Fork issues.. help please.

[gus]

Ade
Stop being such a lazy git and do aproper job!
While the weather is shit and you,ve goota sort the seals,may as well paint the bloody things.
You remove the old oil by pouring it out the top tube.Looks like your gonna have to remove that other forg leg anyway.
You may aswell do both,cause sods law says as soon as you fix one side the other side will go very shortly after.
gus

[Ade B]

what am I missing here - the top tube came out with no bottom ie. it held no oil...

as for being lazy.... well maybe a bit, but the bike is work transport, I have no garage was hoping to have the thing back on the road after an afternoon of simple spanner work... as if.....

[Ade B]

forgot to say, thanks for the rapid reply... any other thoughts as I'm not about to strip the bike front end down as it needs to take me + pillion to a meeting tomorrow at 8.00am and I've no means of supporting the front anyway.

Ade

[gus]

Sorry ade
I thought you had removed the complete fork leg not just the tubes.I would just reassemble and add a splash of oil in the side that was leaking to make up any lost oil.
good luck
gus

[Ade B]

cheers Gus...

bike is back together, put the seal in the same way round as the one that came out (worked it out from the side with residue from the spring clip..) - put in 150ml of oil and then bounced up and down on it to cause excess to overflow from the top, wiped it clean and screwed in the seal.... will attempt to go for 'cautious' test drive once it stops raining (damn this english summer....) my gut feeling is there is way too much oil in there now... and only one way for it to leave (apart from blowing the seal again) would be to siphon it out with a bit of thin tube attached to syringe. (short of going through the entire process again....)

lessons learnt...

a) don't take bike to bits when you need it the next day....
b) get hold of a maintenance stand (tried propping on wooden blocks but she's a big old girl and it was far from stable...)
c) don't rely on the CDrom manual alone.....

will try some 'progressive' stopping in a bit to see if the front is soft enough to not lock up the wheel

Rain has stopped - will attempt to sort the power socket out now...

Ade.

[Ade B]

torrential rain put paid to test ride (and freshly cleaned bike....)

no catastrophic failures of front end - can't really tell any difference to be honest although I could hardly chuck it about as I got as far as the M11 before the heavens opened.... although I think I saw fresh oil on the stanchion after deliberately aiming at a few potholes/manhole covers in town.... will have a proper look once the rain stops.

could be back to square one.

at least the new boots worked...

Ade

[gus]

Ade
Your gonna have to get the right amount of oil in the legs to avoid it blowing a seal again.If you have the early legs then i think it was about 170ml a leg.The later fork legs hold more.Chris and Lloyd had a game when Lloyd changed fork bottoms.They put in too much oil for the early type legs causing a bit of a messy problem.
gus

[Jason M]

Ade
Your gonna have to get the right amount of oil in the legs to avoid it blowing a seal again.If you have the early legs then i think it was about 170ml a leg.The later fork legs hold more.Chris and Lloyd had a game when Lloyd changed fork bottoms.They put in too much oil for the early type legs causing a bit of a messy problem.
gus

I think it's about 150-170 as Gus said - get yourself a big old syringe off ebay for a few quid and do it - pease of mind and all that

[Ade B]

thanks for the replies,

have bike fork leg in bits in living room.... (weather can't make its mind up.)

have managed to remove stanchion and seal with a bit of swearing and flexing of bodywork.... how do I drain the remaining oil from the leg given the bike is currently sat on its side stand (no centre stand Rolling Eyes with an unhealthy looking twist on the remaining rhs fork leg).

I may have missed something obvious but I can't seem to find any kind of drain plug at the bottom of the leg. Do I need to tip the bike upside down or do i have to remove the entire fork???

the bmw CDrom is suitably vague about this stating sagely 'drain oil'....

hoping for a prompt response so I can get the bike out of the living room!

According to the manual it is 170ml. I carefully syringed in 150ml before realising that I had pretty much filled the entire leg. The problem stems from not being able to/knowing how to empty out the existing oil (without removing the whole leg) and having no idea how much was left in there to start with....

the bike will have to stay as it is for the next week and then I'm away - will sort it when I get back... on the bright side, at least there's plenty of fresh oil in there to leak out which is a slight improvement on before.

Ade.

[winger]

Blimey!!!!! i've been over you posting half a dozen times Ade,and thought jesus surely he isn't daft enough to do what i thought i was reading!!!! obviously Gus thought the same,and when i read your last posting confirmed it!!!

You tip the bottom of the fork leg upside down and let it drain for half an hour to make sure it's empty and then re-fill it,as i found out with Lloyds theres a different between the early and later model with the oil capacity.

[Ade B]

Clearly I am, followed Bailey's post mixed with the CD manual - fork leg remained attached to bike via wheel bolt and fork brace, stanchion slid out.... hence no tipping or draining - even I could have worked that out if the entire fork leg was in my hand....

From Bailey's post:

Do the job yourself.It is very easy.

Ensure you have all tools/oil/new seals/o rings/crush washers to do the job before you start!

Ensure bike is well supported in upright position.

Undo top triple clamp/handlebar clamp bolts.

Undo fill plug at top of tube to ensure no vacuum when you slide fork stanchion out.

Slide the stanchion upwards.It is not connected with the fork tube(is floating).*BE CAREFULL AT THE POINT WHERE STANCHION EXITS THE SLIDER AS THE OTHER FORK WILL PHSICALLY PULL ON COMPLETE ASSEMBLY/MAKE SURE YOUR HANDS DON'T GET PINCHED!

Pull stanchion clear of fork tube and remove from top triple clamp.

Lever dust seal/oil seal out of fork tube with suitable fat screwdriver or tyre lever.

Cover new seals in clean oil.

re-insert lightly and drift in with suitable sized socket piece.

Slide fork stanchion back into fork slider and fasten exactly how you found it.

Fill with correct level of oil.

Take bike off supports so forks are under load(DO NOT SIT ON IT!)

Tighten fill plug.

Take for cautious test ride.

Did all of the above verbatim. Didn't seem to be a reference to remove brake caliper, wheel, mudguard, undo fork brace etc.. to take off the entire fork leg.

When I lifted out the stanchion, thats all I got, a hollow tube with a threaded plug on the top, the other tube sat in the fork leg and refused to be budge under finger pressure.

Did I get the wrong end of the stick here or am I completely incorrect in my interpretation of Bailey's generous advice as implying that the leg stays attached to the bike....

Looks like I need to support the front properly and take the whole shooting match off. Good job fork seals are only 7quid.

Ade - extremely confused.

[gus]

Ade
Baileys way works fine if you dont want or have to get the oil capacity right.If you would have just added a little oil to replace what was lost all would be fine.I would do as jason suggested and take out about 140ml of the 150 you added.I doubt much more than 10ml seeped out through the seal.Easily done with a syringe and tube.You can always take them apart to repaint and check oil capacity at a later date.
gus

[Ade B]

cheers again gus

will attempt oil extraction tomorrow assuming I can find some small diameter tubing.....

Ade

[bigblackfalco]

Yeah,I guess I was a bit vague about that part.You probably only lost a tiny bit out the leak.....say about 10-20ml.You'll have to get as much out as poss and then refill to specs!
Oh well....we live and learn?!
Bailey.

[Ade B]

managed to siphon out about 90ml first thing this morning (finally found a use for a backchat intercom )

the rest will have to wait - will probably do a complete overhaul of the front end including brakes when I get back from me hols.

Ade