Howdy gang,

I realize this isn't ideal, but I just "inherited" a 96 YZF600R (traded my boat for it), and the guy who owned it previously said the fork seals needed to be replaced. One piece of 35mm film later, the leaking has stopped -- but I have no idea how long they were leaking for, so here's my question:

What's the MINIMUM amount of work I can do to check the fork oil level? All the manuals and searches only give me advice about filling once they're off and apart -- any way to avoid this? I would just like to run it around town a few times to see if there are other problems before I start ripping it apart...

I've read the 124mm-from-the-top stuff, which also requires that the forks be upright (which I can also do without pulling off the forks) -- my goal here is just to eye-ball the fluid and make sure I'm not going to kill myself on empty forks on my first test-drive.

TIA!

If you take the spring out and fully extend the fork you need to make sure the top of the dampening rod is still covered. If it is a cartridge type fork you can use a small tube & a syringe (how ever thats spelled) to set the level. Measure the tube to the correct level of oil and add enough oil to the tube so you can use the syringe to suck out the excess,using the measured mark to know how far to put the tube down into the fork.

Does that make sense?

If you take the spring out and fully extend the fork you need to make sure the top of the dampening rod is still covered. If it is a cartridge type fork you can use a small tube & a syringe (how ever thats spelled) to set the level. Measure the tube to the correct level of oil and add enough oil to the tube so you can use the syringe to suck out the excess,using the measured mark to know how far to put the tube down into the fork.

Does that make sense?

It does, but can this work be done without removing the forks? Can I just pull the top cap off one-at-a-time to see what I'm dealing with?