Easy Fork Questions

[dkinaev]

Hey guys,

I have a 98 wr200 and the front forks are a bit on the soft side. My mate has an 04cr 125 and he did his fork seals and changed oil by himself with no manual and no help with no problem at all. He told me to put some new oil in and that should stiffen it up a little.

He also said that i MUST take the forks off the bike and turn them upside down to get the oil out. Is this true? Coz i am afraid of taking everything apart. I dont even have a torque wrench and I know that I can damage the fork tubes when tightening. He said that he just did it up tight but carefuly and did not overdo it. :yikes:

Well what do you guys think? Take forks off? Or maybe .....put bike upside down and remove bleeders? Or.... i dont know? Also what oil do I use and how much? he said 5w30. But i want to go a tiny heavier, but then he said 5w30 is heavy enough... ? ?

So...umm yeah. Any suggestions?

-Cheers
-Dmitri. :)

 

[ruddycooter]

The easiest thing to do would be to get a bottle of any light weight fork fluid, loosen the top triple clamp bolt, remove the top fork cap and add a small amount of oil to each leg. Depending on how soft they feel, you could start with 2 capfuls (from the oil bottle) in each leg.

Try this first, and then you can determine if you want to get more involved.

 

[dkinaev]

OK, thanx mate, I'll give that a go and if it still feels too soft, I'll have to do a complete oil change with thicker oil. I still want to know if i have to take forks off bike, and do heaps of other stuff.

-Cheers
-Dmitri.

 

[dkinaev]

Just another couple of questions:

1.) Instead of undoing lots of stuff, can't I just unscrew the bleed screw and put some oil in using a syringe (coz I have a 35cc one) with a long needle? .......and I use it for .....injecting ...my chicken with lemon juice before cooking.. ok?... :)

2.) What if I put like 30 mils in each one and that somehow screws it up and overfills it? Is that a possiblilty or should I give it a try?

3.) Do I have to use fork oil? Can I use anything else and what are the possible consequences of me doing so?


-Cheers

regards,
-Dmitri.

 

[dkinaev]

also..

very important:

the forks seem to sag. As in when the bike has no one sitting on it. The forks arnt extended all the way to the top. So I can basically pull the bike up about 1 - 2 inches, but then it will just drop again. What is going on there?

How expensive will all of this be? I am looking for the cheapest solution.

-cheers

-Dmitri