Fork whine/squeak

[bigtallguy]

So I changed my fork oil today and now have a noise from the front when I compress the forks, it's a medium pitched whine going up and down in the fork travel. I couldn't tell which fork it was coming from. It doesn't do it if I push slowly, but a hard push and rebound and it's noticeable.

It sounds metallic to me and I'm thinking the fork springs or something are rubbing against the inside of the tube. Anything else it could be before I take it all back off? And does it matter which way the springs go in? I didn't see anything in the muanual about it so I just put them back in whichever way I happened to be holding them. Thanks.

 

[bigtallguy]

I recorded it with my iphone. It isn't great but you can hear basically what it sounds like.

I used filedropper.com to host the file, didn't know how else to do it.

fork noise

 

[nessundoma]

Sounds to me like oil passing through the rebound valve. Try opening the valve full out and pumping the forks. If your springs are stock they are non-directional.

 

[bigtallguy]

Ok, opened the valves all the way and the noise didn't change. Could new oil just sound different than old? This is the first time I've changed it and it's got about 26k on it.

Otherwise the movement is smooth and I have no other noises.

Thanks!

 

[bigtallguy]

Can I take off the caps while the forks are still in the triple tree?

 

[bigtallguy]

Took everything back off today and made sure everything looked good and put together correctly. Now it only does it with full preload, backed it out to the second line and the noise is gone. With preload all the way in it's louder than it was before and definitely sounds like the spring rubbing.

So what makes it rub with full preload?

 

[Afast03nNJ]

My forks make the same noise. It started after I upgraded my 03 springs to the 04 model. It's been almost 5 years now with no ill effects. Sometimes the noise goes away after I've riden a few miles. It always makes the noise when they are cold. I can't see any rubbing inside or on the springs either.

 

[bigtallguy]

The rubbing noise is now gone, though it's replaced by a click :angry:

The new click happens with hard compression, only on the downstroke. It's not loud, but I can barely feel it through the bars if I push hard and fast enough.

I'm tempted to just ignore it at this point, what do you guys think?

 

[Crash Cash]

Can I take off the caps while the forks are still in the triple tree?

Yeah. Also, loosen the front axle clamp, and push down hard a couple times to make sure the axle isn't pulling the forks out of line. Then you can tighten it back up.

And that DOES sound like oil going through the shim stack, so I don't think it's a huge problem. Can't really tell "over the net" though...

My Gen-I SV-650 used to make a high-pitched "eeeeee" on compression and low-pitched "er-ooooooo" on rebound, and it was the fork oil going through the metering orifices.