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My brother just got a 78 GL1000 the other day. I took it for a spin and noticed the front end was pretty mushy and when I got back there was some sort of oil on the tank. I noticed that there are a couple of set screws (?) in the top of the forks and when I compress the forks oil seeps out of them. That would explain the oil on the outside of the tank. Anyone got any ideas what this is all about and how to correct it?
You more than likely need new fork seals but if they have air fittings on the top of the forks you can put an equal amount in each to give it a better ride
There are probably some O rings in the fork caps that are leaking. Take off the fork caps and have a look (be careful - they will be under pressure from the springs).
Could be overfilled with oil too (some newbie might have though to put more oil in the forks to "stiffen them up").
I know nothing about GL forks, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.....
The pair of early GL forks I have here have air valves fitted into the top caps. That may be what you are seeing or perhaps where they were removed or damaged.
I have heard that this year model of the GL had air fittings in the forks. I believe that may be the fitting I'm seeing oil seep out of. The PO did give him a small air gauge that he said was for the forks but I have no idea how to connect it of anything.
I'll try pulling the fork caps off at some point to see what it looks like in there. This is his only mode of transportation at the moment so I have to wait for him to get back from work.
My forks have a slow leak at the seal the top caps are fine but everyone once in awhile the air has escaped and i need to put in another 20-30 lbs to keep the suspension from bottoming out
IIRC one side has a schraeder valve and connects to the other cap. The air fittings are external and should be fairly obvious if they are still there -unless yours were removed and capped off. They use a tire valve to add and check air pressure. They were all the rage back in the day, but anything above a few PSI tends to rupture seals.
You can see them on CB900Cs, RZ350s, GPXs etc from the 80s.
Hope these pictures attach correctly, sorry they are kind of crappy. These are what the valves in the fork caps look like. Almost appears as though someone pulled the core out and ran a set screw in there. Is that possible?
In any event when he hits a big bum (like train tracks) the spray oil. They spray enough that he had it on his jacket when he got home from work.
Those were the ends of the connecting hose and the hose has been ripped off. They need to be removed and replaced or get replacement caps or make up some blanking bolts.
Easiest way is probably to block the holes from the lower face of those caps and either fit better springs or add some preload - longer spacers.
There should be a third hole somewhere, but it is possible that Mr H hid it through the triple clamps or some other fun idea. The third hole would be the valve where you check pressure or add/delete air and it must be there somewhere. Unless they had a tee tube with that fitting in the middle between the fork caps.
Which GL is it? Look it up on one of the on-line stores to see what should be there.
Hopefully that hyperlink works, it's for the Bikebandit schematic. I don't see that air valve on it though. Didn't find any readily for sale on ebay or anything.
teazer said:
Those were the ends of the connecting hose and the hose has been ripped off. They need to be removed and replaced or get replacement caps or make up some blanking bolts.
Easiest way is probably to block the holes from the lower face of those caps and either fit better springs or add some preload - longer spacers.
To stop the immediate problem of it spewing oil can I just remove those the valves, some a bolt of the same size into the hole and refill the fork tubes with the proper amount of oil. I'm sure part of the mushy front end feeling comes from having a serious lack of oil.
These are GL1100
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1983-Honda-Goldwing-Gl1100-Front-Forks-Tripple-Tree-Axle-/370618847222?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item564a9acff6&vxp=mtr
Theses are earlier ones with a gauge
http://www.ebay.com/itm/77-Honda-Goldwing-GL1000-1000-FORKS-W-TRIPLE-TREE-/190690309361?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c660734f1&vxp=mtr
Some had the top cap under a rubber cap, but I'm not a GL expert, so I cant tell you which years had which.
You will probably find that the threads are fine pitch so you may need to get a pair of valves to fill those holes, or drill out the centers and tap them for a 6 or 6mm allen screw and loctite that into the stubs of the old hoses.
Well, now we have bigger problems. He swerved to miss a duck (!) today and had a low speed-low side in the grass. I guess now we're gonna be in the market for a new headlight and gauge cluster.
Ouch!...Did the cluster break or did just the speedo stop working? It looks like the cable may have come loose in the pictures....Well hopefully you can get the forks sorted while you get a headlight together there are lots of Vids on YouTube of Fork Rebuilds but most likely none will be of your exact bike but i'm sure you can Download the Factory Service Manual From a Honda Forum
I'm not sure if the gauges were working after the crash or not. I haven't done a thorough damage assessment yet and I didn't think to ask him if it was working. Good news is that he is alright and rode the bike home. The headlight took the brunt of the damage, it's done. The idiot light cluster is cracked but the lights were working. The whole gauge cluster was just bent upward.
The handlebars are bent but they were shitty and needed to be replace anyways. He (thankfully) has full coverage insurance so we will see what he get's out of the adjuster.
Yeah, I'd already mentioned to him that he needed either a fork brace or fender.
I was doing some half hearted research and it looks as if someone fitted later model 1200 Aspencade fork caps that should be linked to an on board compressor. No compressor on the early GL, so he cut off the hoses and tried to blank them off with screws.
if you remove a cap it should have a hole drilled up the middle which could easily be blanked off with JB weld (after it's clean)
DAMN! That blows!
You've had good feedback on the caps, they did have air fittings on them and it appears those were broken off. My GL1100 has a splittler hose that connect the two and equalizes the pressure. The fill port is a schrader valve on the top of the right cap. Thought the 1000's were the same way.
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