i now know what 30 year old fork oil looks like!

[troy_mclure]

just changed the fork oil and seals on my 82 ft.

talk about silver/grey/sludge! lol

put new 20wt in it as the roads here are crap.

taking it out for a test ride soon.

[Dougie]

Let us know what you think of the change.

[troy_mclure]

the difference is amazing!
its like a whole new bike. its a stiffer ride, not quite sport bike, but more than Harley type.
i kept the air pressure at ambient(0psig).
the bike just rolls right over bumps/lumps(well the front end at least), and the steering is so quick!

next is the shock rebuild:

[J6G1Z]

Excellent! I need to do mine also.

When I owned my VT500FT, I had a large syringe type of air pump designed for pumping up forks. I found that 10psi in the forks worked great. I have not seen those types of pumps in a long time. You don't want to use your air compressor unless you want to change your fork seals again.

J.

[michiganadam]

10psi??? I thought the max was 5?

[J6G1Z]

I'm fairly certain that the VT500FT has a higher PSI rating than the FT500 does.

It's been a while though, so I could be wrong. I do know that I ran 10psi in my VT & it handled it just fine.


J.