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Changing Fork & Motor Oil with a Fluid Extractor

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rideandfly:
Have a fluid extractor I used a couple days ago to replace fork oil on my CB500X without removing the forks. One of my bikes has drains at the bottom of the forks, but the other bikes do not.  Used a HT Moto fluid extractor that's used extracting motor oil out of inboard boat engines through the dip stick tube. Have some other bikes that need fork oil replaced, so this should make easy work out of those bikes without fork drains. When inserting the extraction tube, took a couple tries to get the tube to drop down completely in the fork tube to about 29" depth.

This is probably an old idea (new to me), going to give it a try on motorcycles with skid/bash plates while replacing motor oil, too. Normally drop down or remove skid plates while changing oil to reduce the oil mess. For spin on filters normally place a paper towel to under the filter to catch oil during filter removal and will not need to remove crash/bash plates just for the filters.

Tried the extractor suction tube on the CB500X, DL650 Vstrom, and CRF230L through the oil fill, and it goes to the bottom of all of the crankcases passing by the clutch easily since it's made small enough to also fit in a dipstick tube.

Always warm up engines before changing engine oil anyway, but motor oil will not flow well through the small extraction tube unless oil is warm. Normally set bikes on paddock stands on concrete that is not perfectly level during maintenance, so will set the bikes on the stands with the crankcase leaning to the side where the extraction tube drops down in the crankcase.  For the bikes with magnetic plugs, will remove the plugs and clean every other oil change with the oil already drained. The extraction pump worked fine on cold fork oil, too.

http://www.htmoto.us/store/p/244-Oil-/-Fluid-Extractor-6-Liter.aspx

dpippin:
This is OK for just an oil change.
However for proper fork service you need to remove, disassemble and clean all the parts in the forks to get the small grey particles (from forks operating) out of the forks.


--- Quote from: rideandfly on February 14, 2016, 02:49:48 PM ---Have a fluid extractor I used a couple days ago to replace fork oil on my CB500X without removing the forks. One of my bikes has drains at the bottom of the forks, but the other bikes do not.  Used a HT Moto fluid extractor that's used extracting motor oil out of inboard boat engines through the dip stick tube. Have some other bikes that need fork oil replaced, so this should make easy work out of those bikes without fork drains. When inserting the extraction tube, took a couple tries to get the tube to drop down completely in the fork tube to about 29" depth.
--- End quote ---

rideandfly:
Doug, Thanks!

Changed fork oil when I replaced springs, have about 2000 miles on the bike. Should have know it was too easy!  :)

TN2Wheeler:
I have use a mityvac to adjust (reduce) the oil level in forks but I don't think it's possible to remove all the oil that way.

DirtFlier:
You can also use a turkey baster to reduce fork oil level.  With the MityVac you can put a adjustable stop on the hose so the oil level can be reduced to exactly what you want. 

+1 to what Doug said about having to clean the grunge out of the forks. That stuff can really bugger-up the works in a cartridge fork but not so bad with normal damping rods.  Even with damper rod forks, I still clean it out because it helps reduce wear and increase life on the seals. 

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