What weight Fork Oil?

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What weight Fork Oil?

« on: August 07, 2010, 02:27:00 PM »

I have a 1985 NightHawk 650sc and am having the fork seals replaced this week. I bought the "All Balls" seals with the wipers......but the Clymer manual doesn't suggest a fork oil weight.......any suggestions? Thanks!


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JB1290

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Re: What weight Fork Oil?

« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2010, 04:33:56 PM »

When I did mine, I used Spectra SAE 10 that was recommended by a local Honda shop.


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Brittles

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Re: What weight Fork Oil?

« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2010, 06:00:42 PM »

Most older bikes like ours just use atf, which is a 5 weight from what I understand. Like JB said, some like a 10 weight better. All personal preference.


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Re: What weight Fork Oil?

« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2010, 04:15:03 PM »

I used 10W in my 78 CB400T, and almost wish I had gone with a 12 or 15 weight. They're pretty soft, but I don't know how the two bikes compare. Maybe I'm talking apples and oranges here...

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jetjock79 Topic starter

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Re: What weight Fork Oil?

« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2010, 05:54:01 PM »

Thanks for the input everyone! I called up my Honda dealer today and asked them what they suggested. They said 10w.....but they didn't have it in stock and said I could go with 15w since my bike is older (how convenient that they did have THAT weight in stock). It's turning out that every dealer around me isn't interested in giving the correct information at all. They just want to make a sale,....and even some of the dealers have NO idea what their products really are (Harley dealer down the street from my house didn't even know the weight of their own oil....it comes as Heavy, "E", or "B"......and got two different answers from two different people about it). It's really buring me up that I can't take my bike to anywhere but my own garage! Why be so coniving?!

By the way....for those of you curious....for Harley fork oil:

Heavy = 20W
Type B = 15W
Type E = 10W


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flynrider

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Re: What weight Fork Oil?

« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2010, 03:31:16 AM »

My Honda manuals are silent on what to use. In the specs section under "Fork Oil" they specify "Fork Fluid". That was a lot of help.

My Clymer manual specifies something from Honda called SS-B or an equivalent 10 weight.


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Re: What weight Fork Oil?

« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2010, 06:50:51 AM »

Quote from: Brittles on August 07, 2010, 06:00:42 PM

Most older bikes like ours just use atf, which is a 5 weight from what I understand.

+1
I've used ATF fluid before in my forks and it works great. And yes it is 5w.
When I raced motocross, we used 0w oil in our forks. However we had our suspension tuned by a company in Montreal and we used stiffer springs.


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