Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Fork Oil - What kind?

My Triumph dealer is 50+ miles away. I was going to grease the stearing head and replace the fork oil this weekend. The Triumph manual specifies "Kayaba G10" oil, but the local Honda/Kaw/Suz/Yam dealer only sells Bell Ray; Maxima; Honda; and PJ-1 fork oils. Will any of these do?

I intend to fully remove the forks and drain-upside down. I have read that a 50/50 mixture of 10 and 15 weights is a good combo.

The book calls for Mobil HP222 for the stearing head bearings. Is there anything special about that, and are there 2 bearings sets and are they contained in a "cage" or are they loose? The Triumph manual is not very clear on a lot of things.
Anybody make any recommedations on this?

I used a 50/50 mixture of Bell Ray 10 & 15 weight oil when I upgraded to Progressive springs. It's outstanding. Can't speak intelligently regarding the steering head bearings though...

I've done my steering head bearings a couple of times now. Here's a shot of the ones on the lower yoke.



Any high temp bearing grease will work. I have a little pint size container put out by Bel-Ray. The job itself is straight forward enough with the manual. Only step to plan ahead for is the steering nut removal. The nuts are thin and over an inch in size. I used a large crescent wrench. Triumph sells special thin wrenches to use for the job(Part # T3880140 - Head Race Adjusters).

I also use a 10 and 15 weight fork oil mixture with my Progressive springs.

I used Repsol 10W20 in my forks when I installed my Progressive springs. Seems to work fine. Bought it at my local Hondokawasuzukiaki dealer.

Thanks guys,

I just finished the job. All went well. Interesting thing though, my fork oil looked dirty, black and foamy. I have just under 15,000 miles and it was 4 years old.

Also, to hold the stearing head adjuster nut, I found I could use a standard car brake spring puller/stretcher/remover "pliers" while I used a 1 1/2 inch socket on the locknut. The brake spring pliers were thin enough to hold the adjuster nut while I torqued the locknut. It did not look like it would get a good grip, but it worked.

Picture of car brake tool used to hold adjuster nut while torqueing steering head locknut.