Hey guys,

This winter I wanted to change the fork oil in my 2001 FLHRI that is sitting at about 49k miles.

After lots of reading and Googling as well as my manual, I wanted to make sure that I didn't mess this up, could you help me answer these questions?

1. My manual tells me that these forks have to be disassembled to change the fork oil, however, I believe these are conventional forks and have drain bolts. Can I do this procedure without complete fork disassembly?
2. Do I need to release any air pressure or pump any back up when changing fork oil or does this stay?
3. I really want to stiffen the front suspension, is 15w going to be good?

Thanks in advance.

 

Looking at the factory manual you do not have to disassemble the forks to change the oil. You do have the let the air out to drain the fork oil. Your bike calls for Type E and I would stick with that and adjust the air pressure as specified in the manual to reflect the ride you want.

 

Thanks Mesa! Real quick, what manual did that tutorial come from? I bought a Haynes for the FLHR and it has nowhere near that level of detail.

 

Delete

 

Take a Guess

 

You can usually find a used factory service manual on ebay....I would loose that haynes.

 

I reed reel gud.

Thanks guys.

 

Yep, factory manual.

 

Hey guys,

So I bled the air out of the system and drained the forks, was really dirty oil.

I pushed down on the forks and made sure to get it all out, now when I go to fill the forks back up, the oil isn't going down the fork tubes.

It's almost like it just fills up the top area and then stops. What am I doing wrong?

When I pull the drain plug out, it drains the new stuff, but as soon as I put it back in, it blocks again.

From the manual it looks like I don't have to take the fork cap bolts off, just remove the hex with the banjo, do I need to take the big caps off?

 

With your mileage I would indeed strip the forks, if only to clean out the sliders, which probably have a stack of oily gunge in the bottoms of them. As for putting in the new oil, I assume your fork legs are firmly secured by the bottom tree, in which case support the front of the bike, remove the top caps, refill, refit etc. It's easier that way to check the oil level in each leg. Take care when removing those caps as they may have a little spring pre-load on them. You will need new copper washers, or if they are OK, to anneal the old ones.

As for Haynes manuals, they have a truly great bike and car museum over here, but their manuals are not so great! If you are tempted to look at Ebay for a s/h FSM, be aware that some sellers ask as much as a brand spanking new one costs at your local friendly dealer.