Skip to main content

The Mystery Of Fork Oil


 So I got out a big wrench, and alternately loosened my fork caps, until one of them fired like a rocket, under pressure from the compressed fork spring, and made a large dent in my wooden overhead garage door, and I’m thinking, hmmm… So I drilled holes in my fork caps, actually Vic did it for me, cause he has a drill press, and tapped the holes for a pipe thread, and fitted them with a 3/8” allen plug. The holes are big enough to accept the nipple from an oil filler bottle. I have 2 filler bottles, measure the correct amount for each side, drain from the bottom, put the bottom plugs back in….and carefully squeeze the precious fluid into each tube. And no more dealings with those pesky springs. It’s just a matter of finding the correct weight oil.

 The Harley manual, the bible, says to use Genuine HD Type E, which I found to be a little “squishy,” I did some internet research and found some charts, confusing viscosity numbers, and replacement guides pertaining to fork oil, which led me to believe that the HD Type E fork oil is rated at a viscosity of approximately 7w, and that the HD Screaming Eagle Heavy is approximately 20w. So, I figured, why not try something in between, and there it was: Bel-Ray 15w.



It’s rush hour, and traffic is jamming up on all the major roads, so I do a little lane splitting, and wind up at Moroney’s Harley Davidson, and on the shelf, all I see, is the familiar little bottles of Type E, and Screaming Eagle Heavy. Nope. So I wander over to “the Metric side,” down the stairs to the unpretentious “metric side” of the dealership. This is where they sell stuff for…Jap Bikes. The man at the counter was helpful. I told him that I was looking to try a 15w in my Harley. He didn’t have the Bel-Ray, either, but recommended the Maxima 15w…”Harley compatible,” he said. And I bought it. And I left there happy, and then I saw traffic was jammed as far as the eye could see…rush hour traffic. I shot off down some side road until I found more jammed up traffic, and I began splitting lanes. I split lanes “un-aggressively,” squeezing through the jam, trying not to clip any mirrors…I feel I’m doing a service to those who are stuck, by alleviating the jam, somewhat, by giving up my place on the road to a bigger vehicle, and relegating my humble air cooled motorcycle to the narrow, often un-maintained places, where no other vehicle can go. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Motorcycles and Photography

Motorcycles and Photography: Always liked both, so when I started going to rides and events it clicked. The photo above is of Skinner and Kitty on route to Marcus Dairy. I made my darkroom in the space near the oil burner. It had a sink, a red light bulb, beer and rock and roll. The oil burner would come on loud for heat or hot water and I would have to turn up the music and drink more beer. It was kinda like my own little private party developing pictures but I think the music might have woken my sleeping family upstairs, so I'd turn off the oil burner to be more quiet, then forget to turn it back on and we'd all wake up in the middle of the night freezing. I spent a lot of time under that red bulb developing, making prints and breathing fixer fumes but it kept me out of trouble, somewhat. Most of my riding shots were taken with a 28mm wide angle lens, at f8 or f11 set for hyperfocal distance. EASYRIDERS, IN THE WIND, BIKER, and more. Here's a complete list of my published...
Post a Comment
Read more

Whoda thunk: Lake Michigan

 
Post a Comment
Read more

Fifteen Dollar Piston

That's Paul Riding My Old Ironhead With The Fifteen Dollar Piston Blasting over the mountain, I was giving her the gas,  full throttle, right against the stop, passing all the cars. That's when I heard the bang. BANG . Sounded like a 12 gauge , and the Ironhead starts losing power. Cars that I passed, start to pass me. And I notice that she’s smoking some. Well, something ain’t right; I’m turning around, I'm heading for home… And by the time I get home…I’m limping, mostly running on one cylinder. FUCK! I think that was the word out of my mouth. And I’m laying down serious smoke . The trouble was the front jug. Front one is easy to take off, so I pull off the head, and loosen the cylinder, start to slide her up over the piston. And here, is where I actually showed a lick of sense: Before I pull the jug all the way over the piston, I put a clean rag around the connecting rod, under the piston, to prevent broken metal from falling off the piston, into the crankcas...
1 comment
Read more