helpful to do one fork at a time so the other holds the front end up.

marshg246 said:

They are the same, tell us how!

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Boy, I thought riding my Norton after 43 years brought back memories, this did as well.....Thanks for that.......