[also posted in the other place]

Half a fork seal replacement done on the Energica. Just hoping that I
didn't damage the seal putting it in: it didn't go in as cleanly as
others have. Luckily I have a spare - the ebay shop only sold this
size in pairs. Energica don't actually supply a part number for this
item - they only list the entire fork! Spares supply for Energicas
seem to be a bit rubbish. Just getting a replacement motor cable took
weeks, though part of that apparently was it getting stuck in Customs.
But I digress.

First job was to replace the seal - these forks don't come apart
easily. As usual, I had to knock up a couple of special tools. Hateful
things.

The other fun bit was figuring out what the oil grade was. Naturally
this is an Industrial Secret that Energica don't put into their user
manual. Some Marzocchis seem to use Arnica SA 32 oil, which has a
viscosity of around 32.5 cSt at 40C. I figured that I could use
Putoline 7.5W oil. Unfortunately, the local bike place didn't have
this, but they did have 10W, and I had 5W left over.

I rigged up a viscosimeter (OK, I cut the bottom off an old Fairy
liquid bottle) and timed how long it took for the original fork oil to
drain out from filled to a pencil mark. All highly scientific. I even
repeated the test twice. After a bit of trial and error, I estimated
that a 30:40 mix 5W to 10W was roughly right. As fork oils vary wildly
in viscosity, I figured that was good enough.

Next problem was how much? I took the other leg off, compressed the
tube but left it assembled, and used a strip of paper to find the oil
depth. Now all I had to do was match that to the other leg. It took
ages. I think bubbles were still settling out. So, now loosely
assembled. Expect tales of woe that I have damaged the seal and have
to replace the sodding thing again.

--

-Pip