Touring Air Shock Oil Change

[Bud White]

Since Glider had posted before that the stock shocks can for sure be refilled if oil leaks out i got to thinking before i buy new shocks why not change the oil ? 5WT is stock so i figured i would try 10Wt I went with Bel Ray Fork oil since most shock oil is made for shocks charged with nitrogen not Air..

SO first Remove air fitting easy to do push down on the red tip pull the hose out .. Remove shock and then remove air adapter.

Install 1/8mpt x 3/16 Barb into shock with adapter to hook to brake bleeder

Find out the air shut off you bought doesn't shut off the air .. time to improvise .. hey this works for water hoses why not

Then hang shock on expensive hanger up side down apply brake bleeder turn on with lock and proceed to do other stuff for a few mins while it drains..

Once drained use them fancy shut offs and flip the shock over on your expensive mount .. bleed line attach to shock and open the snazzy cut off pliers and presto watch all the fluid suck in ..

Pretty easy to do .

Total time say maybe 1 hour


Also check out this post too...

Servicing Air Shocks - Harley Davidson Community

 

[Bud White]

I pumped the shocks up to 20 psi and took off today much better didnt bottom out at all was almost to stiff but with mrs on might be perfect

 

[glider]

There's always the option of mixing equal amounts of 5 wt and 10 wt giving you a happy compromise around 7 1/2 wt.

 

[Bud White]

I think lowering the air pressure would take care of it .. like i said it was a tad to stiff for just me but i bet with MRS it would be perfect or just bit lite at 20 psi so for first ride i was close

 

[Bud White]

Checked the psi today and got soem oil coming out into gauge looks like i over filled the shocks at 11 oz ..

So i took off air lines stood it up and let it settle then sat on it and let it settle some oil drained out then rehooked lines added 20 psi again and will wait to see what it does next..

Mrs said ride was smoother for her but still bumpy at times..

And cold today

 

[speakerfritz]

Just did my rear shocks.

Took me a couple of hours only because I wanted a lot of dampening so I used 20 wt fork oil. I heated the oil up so that it would flow faster but while faster...it still was a slow pour.

After the oil change I took the bike for a spin and it gave me exactly what I was looking for.

If anyone is running a touring lowering kit and just can't get the feel right....uping the shock oil wt is one way of doing it.

My bike only had 8 onces in each shock ( maybe a harley tweak to get the air load psi right), so that's what I put back in.

Thanks for the thread to all those who contributed.

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

Using slightly less oil and up the fork oil weight from 5 to 7.5 wt is more prudent when lowering your touring bike and maintaining "like" factory setting. For high performance (read stiffer sport riding) 10Wt is what HD SE fork mod uses...20Wt may be a little heavy with the stock valving, this may cause shock to not respond over stutter bumps when cornering, but glad it worked out in your case Speakerfritz...enjoy!