The Hodaka Club Forum

I have the later style forks as found on on the 98,99,01 and 02 models for my Ace trials project. I have 6oz written down for oil amount per leg and that is what I put in. With springs out and the forks bottomed out the oil level is about 7 1/4” from the top of the tube. With the forks fully extended the oil level is not above the damper rod.
The reason I,m asking is that I wanted to make Ed’s handy fork oil gage with a piece of down rod so I could check the oil level by just pulling the caps off,but that obviously won’t work without any oil above the damper. So,is it the case that 6oz is the correct amount and the measuring tool won’t work on this style fork or do I not have enough oil ?

Looking back at the specs, my Model 99 Road Toad calls for 6 Oz. per tube. So looks like you got it right. Victor

Thanks Victor,I will start with 6oz and go from there. I mixed 2oz of nd 30w with 4 oz ATF per leg so there may be a lot of trial and error to get it suitable.

. . . on a simplified procedural note . . . it seems simpler/easier to establish the oil level measurement with the fork springs in place. The accuracy of the check will not suffer, and you don't have to remove the springs, find a place to lay them down (and keep them clean), then do the measurement, add oil (or not), check that the springs are still clean and put them back in. That's a whole bunch of steps compared to removing the fork caps and doing the "dip-stick" measurement with the springs in place. Hope this helps.
Ed

Thanks Ed. I was trying to do it as explained in your resonator article,with the springs in and a marked dowel rod. The problem is that with 6oz of oil in each fork the oil level is not above the cylinder so it won’t give a reading/wetting
on the dowel rod. Sorry,that is how I should have explained it in the first post.