So didnt see a spot specifically for this kind of info so heres a walkthrough on how to install Ohlins Carts in your forks. I did this on my 09 Repsol, but im sure its pretty much the same for any fork.
Ok so I did my cartridges today...all I can say is that its really a huge headache, and now that i know how to do it, I'm gonna invest in a few more tools.
First off, the bolt that holds the cart in place from the bottom of the fork is an 8mm hex, DO NOT USE BALL END HEX KEYS. The bolt is too shallow and you'll end up damaging the bolt, luckily i caught it quickly. Buy a nice set of T-handle hex's, I used the impact gun to tighten them up but the T handle is used to get it good and leak free.
Second, invest in rags, lots and lots of rags, even when you think the forks are empty theres always more oil that will drip on you.
Lastly, buy the Ohlins tools that they suggest, you cant tighten the cap without one. And the tool used to help install the top cap to the cart with the spring installed will help ALOT. (I didnt have the second tool which accounted for about 2 hours of swearing, several puncture wounds and a sudden revelation, which made the second one a 5 minute ordeal.)
I also recommend a workbench of some sort as I did not have one and sitting on the floor was a pain.
Tools you'll need:
18mm open-ended wrench
8mm Hex T-handle
8mm Hex 3/8" socket
Ohlins Top Cap tool
Fork Oil measuring Tool (or a slim metric ruler)
Impact wrench w/ 3/8" adapter
Metric socket set with sockets from 8mm to 22mm
First thing to do is remove the forks from the bike. I am sure it can be done without removing the upper fairing, but I removed it to make life easier in the long run. If you dont know how to remove the fairings, front wheel, calipers, and front mud guard, download the service manual and check it out. You will need someway of keeping the front suspended off the ground to do this (gotta cover that for the Darwin award contenders).
Once youre staring at your forks in your triple trees, its time to get to work on the forks. First thing to do is to release the preload in the fork, so turn the preload adjuster counterclockwise until it stops moving, no need to force it. Then while the fork is still clamped in the triple tree, loosen the top cap about a half turn. This will make it so you can remove the cap once you drop them out of the trees.
Next you want to loosen the clip on clamp, the top triple tree, and lastly the bottom triple tree clamp, in that order. While loosening the last bolt you need to support the fork so it doesnt fall out on its own. You will also need to guide the clip-on off and the support it while it has nothing to attach to. Repeat this for both sides, making sure that on the brake side you try to keep the brake fluid resevoir level as much as possible, otherwise you might have to pump your brakes to get pressure after reassembly to get the little air out (learn from my mistake).
Now you should have your forks out and on something padded so as not to scratch them up.
Now take that 8mm hex t-wrench and break the bottom bolt, but just barely, oil will leak out of this hole. Now find something to dump the oil into. Turn the fork upside down and remove the bolt. Then put the bottom hole over the cup (buckets or cans work too). With the fork over the cup, remove the top cap (it should be hand tight at this point since you should have already broken it while it was attached to the bike), this will cause most of the oil to dump right out the bottom, and you can also remove the stock cartridge.
***Theres quite a bit of oil hiding in the stock cart so make sure to put it down on some rags.***
With the cart removed you should pump the inner/outer fork bodies to remove as much oil as possible. Once the you think all the oil is out compress the fork bodies and set it aside upside down while you work on the next step.
Setting up the Ohlins carts for installation will piss you off I guarantee it, but not as much as putting it all back together in the forks.
First you need to remove the top cap from the cart which releases the spring, preload spacer, and a spring retainer. In order to do this you need to compress the spring a little, pull up on the top cap and use an 18mm open ended wrench one the nut/spring retainer, immediately under the top cap. Once you have the wrench in there just use a 14mm socket on the preload aduster and turn counter clockwise.
Once the top cap is off remove the retainer, spring and the preload spacer from the cart.
Now this is where the fun begins.
Install the disassembled cart into your fork with the bottom bolt. Use an impact wrench to make this easy then use the T-wrench hex to tighten it down more to ensure you dont get a leak. Now take your NEW fork fluid and measure out about 500ml of it to pour into your fork. When you pout it in ensure that the fork is fully compressed and the cart is fully compressed. You should be able to fit all 500ml in the fork at this point, if not pull up on the cart AND upper fork and "pump" it a few times to get some of the air out, then pour the rest in.
Once you have all the fork oil in, put the Ohlins top cap back on the cart, and screw it into the upper fork. DO NOT TIGHTEN IT DOWN TO THE O RING! You need air to escape the fork and if you tighten it down the air doesnt have anywhere to go at this point. Now pump the assembly 15-20 times, the instructions say 10-15 but I err on the side of overdoing things.
After pumping the fork, unscrew the top cap from the upper fork, and then from the cart. Compress the cart fully, as well as the fork. Now we measure the fork oil level. For this I recommend a fork oil level tool that you can order online for about 30-40 bucks. I used a metal metric ruler and my eyeballs. Basically you want the fork oil to be at about 150mm from the top of the compressed upper fork, more or less depending on the desired effect you are looking for. More oil makes for a firmer ride less for a softer ride. Ohlins supplies a little chart that pretty much tells the rates of travel for certain levels...I just went with the recommended setting of 150mm.
Once you have everything measured and good to go its time to start putting it all together. To make this easy all you need is an 18mm open ended wrench, wish i thought of this sooner in my case but once i did it was a breeze.
First drop the preload spacer in, then the spring. Now you will notice that its almost impossible to grab the cart and pull it above the spring to put the top cap on...unless you have the specialty tool from Ohlins which costs about 60 bucks. Instead we'll use a little ******* ingenuity and save a few dollars. You should be able to pull the cart up enough to slip the 18mm wrench onto the silver nut that you had to use to remove the top cap initially between the coils of the spring, now just spin the wrench around the spring and voila, the cart comes up enough to put the top cap on but not the spacer. Pull the wrench out and get a rag to put between the topcap and the spring while you tighten it down further. Once its fully tight its time to pull up on the top cap while compressing the fork spring to slip that 18mm wrench back in between the spring and the top cap on that silver nut. Once you do that you can remove the top cap, place the spring retainer back in and then tighten the top cap to the fork properly.
Now all thats left is using the Ohlins top cap tightnening tool to tighten the top cap to the fork upper and then assemble the bike.
Ok so I did my cartridges today...all I can say is that its really a huge headache, and now that i know how to do it, I'm gonna invest in a few more tools.
First off, the bolt that holds the cart in place from the bottom of the fork is an 8mm hex, DO NOT USE BALL END HEX KEYS. The bolt is too shallow and you'll end up damaging the bolt, luckily i caught it quickly. Buy a nice set of T-handle hex's, I used the impact gun to tighten them up but the T handle is used to get it good and leak free.
Second, invest in rags, lots and lots of rags, even when you think the forks are empty theres always more oil that will drip on you.
Lastly, buy the Ohlins tools that they suggest, you cant tighten the cap without one. And the tool used to help install the top cap to the cart with the spring installed will help ALOT. (I didnt have the second tool which accounted for about 2 hours of swearing, several puncture wounds and a sudden revelation, which made the second one a 5 minute ordeal.)
I also recommend a workbench of some sort as I did not have one and sitting on the floor was a pain.
Tools you'll need:
18mm open-ended wrench
8mm Hex T-handle
8mm Hex 3/8" socket
Ohlins Top Cap tool
Fork Oil measuring Tool (or a slim metric ruler)
Impact wrench w/ 3/8" adapter
Metric socket set with sockets from 8mm to 22mm
First thing to do is remove the forks from the bike. I am sure it can be done without removing the upper fairing, but I removed it to make life easier in the long run. If you dont know how to remove the fairings, front wheel, calipers, and front mud guard, download the service manual and check it out. You will need someway of keeping the front suspended off the ground to do this (gotta cover that for the Darwin award contenders).
Once youre staring at your forks in your triple trees, its time to get to work on the forks. First thing to do is to release the preload in the fork, so turn the preload adjuster counterclockwise until it stops moving, no need to force it. Then while the fork is still clamped in the triple tree, loosen the top cap about a half turn. This will make it so you can remove the cap once you drop them out of the trees.
Next you want to loosen the clip on clamp, the top triple tree, and lastly the bottom triple tree clamp, in that order. While loosening the last bolt you need to support the fork so it doesnt fall out on its own. You will also need to guide the clip-on off and the support it while it has nothing to attach to. Repeat this for both sides, making sure that on the brake side you try to keep the brake fluid resevoir level as much as possible, otherwise you might have to pump your brakes to get pressure after reassembly to get the little air out (learn from my mistake).
Now you should have your forks out and on something padded so as not to scratch them up.
Now take that 8mm hex t-wrench and break the bottom bolt, but just barely, oil will leak out of this hole. Now find something to dump the oil into. Turn the fork upside down and remove the bolt. Then put the bottom hole over the cup (buckets or cans work too). With the fork over the cup, remove the top cap (it should be hand tight at this point since you should have already broken it while it was attached to the bike), this will cause most of the oil to dump right out the bottom, and you can also remove the stock cartridge.
***Theres quite a bit of oil hiding in the stock cart so make sure to put it down on some rags.***
With the cart removed you should pump the inner/outer fork bodies to remove as much oil as possible. Once the you think all the oil is out compress the fork bodies and set it aside upside down while you work on the next step.
Setting up the Ohlins carts for installation will piss you off I guarantee it, but not as much as putting it all back together in the forks.
First you need to remove the top cap from the cart which releases the spring, preload spacer, and a spring retainer. In order to do this you need to compress the spring a little, pull up on the top cap and use an 18mm open ended wrench one the nut/spring retainer, immediately under the top cap. Once you have the wrench in there just use a 14mm socket on the preload aduster and turn counter clockwise.
Once the top cap is off remove the retainer, spring and the preload spacer from the cart.
Now this is where the fun begins.
Install the disassembled cart into your fork with the bottom bolt. Use an impact wrench to make this easy then use the T-wrench hex to tighten it down more to ensure you dont get a leak. Now take your NEW fork fluid and measure out about 500ml of it to pour into your fork. When you pout it in ensure that the fork is fully compressed and the cart is fully compressed. You should be able to fit all 500ml in the fork at this point, if not pull up on the cart AND upper fork and "pump" it a few times to get some of the air out, then pour the rest in.
Once you have all the fork oil in, put the Ohlins top cap back on the cart, and screw it into the upper fork. DO NOT TIGHTEN IT DOWN TO THE O RING! You need air to escape the fork and if you tighten it down the air doesnt have anywhere to go at this point. Now pump the assembly 15-20 times, the instructions say 10-15 but I err on the side of overdoing things.
After pumping the fork, unscrew the top cap from the upper fork, and then from the cart. Compress the cart fully, as well as the fork. Now we measure the fork oil level. For this I recommend a fork oil level tool that you can order online for about 30-40 bucks. I used a metal metric ruler and my eyeballs. Basically you want the fork oil to be at about 150mm from the top of the compressed upper fork, more or less depending on the desired effect you are looking for. More oil makes for a firmer ride less for a softer ride. Ohlins supplies a little chart that pretty much tells the rates of travel for certain levels...I just went with the recommended setting of 150mm.
Once you have everything measured and good to go its time to start putting it all together. To make this easy all you need is an 18mm open ended wrench, wish i thought of this sooner in my case but once i did it was a breeze.
First drop the preload spacer in, then the spring. Now you will notice that its almost impossible to grab the cart and pull it above the spring to put the top cap on...unless you have the specialty tool from Ohlins which costs about 60 bucks. Instead we'll use a little ******* ingenuity and save a few dollars. You should be able to pull the cart up enough to slip the 18mm wrench onto the silver nut that you had to use to remove the top cap initially between the coils of the spring, now just spin the wrench around the spring and voila, the cart comes up enough to put the top cap on but not the spacer. Pull the wrench out and get a rag to put between the topcap and the spring while you tighten it down further. Once its fully tight its time to pull up on the top cap while compressing the fork spring to slip that 18mm wrench back in between the spring and the top cap on that silver nut. Once you do that you can remove the top cap, place the spring retainer back in and then tighten the top cap to the fork properly.
Now all thats left is using the Ohlins top cap tightnening tool to tighten the top cap to the fork upper and then assemble the bike.
