2015 Fork Seals and Oil Change (Update: Handlebar Alignment)

[GregC]

Just a note to say my 2015 DCT final had a fork seal leak at almost 30,000 miles. It had been weeping for a bit and I tried cleaning the seal with a SealMate and other items. But finally needed to change it. used Dave's (DDuelin) most excellent illustrated instructions (https://www.nc700-forum.com/threads/fork-oil-change.3748/) and also a very good YouTube vid
(

). It went well except that loosening the top pinch bolts at the head was a b**ch because I do not have a short allen wrench so getting in there was a PITA. Otherwise it was very straightforward.

Thanks Dave for the great instructions.

 

[LanceK]

So were you able to use just the one bottle of fluid? Going by the book, it looks like I will have to use a full bottle (1L) and a fraction of another. I hate having a bunch of partial fluid bottles around. I end up throwing out what I don’t use, which is wasteful.

I’ll be doing my seals this weekend.

 

[GregC]

full bottle plus a little from a second (about 520 ml each fork). Kinda sux to have the left over (almost a full bottle) -- I would say I don't know why they don't sell the bottles in either single 550 ml bottles or a 1.5 liter bottle, but I think I know ($$).

 

[GregC]

first real ride on the bike after the fork seal replace, and I notice the handlebars are a tad misaligned. Never noticed that before so I'm assuming it's related to removing/replacing the forks. In reading various things and looking at YouTube, it seems I just need to slightly loosen the fasteners other than the lower tree bolts (the ones just below the beak), loosen the fender and front axle just a bit, then bounce the front suspension several times ... that's suppose to square things up. then retighten and torque everything back down.

Any thoughts?

 

[LanceK]

My service manual says to bounce it like that before tightening everything. I’d also suggest checking all bolts after riding for a while just to make sure nothing comes loose.