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Beta Evo, Paioli Fork Oil Level And Assembly Question


glowa
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Thanks to people on this forum I purchased a brand new 2015 beta evo 2t 300, I am very happy with the bike but I quickly developed an oil leak from the right hand fork leg. Cleaning "under the seal" with a photographic film did not help, therefore I had to replace the faulty seal. Dealer is too far away so I had to do the work myself.

 

Now this is first time I ever opened up the motorcycle fork even though I do a lot of work on my bikes myself, beforehand I read several forum threads about the topic to familiarize myself with the work to be done. I strongly believe I made the assembly correctly after replacing the seal.

 

My question is regarding the measuring oil level, I searched google and several forums and could not find answers to my questions. So I put the right fork leg into the vice, holding at the fork leg, fully compressed, the cartridge is already installed and I moved it several times to remove any air from the cartridge. The manual says to fill the oil at 65mm from the edge, but the problem with measurement I am seeing is that depending on the position of the top cap ( if the cartridge is extended or not) the oil level changes dramatically - should I measure the oil level with cartridge rod extended or compressed? I obviously cannot fully compress it because that way there will be no possibility to fill the oil as top cap will be closed :) Second, after filling oil to the proper level with the cartridge almost "fully compressed" do I have to extend the fork leg before threading on the top cap?

If I thread the top cap with the fork compressed I am unable to extend the fork leg to the "normal"  fully extended position by hand. If I fully extend the fork leg before threading on the top cap the fork works but feels kind of funny, on compression (by hand) it immediately pops back up (like it is supposed to), but not to the full extended position, I would say that the beginning of the rebound works pretty normal but the other half of the stroke is very very slow and takes probably several seconds until the fork comes back to the fully extended position.

 

any advice would be appreciated :)

 

 

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If I understand correctly, is sounds like you have not removed the cap from the damping rod? That would be a must do. Generally oil levels are set with everything completely collapsed.

 

you are correct, I have not separated the top cap from the cartridge rod ( I suppose this is what you mean by damping rod). I read two tutorials about the assembly process and surprisingly  this was not mentioned anywhere, I will try and do that now

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alright so I separated top cap from the rod, and at the fork fully compressed (and the cartridge all the way in) I measured the oil level to be 65mm from the edge of the black stanchion (65mm according to the manual). Then I fully extended the fork and I threaded the top cap.

 

But now it feels like the fork action is funny, please look at the attached video, if I slightly put pressure on the fork leg it does not rebound back (this is rebound leg), if I put a lot of pressure it will rebound but not to the fully extended state. I am not sure maybe that is correct behavior, please advise .

 

https://vid.me/Tzfa

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Don't worry about that, it is just the effect of air being trapped in a closed space. Vacuum or pressure can occur depending on what the air space does. Once everything is on the bike and the front wheel on, with the bike on a stand and the forks extended, open the the cap so air pressure can equalize with the fork in the correct extended position.

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