Oil height

[wence]

Oil change done and this would be the first one on these forks looking at the state of the oil.
I did notice a black 60-70mm long plastic sleeve under the spring when I removed the spring .
Any idea what this is for?
I ended up using 7.5wt oil and filling it to 95mm from the fork top...
I guess we'll see how it goes but it feels a lot stiffer already and actually has some rebound now.
More than likely the oil that was in them was probably stuffed.
Keep you posted ,
Mark

[rpduc]

I did notice a black 60-70mm long plastic sleeve under the spring when I removed the spring .

If I understand you correctly that would be the preload spacer.

[wence]

No worries , thanks rpduc.
Just couldn't see it in the pics form the pdf.
Cheers Mark

[darren]

Did you strip them out completely? if so how did it go? Did you need any special tools?

[wence]

Hey Darren,
No I didn't strip them completely, just took the top off undid spring and removed and then removed old oil.
The oil was grey/black in colour.....very old probably what it was first sold with.
Replaced with motul 7.5wt to 95mm from fork top.
Tested in shed and feels a lot firmer on the same setting as before therefore I should be able to now adjust the forks and get them to actually do something.
Was going to strip the forks completely but cannot afford the seals etc right now.
Cheers Mark.

[rpduc]

FYI, in the last year I've done forks on 4 seriously neglected dirt bikes and on all of them there was a good amount of sludge caked up in the bottom that will not be extricated by just changing oil. I'd think it would pollute your new oil in no time. You might be able to wash it out of there with kerosene with the forks still assembled, bit if they were my forks I'd want to see that the sludge was outa there.

Ideally you'd replace seals, check bushings etc. as long as you had them apart but the forks will come apart without damaging the seals.

[wence]

Yeh , to be honest didn't really think about the sludge but I think I will probably get the forks and shock done professionally once I have some more cash so this was really a case of just trying to see if new oil and different weight made a difference.Time was also a constraint as I have 2 young boys.
Enough excuses though.
I will see how they go and then at least can tell the tuner a bit more maybe.
By the way, the shock oil is too hard to do at home as there is no way to get the gas back in, Haven't really looked at the shoock at all.
Cheers Mark