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martin_csr wrote:

Topper wrote:

otakar wrote: First of all I change my motor oil every 5K. And I change my fork oil every 2-2.5K.

That's still pretty impressive. The maintenance chart in my manual recommends fork oil change every 10,000 miles. When I bought the bike in January it had about 16,000 on the odometer. It's approaching 19,000 now.

I suspect Mcdroid is right, there's a good chance it hasn't been changed in 32 years. That could be vintage fork oil from the factory in those tubes! I wonder what it'll go for on ebay...

He said in one of his other posts that he uses DOT 5 fork oil which absorbs more moisture than the regular stuff. I guess that's another reason for changing it more often.

If you haven't gotten the caps off yet, after doing so & before doing the disassembly... For a less messy job, dump out the old oil, then pour in some solvent such as lacquer thinner, reinstall the caps, invert a few times, then dump that out & proceed. Old fork oil is the nastiest stuff.

DOT-5 is brake fluid and not fork oil and it Absorbs NO moisture unlike DOT 3 & 4. DO NOT use a solvent such as Acetone but a petroleum based solvent such as Kerosene or K-1 or mineral spirits. Otherwise you will be replacing your seals at the same time.
Also Martin, I did NOT say that I use DOT-5 Read the post again. I said DO NOT use dot five because the water settles out and it will rot out your system. I said it was safe for all paint. Time to get your facts straight Boyo.