Huffa
02-23-2007, 11:50 AM
This is on a 85 SX 250 but the same procedure applies to quite a few machines.
You can of course do it on the machine but I prefer to flush 22 year old forks out really good with kerosene and would rather not fuss with the drain bolt at bottom of forks.
1) Loosen the top triple clamp bolt on each side and just crack the caps loose. They should not be on tight at all. I had to put mine in a vise because I took them off a few days ago and had no plans to change the oil.
2) Loosen the top boot clamps, bottom triple clamps bolts and slide forks out. You can wedge a screw driver in the trips a bit, expanding the opening, if they are coming out hard.
3) Remove top cap and very slowly, letting oil drain off spring(s) into a ratio rite or any measuring device, remove the small top spring, washer, then longer spring.
4) Turn fork upside down and extend and retract till all oil is drained into measuring container and take note how much you drained out. This procedure is not really nessacary but since I don't know the history of these forks I can tell by how much is in them if one was possibly leaking.
5) Put fuel oil or kero in and pump the forks again, this will flush them out really well and repeat procedure if you feel the need too. Clean the springs, washer, dust seal, inside where the fork seal is, and the inside hole of the fork cap.
6) Add the specified amount (85 SX = 6ozs) of you favorite fork oil with the tubes extended. Just so happened I had Mobile 1 ATF synthetic which will work super!
7) Pump them up and down a few times ending in the extended position, drop the longer spring, washer, short spring and install cap. Once you install them just tigten the bottom triple clamps 1st then you can give a slight nudge on the cap again to make sure it's snug.
8) While they were off I cleaned them up too but didn't go to the degree that I usually do because these SX forks are for dammit and all this is beyond the call of duty. Honestly, I was just in the mood to do a fork oil change procedure for members on 3WW. It all started out just cleaning them a bit and I got carried away :lol:
9) The one fork you can see (next batch of pictures) I put some finger nail polish on the bottom drain bolt, all that's for is to tell dammit that that fork had an ounce less oil in and to be aware it could of leaked a bit. Who knows, the fluid may have been changed and who ever just did not add the correct amount OR it came that way from the factory. The seals seem in good shape on this one so it's possible the oil was never changed as it was totally black in color.
I think that about covers it . :beer
I wish more members would post (How to's, with pic's) and we had a seperate forum for them, that would make it so easy for some to see it in writing and pics.
You can of course do it on the machine but I prefer to flush 22 year old forks out really good with kerosene and would rather not fuss with the drain bolt at bottom of forks.
1) Loosen the top triple clamp bolt on each side and just crack the caps loose. They should not be on tight at all. I had to put mine in a vise because I took them off a few days ago and had no plans to change the oil.
2) Loosen the top boot clamps, bottom triple clamps bolts and slide forks out. You can wedge a screw driver in the trips a bit, expanding the opening, if they are coming out hard.
3) Remove top cap and very slowly, letting oil drain off spring(s) into a ratio rite or any measuring device, remove the small top spring, washer, then longer spring.
4) Turn fork upside down and extend and retract till all oil is drained into measuring container and take note how much you drained out. This procedure is not really nessacary but since I don't know the history of these forks I can tell by how much is in them if one was possibly leaking.
5) Put fuel oil or kero in and pump the forks again, this will flush them out really well and repeat procedure if you feel the need too. Clean the springs, washer, dust seal, inside where the fork seal is, and the inside hole of the fork cap.
6) Add the specified amount (85 SX = 6ozs) of you favorite fork oil with the tubes extended. Just so happened I had Mobile 1 ATF synthetic which will work super!
7) Pump them up and down a few times ending in the extended position, drop the longer spring, washer, short spring and install cap. Once you install them just tigten the bottom triple clamps 1st then you can give a slight nudge on the cap again to make sure it's snug.
8) While they were off I cleaned them up too but didn't go to the degree that I usually do because these SX forks are for dammit and all this is beyond the call of duty. Honestly, I was just in the mood to do a fork oil change procedure for members on 3WW. It all started out just cleaning them a bit and I got carried away :lol:
9) The one fork you can see (next batch of pictures) I put some finger nail polish on the bottom drain bolt, all that's for is to tell dammit that that fork had an ounce less oil in and to be aware it could of leaked a bit. Who knows, the fluid may have been changed and who ever just did not add the correct amount OR it came that way from the factory. The seals seem in good shape on this one so it's possible the oil was never changed as it was totally black in color.
I think that about covers it . :beer
I wish more members would post (How to's, with pic's) and we had a seperate forum for them, that would make it so easy for some to see it in writing and pics.