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Message: [QUOTE="canyncarvr, post: 127357, member: 16552"] A. Nope. One will do. B. Either support the bike or have the thing fall over when you loosen the top caps! C. Raise the front wheel? What??...why is it on??:silly: Not to worry. It's quite straightforward. For one thing, it's better done with the fork tubes out of the bike. How else you going to get the oil out? You ARE going to change it, right? Senseless not to if you're changing springs. Hassling with getting the springs up out of the tubes for piston rod nut access with the front tire on would be...well, somewhat of a hassle, I would think. If you do it that way (and you are definitely not going to change the oil), do it one fork at a time. That will keep the front end from collapsing due to NO support whatsoever. Still, you're going to have a hard time setting oil level that way. It only takes a couple of minutes to get the front wheel off. So, 1. Support the bike. 2. Remove the front wheel. 3. Loosen the fork cap (Before you loosen the clamps. Holds the fork against the wrenching action on the cap. BE SURE the cap isn't INside the top clamp. If it is, then loosen the top clamp, but not the bottom and then loosen the cap. 4. Loosen the clamps. 5. Slide the fork DOWN to a bit above the bottom clamp. Snug bottom clamp. 6. Completely loosen the cap. 7. Lift the fork from the bottom to expose the spring-spacer-rod nut. Maybe put a block under it to hold it up so you won't have to. 8. Using a holder of some sort...like a piece of sheet metal that is wider than the spring (1.5" or so) with a slot cut into it that is at least the diameter of the piston rod, push the spring so the top of it is BELOW the rod nut. Insert your holder between the spring and the bottom of the rod nut. Now you have the spring HELD out of your way so you can get a wrench on the rod nut (14mm I think) and then you can take the fork cap off (turning one against the other). When you were 'loosening' it before, the whole rod assy was turning..you were just unthreading it from the fork downtube. You didn't loosen it from the piston rod. Then, remove your holder...and the spacer, washers, spring etc all come out the top. Sometime before this, you'll be saying, 'This would have been MUCH easier if I'd taken the fork OFF the bike........and you will be quite correct!! Make sure there is a washer looking thing attached to the bottom of the spring you take out. If not...it's still at the bottom of the tube, and you HAVE to get it out (turn the fork upside down). Attach said washer to the new spring securely (bend the tabs snug!), else it WILL fall off when you go to put the new springs in. Watch for proper torque on the rod nut when you put the cap back on the rod. This is critical. If you don't have 'torque hands' ..meaning you wouldn't know 15lbs from 35lbs, you'd better be using a torque wrench. Screw up (ha) the threads on the fork cap and you will be VERY unhappy! When you install new springs, you must set the preload. That is the amount of 'squish' on the springs when they are fully extended installed in the forks. Make sure both springs are the same length for starters. With the spring in the fork and the fork cap on (no spacers), measure the distance tween the top of the spring and the bottom of the cap. Say it's 100mm. Subtract the thickness of the two spacer washers (say 3mm), and that leaves you with 97mm of 'space'. If you want 10mm of preload, you need a spacer then of ...what???....107mm!! You are correct!! Cut the tubing you have to that length. Oh..cut it square..cut it to 107!!! If the two springs are the same length (if they aren't send them back!), make sure your two spacers ARE THE SAME. Better to be off some on your preload but have both of them the same than to have them different lengths. Oil? Jeremy (mx-tech) chooses Mobil-1 ATF for at-home services. Get a horse syringe from your local grange or large animal vet, a piece of tubing to fit over the end and make your own simple oil level guage. Seals? Are they leaking? If not, don't worry about 'em. If they are (and you thought changing springs was tough), pack the forks up in a pretty box and send 'em to jeremy...or the tuner of your choice. Hey...call me at 541-890-0664 (cell) if this is less clear than mud, I'll be glad to talk to you about it. Or...having read this far and having decided, 'What the HELL is he talking about???', then go looking for that pretty box??:D Maybe it's a bit more than 10minutes..but not a big deal. Say...if your using .40 springs, a hot wound set from a late model XR400 is far superior to ANY cold wound aftermarket set you can buy! You get to take out all that spacer junk and replace the space with real SPRING!!! ....hope you don't have a headache!!! [/QUOTE]

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