upside down fork oil question

[rich1988]

Hiya some of you may have read my previous posts about the trouble im having getting my sodding suspension sorted! basically I now have a solution but its going to take a couple of extra weeks!

so my question is can I just top up the fork oil in my fork? the manual has a guide on how to change it which involves taking out the fork spring etc so you can measure the oil in there but can I just not take that lot out and just pour some extra fork oil in the top? the fork oil is less than 2 months old so wont be contaminated and its only for a couple of weeks I just want to know if there is any reason why I shouldnt?
Thanks!

[Jon_W]

The amount of oil affects the performance of the damper. You need to measure the amounts in the forks in order to know that both are correct and the same. For the sake of an hour or so, I'd drain the forks and re-fill with a measured amount.

[jonnydangerous]

nope, the air gap at the top has to be measured with the springs out, this isnt a big job if you have the top caps off to top up anyway.......
dont drip the oil on the bike or tyres tho.........

pop on round if youre stuck, i work for FOOOOOOOOOOOOD :-)

[rich1988]

damn, can I not just take the cap off the other one and fill the leaky one to the same level as the one that hasnt leaked? I contemplated taking the springs out I just dont have the correct tools to shim the spring and extend the damper

[jonnydangerous]

maaaaaybe, if youre only doing one, sometimes the forks come with different amounts of oil in each leg, but normally the air gap is the same........

:-)

[rich1988]

I popped some more oil in there and they compress at the same rate now only thing is the leaky one doesnt come back up as quickly so I suspect the spring may be in an unhealthy state!

[jonnydangerous]

or the rebound rate is not adjusted the same as the other fork???....

[rich1988]

Reset them both and set them to the same to no avail, ill have a further play with them before I go out this evening

[jonnydangerous]

old worn bushes???....
when replacing seals, sometimes best to replace the bushes too, especially if you put a new seal on a good stanchion and it leaks again straight away...
maybe theres less friction on one leg due to knackered bushes???.....
altho im just guessing now......

[BB]

Nothing like a good guessing game....

B