Forking Fantastic
Contrary to popular opinion, changing your fork oil is relatively easy. You don't need to tear down or remove the forks to change the oil. You will need to prop the front wheel off the ground to remove tension on the springs. Most normal people use a bike jack - me, I use a chain hoist.
SAFETY CHECK
- Proper maintenance and adjustment of the head bearings is critical to good handling, especially on an 800 pound beast like the Royal. With the front wheel off the ground and the bike properly supported, grab the bottom of each fork tube and gently rock the entire fork assembly front to rear. You WILL need to adjust the steering head if you feel ANY play or looseness.
TEARDOWN
- Remove the front fender. Not really necessary, but it's only four bolts, and why take a chance on screwing up the paint?
- Remove both brake calipers from the fork legs. Don't disconnect the brake lines. I use a coupla pieces of wire to tie them back to the engine guards to keep them out of the way.
- Remove the front wheel completely. You need to pull the axle to get to the drain bolts.
- Loosen the cinch bolts on the top triple tree. DON'T loosen the lower triple tree cinch bolts unless you need to adjust the fork tube height.
- Remove the handlebars from the risers. You should be able to lay them on the tank with proper padding. HINT: Put some masking tape on the bars next to each riser, and make alignment marks for easy assembly after the job is done.
- Remove the fork caps. Careful - these are soft metal and easy to round or scar. It's a lot easier to break the caps if you turn the front end to the stops and brace it with a leg between the fork tubes. Leave the springs and spacers inside the tubes.
- Remove the drain bolts and let gravity do it's thing. Don't bounce the forks. It's real easy to pop the damper caps off the bottom of the dampers, and a real PITA to get them back on again. Make sure you let the forks drain completely.
- If you have an air compressor, you can blow the forks a bit to aid in flushing the old oil. Hold down the spacers to keep the dampers from bouncing around. I usually finish off the flush by draining a couple ounces of clean oil thru each fork tube for a final rinse.
ASSEMBLY
- The manual calls for a new set of copper crush washers each time the drain bolts are removed, but this isn't really necessary as long as you resurface the old ones. Place a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a flat surface, hold the washer with your thumb, and use a circular motion to remove any grooves or scratches on both sides. Finish with 400 grit. Use a Q-Tip to clean any oil residue or road grit from the drains on the bottom of each fork tube. The better job you do prepping here, the less chance of having to do it again if the forks leak.
HINT: A common problem when reinstalling the drain bolts is having the damper turn inside the fork. You can either put out $50 to the YammerHammers for a specialty tool, or ... get a three foot piece of 1" wood dowel and taper one end to ½" (a broom handle works). Tap this LIGHTLY into the top of the damper (you do NOT want to distort the tube), hold onto the dowel, and give the allen wrench a coupla sharp taps with your palm to seat the bolt. Once it grabs, torque to spec.
HINT: Chances are good you bumped things around a bit during the job and the threads on the damper bodies may no longer be aligned properly with the drain holes on the fork tubes. GENTLY insert a phillips screwdriver (remember the warning about popping the damper caps off the dampers?) and wiggle it about a bit to line everything up, and the bolts should slip right in.
- Use a small utility funnel to fill the forks. Yamaha recommends 18 ounces of 5w oil per fork.
A WORD ON OIL WEIGHT
The stock Royal comes with 5w oil, which is way too light for our version of "normal" driving. You'll find a majority of riders opt to up the weight to 10w and get much improved ride quality. Each fork requires 18 ounces of oil, which means you'll probably have to get three 16 ounce bottles. I upgraded to air forks a while back, and find I get better results by decreasing the oil volume to 16 ounces of 10w per fork, which effectively increases the available air damping. You can experiment, but it is critically important to make sure you have the EXACT SAME oil volume and air pressure in each fork for best results.
AH, NUTS!!
- Don't forget, the fork caps are soft metal, and easier to screw up than they are to screw in some cases. Double check the o-rings, replace if necesary, and always rub a little fork oil on them for lubrication prior to installing the caps.One trick I figured out a while back is to remove the spring spacers and turn the caps in till they just start to grab. Mark a dot on both the caps and the fork tubes at this point. Put the spacers back in, line up the dots, press down firmly, turn the caps counter clockwise a bit till you feel the threads "bump", then spin them on. Tighten to spec, but don't over do it.
- Tighten up the pinch bolts on the top triple tree.
SAFETY CHECKS
- No sense going this far without making a few basic mechanical checks. Make sure the top of each fork tube is aligned with the outside edge of the upper triple tree. Mismatched tube heights can do weird things to handling, and would require loosening the lower triple tree cinch bolts and realigning the tubes.
- Now would be a good time to check your front wheel bearings. Put a finger in the bearing, put some side pressure on it, and give it a twist. Don't hesitate to replace the bearings if you feel any binding, play, or roughness in the bearings. Check the seals for any checks or cracks, and replace if necessary.
- Take a close look at your brake pads and discs. Excessive wear or scoring could be a big problem down the road. Look for checking or cracks on the brake hoses as long as you're down there.
FINISH UP
- Reinstall the handlebars. Real easy if you took the time to put alignment marks on tape prior to removing them.
- Reinstall the front wheel. Torque to spec, and be sure to tighten the cinch bolt.
- Reinstall the fender and brake calipers.
- Get out, and eat some wind!
Posted by NIFAIRIOUS at April 22, 2003 10:50 PM