Fork oil service/change of front and rear spring.

Just for you then Klink:

1.) lift the front off the ground with a headstock stand or from roof rafters.
2.) remove front wheel, take of brake calipers and speedo sensor.



3.) remove handlebars and make sure they are vertical (don’t want your brake juice going everywhere).
4.)Undo the pinch bolts on the top yoke (or it wont work), then using the fork tool undo the top part of the suspension JUST SO ITS LOOSE, the bottom clamp holds it in place this saves you having to put it in a vice once removed.



5.)Undo bottom yoke pinch bolts and remove fork legs.
6.)Unscrew the top part of the fork until the outer black fork stanction falls down.



7.) you now should see a long 5” spacer this needs to be pulled down to reveal the 22mm nut helps if you have two people, you need a THIN spanner an adjustable one probably wont work.



8.) with the 22mm spanner on you can now use your tool in the tool kit to unscrew the top preload which lets the top cap fall off.

9.) as you remove the 22mm spanner the 5” spacer, and spring just slide out, put all the parts to one side.



10.) the oil can then be poured into a container make sure you pump the inner part as shown or you wont get all the fluid out.



11.) once your happy you have all the fluid is out replace with 5w fork oil 1 litre is enough to do both forks and some left over.
12.) fill up with new oil it does not matter if you put too much in but hopefully you noted the oil level prior to removing, Make sure you pump the inner workings to get the oil in the chambers as you did when you removed the old oil, we use a device to get the correct air gap, here is one I made, you can buy the device but this works the same.



Then place inside the fork tube and it sucks the excess oil out to the desired 11cm gap.



The air gap is meant to be 11cm, the air gap is from the oil level to the top of the outer suspension sleeve when at the bottom of the fork stanction the fork should look like this when measuring:




Make sure you pump the inner workings to get the oil in the chambers as you did when you removed the old oil..
13.) Ok you now have fresh oil, I have an 06 bike so changed my front 9nm springs for 9.5nm which the 07 on and SDR has. You now just need to reverse all the steps to put it back together. I got sent the wrong springs by FTR they were for an RC8 so not actually put back together yet!

Will be changing my rear spring too some time this week from a 160 to a 170.

Sorry for the crappy pics, my camera is gash and hard taking pics of yourself when you need both your hands! I also apologise I never know the correct word for anything but hopefully you get the jist, not a difficult job IMO.

Whiping the dust off this old thread, do the springs need to be out of the forks to measure the air gap and is the air gap and thickness of the oil the same on the 07 and newer bikes?

With springs out, not sure if 07 air gap is the same mind, when I did this I changed to the 07 springs and kept air gap the same. Just went with the service manual.

Edited to say springs out (been a while)

Thanks guys, will try to find some time somewhere this fall or winter (unless I'll go all-out with SDR shock and triples... )

Remember to move the fork thru it's full stroke before checking the oil level. There are some good videos on youtube for this:

yess, look at your manual to be sure. suspension oil takes a beating and it cant hurt to change it out. it really isnt that hard to do once you get going. just recheck that everything is back in place an tightened properly.

Had the complete Traxxion Dynamics AK-20 kit installed in my 07 Goldwing and they recommend changing front fork fluid every 20,000 miles...just something to add to the mix.

Will be using this procedure to upgrade springs in my "new to me" SD-R when I get it, as my fat old butt is way to heavy for the stock springs...had 1.2's in my Wing!!

Thanks SDnerd...was/am hoping that installing AK20's will not be necessary with the new to me bike. Don't want to go that route again. It made a silk purse out of the stock gold wings sows ear, but at a $$$$$. My last inverted forks were attached to a Big Dog Bulldog and performance was not there point, bright and shiny was. Will need to spend some time on the stock set up to determine what is needed for my weight and riding conditions/style...hoping fresh fluids and springs will be all that is needed to make it work well enough. No track days for this old man, just some spirited riding through the Ozark twisties. Appreciate telling me that Traxxion doesn't work on WP, so no need to bother them with questions. Maybe I should just get a Tuono R Factory with Ohlins...NOT!!

Was born/raised in SoCal, but left in 1984...used to use Z Racing for mods to my KTM 495 for my D-37 desert bikes, but have read some negative things about them lately...any recommendations would be appreciated.

Race-Tech can hook you up with springs (and valving if so desired) for the SD.

Here's a manual that I came across today.

http://ktm950.info/library/assets/pdfs/ ... 2005-E.pdf

I'm in the middle of a front and rear spring change at the moment this is very helpful!

Thread revive!

I got to work to change out my oil (and maybe seals... I know that I questioned that earlier in the thread!) today and noticed that both here and in the WP manual it speaks of a 5" spacer on top of the spring. There isn't one in my fork. The WP manual says that the 950 SuperMoto doesn't have a spacer.

That and I'm gonna need another set of hands and a thinner wrench... a lot more tension than on the WR450 I last did!

Mine is an 08 SD that I bought used in 2011.

Any thoughts?