C5 Fork Tutorial

[Ducati Scotty]

Pic links updated, torque specs entered.

Scott

[AgentX]

Thanks a ton for posting this!!

I am going to embark on replacing oil, adding fork boots, and stripping paint/polishing the lowers on my Electra fork.  Obviously there are some differences, but knowing the general scheme of things is a huge help.  I'd expected the disassembly to be a lot more like the offroad forks I'm used to.  Thought I'd just have to unbolt and pull off the lowers, not pull everything out of the casquette.

Think I'm gonna need a few weeks to find the right time to do this.  Glad I know the extent of the job now.

[Arizoni]

I noticed a very small bit of oil had collected on the brake hose clip above the caliper on the left fork.

I traced the source of this oil to somewhere around  the top of the left fork sheet metal tube cover.

The fluid is not brake fluid and it is very slippery like I would expect a 10-30 oil to be.

My question is, what are the chances of it getting better or worse?
This is a new motorcycle and I don't ride off road.

I should expand on this a bit.
The leak is not coming from the area of the sliding joint under the rubber boot.
It would seem to be coming from the top plug rather like the O-ring at that location is not fully sealing.
It takes several days of riding before there is any indication of oil leaking in the area.

[Ducati Scotty]

On the G5 the chrome screws on the top of the fork tubes seal the top.  You can unscrew and remove them to inspect the o-ring.  Replace if needed and then just tighten them up. 

If you check that and re-tighten and it's still leaking I'd suspect the fork seal under the boot.  Sometimes a piece of grit gets lodged in there.  To try to clear it out get a short piece of 35mm negative film and silde it in between the fork tube and seal moving it around several times.  The holes in the edge can sometimes catch the grit and pull it out.  If it keeps leaking the seal is shot and it will not get better.  Get it repaired.

Scott

[Maturin]

That´s a how-can-I-help-myself writeup that is even better than in a professional handbook. Thank´s a lot, Scott, that will save countless dropps of sweat & tears in my case 
You should do that for money! You´ll get rich!

[Ducati Scotty]

No, I've tried.  Excellent bakers and mechaincs still make far less than mediocre computer geeks

Scott

[Maturin]

I'm using 15 wt. Spectro but having a iron, its pretty easy to change the fork oil as u are aware....

Putting everything together, am I right in the assumption that the G5´s fork is similar to the fork of the Iron Barrels?

When I only want to change the oil, is it only necessary to open up the lower bolts and the chrome caps on the top to drain the oil at the bottom?
The difficulty, as I understood it, is to get loose the lower bolts, because in this stage of disassembly it´s not possible to counter them. Isn´t it easier then to get out the fork legs of the triple clamps and drain them by just turning the complete leg headon? In this way you´d avoid hammering / impact wrench action. Am I correct?

[Ducati Scotty]

You are correct, the G5 allows you to add oil from the top.  If you can loosen and tighten the bottom bolt without disassembling the fork you're on your way.  You can press down on the fork to help with this.  The added pressure should help hold the inner damping rod as you loosen and/or tighten the bottom bolt.

If it won't come loose or won't tighten back up you may need to remove the fork leg to sort it out. 

Scott

[Maturin]

Perfect, thanks for claryfing. I hope I can get those bolts moving 

[jartist]

Thanks for the write up!  I tackled part of the job in about three hours or less.  I couldn't get the top caps on the upper legs to budge but I gave up easy because I have the G5 with the open top caps and I didn't need to take the forks apart.  I just removed the forks from the bike and dumped them upside down and pumped them for a while and got about 180cc from each fork.  Definitely worth the piece of mind and an easy job due to your writeup.

[Ducati Scotty]

Could you post a pic of what the G5 fork top caps look like?  i'm curious.

I think you're supposed to have 265ml in a G5 fork so it sounds like you were fairly low too.  Someone correct me if I've misstated that.

Scott

[Arizoni]

My G5 Owners Manual says the front forks take 200 ml per leg.
Then it also says it takes 2.75 Liters of motor oil in the engine. 

[Ducati Scotty]

Ok, then go with 200.
Scott

[robbw]

Thanks. This was most helpful. Will print and keep in the ongoing mechanical tips file I've created.
 

[Ducati Scotty]

Hang on a sec Arizoni.  The factory service manual says 265ml, not 200 as in the owner's manual.  I think this has been discussed on the forum elswhere.  Search around, you may want to add some more oil.

Spec for the C5 is 195ml but is not listed in any of the manuals.  I got that number from this and other forums.

Scott