How much play (up and down) should I have with the forks on a gs500?
I got the bike with the right fork seal leaking; it moved easily up and down. I replaced the seal and now it's very stiff. Did I put to much oil in? I measured the 3.9 inch spec in the manual.
Any help would be great or is stiff good?
Just pressing on it off of the bike it should be fairly stiff...I have to put a good bit of weight on mine to compress it. A good test is to reinstall it and sit on the bike, grab the front brake and then press down on the front to see how it compresses.
If that seems as though they are too stiff then there could be problems with them.
If your oil was forking low it would be considerably softer than it should be.
Stiff can be good every one in a while.
Now about your MC question.
Did you measure the oil level with the fork collapsed?
prs
yes, fork was collapsed when I measured. It really is stiff