"FORK IT," I said to myself while Cranky and I struggled to remove the stubborn ass caps from the forks. Didn't have a 17mm hex wrench so thought I'd be smart and try the 17mm bolt trick on Gadgets FixIt site. Short story long....very long
I, being the cheap and adventurous guy that I am, decided that I could do a fork oil change on my own. This seems simple enough. A fork oil change typically isn't that hard. But on the 2001 Vulcan Nomad FI, the forks have a cartridge type suspension. Piss. Extra work. "Who needs a dealer," I asked myself.
In reality, I thought I could do a fork oil change with the help of a friend. Luckily for me, there was a fellow VROC'er close by who agreed to ride down and lend me a hand. He was even nice enough to bring beer and a torque wrench. Both proved invaluable. So, armed to the teeth with tools and knowledge, I set about tearing my bike's front end off.
It should be noted that Japanese bikes are built by oompaloompas with teeny tiny hands. Some of the bolts that had to be removed were in areas that no man should have to go. But, sheer stupid determination paid off. I managed, with some amount of cursing and sweat, to get my front end torn apart. Phew!
Then I remembered the caps in the fork tubes. The ones that need to be removed to get the oil out. Those damn buggers, the caps in the forks, wouldn't budge for nothin. We grunted and groaned to no avail and thought that we were done at that point. It was a pain in the arse just trying to get the 17mm bolt trick to work (which it doesn't ... really). We stood up, took a breath and were about to give in and do some cruising for a 17mm hex wrench.
Pissed a bit, I walked next door to tell my wife, she was at the neighbor's garage sale, that I'd be taking the car. Neighbor asks "Whatcha need" I spilled out the saga and told him I needed a 17mm hex wrench or 17mm socket with hex head. "Hold on," he says, "I might have that."
Now this is the neighbor that I've lived next to for about 8 months now. He rides Harley's. We ride together and belong to the same bike club. His car is American made. He also doesn't do much of his own maintenance, preferring trained mechanics to do it for him. Can't say I blame him. Anyway, I never would have thought that he would have a 17mm hex socket. Sure as the sky is blue, he walked back with one in hand. Actually, quite amusingly, he walked out with a full set of metric hex-head sockets. He said he didn't know what size they were, but Cranky and I saw right away that the one on the end, the biggest one, was 17mm.
Felt like breaking out the celebratory beer right then and there. But didn't. And glad I didn't. Cranky and I walked the 15ft back to my garage and proceeded, with quite a bit of brute force, to twist those caps out. Seems that they may have been loctited in place by a former owner or stupid mechanic. Ah well, they came out.
That's the long story. Moral is.. always have the right tool. In the end Cranky and I got the fork oil changed. Wasn't a damn thing easy about it really. Not mechanically difficult, just a pain in the ass. Really. Budget 5-6 hours for this one.
Some things I learned while doing it. (This will make sense if you've done a fork oil change or read Gadgets FixIt instructions page)
1) It's easier to take the fender off, and put it back, with the wheel off. This was learned in hind-sight.
2) There is absolutely no way to take the fork caps off without a 17mm hex wrench or socket w/hex. Don't even try a 17mm head bolt (the actual bolt size was M10 1.5). An inch long 17mm hex nut would work like magic though(M10 not actually 17mm - a nut that will fit into a 17mm socket.. hope that makes sense to you)
3) The door handle remover tool doesn't work for compressing the spring. It is too flimsy.
4) You don't need a spring compression tool at all. Just an extra set of hands. You can get the 14mm wrench on the 'holder nut' through the spring without compressing it. One twist and then I could hand remove the top cap. Had to squish the spring down by hand while Cranky reattached the top cap. This isn't too hard, you only need to compress it an inch or so.
5) Use 'picture hanging wire' to tie under the 'holder nut' on the piston rod. This allows you easy retrieval when it slips down into the tube and is easy to work around (and can be left in place until the top cap is tightened back into place). Needle nose pliers or medical forceps are needed to untie it.
6) Removing the spring to pump the piston rod up and down to 'remove all the old fluid' doesn't really remove much more than just tipping the fork upside down. I'd say insignificantly more. Your results may vary.
7) Anyone can do this with help from a friend and the right tools. Can't stress that enough.
8) When you take off the steering stem nut (the 36mm chrome one) there's a washer. This can be a bugger. Get something thin and strong to jar it a bit and then wiggle it up. Under this washer is an O-Ring. Don't even THINK about trying to remove the upper triple tree without removing this O-ring.
That's it. That is the end of my fork oil saga. I started with bike disassembly at around 8:00am and went about it slowly, methodically. I ensured that all parts that came off were organized so that they'd go back on, in the right order, easily. Another 15,000 and I'll do it again. And not a second before.
Next maintenance... coolant system flush. WOOOHOOO.
