Fork Oil Change Only Procedure

[Tbone]

Ok, the manual seems to only cover a fork rebuild, not just an oil change (What's up with that).
From researching this I believe to do just an oil change you do not need to remove or take apart the damper assembly itself, or remove the lower leg? To keep my sanity I have made a procedure to only change the oil in the fork. It is untested so please give me some feedback and there are a lot of questions embedded into the procedure below:
So basically you would after removing the leg from the clamps, or you may do some loosening just before removing it from clamps:
1. On Top of the Top Cap, remove the pre-load adjuster and the piece that rides on top of the spring, not in my FSM?. All comes out from the top. Also try to remember how many turns your pre-load was set to.
2. Remove a clip from under the pre-load adjuster, I imagine clip to be visible after the pre-load adjuster is removed?, this clip holds the top of the damper assembly in the Top Cap some how? This clip is not in FSM?
3. Compress Spring collar by hand enough to get a 17mm wrench on the top most flats of the damper assembly just under the top cap and above the spring collar. Remove the top cap from the Damper assembly with a 32mm deep well socket. After Top Cap is removed damper is totally intact, the jam nut, the top of damper all remains connected right?
4. Pour the oil out. I imagine there is a collar, spring, washers, spacers, etc that will come out with gravity over the damper assy. when you turn it over to drain out the oil. Keep parts in order or you will have to read the FSM to put it back in order. The damper remains because it is still bolted to the botton of the Lower leg right? The FSM diag. sucks, there has to be a bolt to the lower leg to the damper or it cannot be a shock??
5. Cycle the upper and lower leg while upside down being carefull not to separate them, as this is just an oil change not a rebuild. Some oil should come out or the resistance changes?.
6. Cycle the damper, or not? Can the damper prime itself if you cycle all the oil out of it? I think so but not Pos. Cycle till oil comes out or resistance changes.
7. Turn fork upright, pour some fresh oil in, probably 8 or 9 oz's, not too much so it will not overflow while cycling the fork. Cycle the fork lower leg until the resistance changes, bubbles stop coming up, or something else happens not sure?
8. Cycle the damper until resistance changes, bubbles stop forming, etc...This should prime it right?
9. Extend lower leg and Put the spring, collar(s), washers, etc... in the proper order and position over the damper assembly.
10. Fill the fork with fresh oil to the proper fill mark, adding or removing oil as needed. I might let this set for sometime in case it needs to burp some more?
11. Clip the Top Cap back on the top of the damper assembly. Install the pre-load adjuster and piece that is not in the Manual?
12. Screw the Top Cap back on. This might be easier without the pre-load adjuster installed so I might install it after this step.
13. Install pre-load adjuster and piece that is not shown in the manual, if not already installed.
14. Adjust pre-load to what it was before you took it off or set sag to ~%20 of fork travel or personal preference.
Let me know what you think? An oil change should be an easy procedure so why is there not one /Tony

 

[Tbone]

Added a couple of steps, could not edit last post.

1. On Top of the Top Cap, remove the pre-load adjuster and the piece that rides on top of the spring, not in my FSM?. All comes out from the top. Also try to remember how many turns your pre-load was set to.
2. Remove a clip from under the pre-load adjuster, I imagine clip to be visible after the pre-load adjuster is removed?, this clip holds the top of the damper assembly in the Top Cap some how? This clip is not in FSM?
3. Unscrew Top Cap from the top of the fork leg with a 32mm deep well socket.
4. Compress Spring collar by hand enough to get a 17mm wrench on the top most flats of the damper assembly just under the top cap and above the spring collar. Remove the top cap from the Damper assembly with a 32mm deep well socket. After Top Cap is removed damper is totally intact, the jam nut, the top of damper all remains connected right?
5. Pour the old oil out. I imagine there is a collar, spring, washers, spacers, etc that will come out with gravity over the damper assy. when you turn it over to drain out the oil. Keep parts in order or you will have to read the FSM to put it back in order. The damper remains because it is still bolted to the bottom of the Lower leg right? The FSM diag. sucks, there has to be a bolt to the lower leg to the damper or it cannot be a shock??
6. Cycle the upper and lower leg while upside down being careful not to separate them, as this is just an oil change not a rebuild. Some oil should come out or the resistance changes?.
7. Cycle the damper, or not? Can the damper prime itself if you cycle all the oil out of it? I think so but not Pos. Cycle till oil comes out or resistance changes.
8. Turn fork upright, pour some fresh oil in, probably 8 or 9 oz's, not too much so it will not overflow while cycling the fork. Cycle the fork lower leg until the resistance changes, bubbles stop coming up, or something else happens not sure?
9. Cycle the damper until resistance changes, bubbles stop forming, etc...This should prime it right?
10. Extend lower leg and Put the spring, collar(s), washers, etc... in the proper order and position over the damper assembly.
11. Fill the fork with fresh oil to the proper fill mark, adding or removing oil as needed. I might let this set for sometime in case it needs to burp some more?
12. Screw the Top Cap back on to the top of the damper assy. with a 32mm socket on top, and a 17mm wrench on the top most flats of the damper assy. after compressing the spring collar by hand enough for the Seventeen mm wrench to fit.
13. Clip the Top Cap back on the top of the damper assembly.
14. Screw the Top Cap back on the top of the fork leg with 32mm socket.
15. Install pre-load adjuster and piece that is not shown in the manual.
16. Adjust pre-load to what it was before you took it off or set sag to ~%20 of fork travel or personal preference.

 

[Tbone]

Ok, discovered first hand my procedure sucks and will request the moderator to delete.
I have finished one leg and it took over 2 hours, but now know how this should be done and would like to redo this procedure if anyone is interested?
I have an 09 Uly, the main problem is the First flat, 17mm, under the Top cap is not the damper assy, but it is a nut and a worm gear combined and is not in the FSM. This nut/worm gear is right hand threaded on the inside to connect the damper assy to the Top Cap. Nut/worm gear is left hand threaded on the outside to drive a plate up and down to push on the spring Collar for your pre-load. If you use it to remove the top cap you could cross thread the pre-load adjuster plate that rides on the worm gear. Or if you use it to attach the top cap you will crush a lock ring on the Damper assy when torquing it down. Bottom line is you do not need a 17mm(11/16) wrench at all to do the oil change or rebuild, If you think you do, do not use it until after the top cap and lock ring is removed.
Also another mine field is the damper rod, it comes out with the top cap/damper assy. and is threaded into the damper assy. Unthread it from the damper assy, and when re-installing make sure it adjusted way out, counter clock wise as not to be crushed when re-installing.
I was able to recover from the cross threading of the plate because I did not use any impact tools and did not use a lot of torque with hand tools as well as took my time. I did shed some metal on the top cap worm gear and even though everything still works I ordered a top cap/pre-load assy. from Harley for $33 which I will change out next oil change. So I have completed one leg and confident the second will go a lot easier. Well worth doing as I noticed when pouring the old oil out there was either water at the bottom of the fork or the oil was separating as there was definitely a heavier liquid at the bottom of the fork.