[ethosb]

Replaced the fork seals ('05 450X) due to one of them leaking. Changed to a heavier spring as I am 225 pounds sans gear. Right one went fine with no problems. Left left one was problematic from the beginning. The piston rod kept sucking back into the tube. Now after changing fluid for both inner and outer tubes the rebound clicker will not adjust. When I disassembled it again and put the push rod back in, I cannot even turn it manually. What is going on? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Posted this in the 450X forum, but I believe it belongs here.

Thanks,
ethosb

[Aspired]

So it worked fine before you took it apart except your seals where leaking correct?

Now you have the whole rebound adjuster removed from the dampner rod (from the bottom of the fork) and in hand and it will not turn with a screw driver either way?

If won't turn completely off then there is crap in it, needs to be cleaned with contact cleaner.

If it works off any you put it on the tube has to be aligned properly, make sure nothing got bent from when it was assembled and didn't turn before.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0dLM_IoIOQ

[ethosb]

Aspire,
It clicked out to stop just fine before disassembly. The rod was seated, but wouldn't turn even with a small screw driver. Will shoot some contact cleaner down the piston rod to see if it clears it out.

Thanks,

[Aspired]

For some reason it seem like that happend to me once but I can't for the life of me recall what I did to fix it. Probably just disassembled and did again not noticing what I did wrong the first time and go it right the second but peer luck. Just don't force anything!

Thoughts:

Maybe when disassembling you did not loosen all the way but tightened

Sounds mostly like and alignement issue.

Sorry couldn't help more!

[ethosb]

Thoughts:

Maybe when disassembling you did not loosen all the way but tightened

Sounds mostly like and alignment issue.

It won't rotate in either direction. The piston rod works fine otherwise. Will scope it with a camera today and see if it reveals anything today. Possibly apply some heat to see if it will break loose.
Thanks for the help.
ethosb

[mextitan]

so did you ever fix this? Last time i rebuild my forks, I had the exact same problem. If you happen to fix it, how did you fix it? Any info would be great since I am getting ready to install new forks.

[mextitan]

ok, so I finally figured this out. The bottom clicker goes into the damping rod. The top part of the damping rod goes into the rebound adjuster which is in the top chamber. Sorry, but I dont know the proper terms. Anyways, you have to open the chamber and remove the gold part that bolts to the bottom clicker. You remove that part from the chamber. It slides out through the top part. It is going to be a long rod as well which is where the damping rod goes into. Make sure to put some grease at the bottom of the outer rod so it slides out smoothly. Bottom part you have the threads where the bottom clicker bolts on to and on the top part has a black piece on it. You have to heat the part below the black part with a torch to soften the thread locker. Once you heat it up, you will hear a light click meaning that it has completely loosened up. Unthread that part and there you will see the rebound adjuster. With some pliers, turn until you it hear loosen up...

Once you have loosened it up, look at both ends of the damping rod. Most likely one of the ends is going to be completely round. Note that the rod has to have a flat side to it on both ends.

What happened? When you were rebuilding the fork and you inserted the rod, most likely it got inserted wrong tightening the rebound adjuster at the top part and making the tip of the damping rod completely round.

One, you can either replace the damping rod or, two you can lightly tap on the damping rod until you get the side flat again. I recommend just replacing the damping rod.

When putting the part that you heated to separate, make sure to put some red thread locker again and put it back together.

Rebuild your fork again and try it one more time. This should work now.

I had this problem on my bike and took it to a suspension guy who took it apart and showed me the problem. It looks fairly easy but it is time consuming. Be patient when doing this. Sorry I couldn't take pictures but, next time I change the oil to my forks, I will take some pictures to should you guys how to do it. I really hope this helps someone out... Good luck...

[kicken]

Hmmm, sorry to dig up an old thread....

I'm in the process of replacing my 450x seals for the second time.

Right side done fine.

Left side, a little tricky to disassemble when removing the fork centre bolt from the bottom of the fork (the bolt that has the rebound adjuster inside it). Also, had a tough time compressing the suspension to get my spanner in under the lock nut as well, but finally disassembled.

Changed seals, now the problem with reassembly is that the fork damper piston rod keeps retracting back into the fork damper. I pull it out and it sucks back in. When I place the spring on top, its luck to be half way up the spring such that if I then replace the bottom fork tube over the top, the spring has too much compression for me to reach the lock nut to reassemble.

This time round, I didn't touch the damper assembly or change the damper oil.

What gives, is this the same sort of problem?

[staffy24]

that happend to my brother he had but the ajuster screw in the wrong way lol

[kicken]

Well, I sort of solved my assembly problem after removing the damper piston and changing the oil from the inner chamber, I noticed how easy it was to get air back in the chamber during assembly (even after pumping the piston rod and bleeding all the air).

So after a two assembly attempts, I finally made sure the piston rod remained fully extended during reassembly and now when I press on it, it fully extends.

So maybe I failed to do the last assembly properly? I have my doubts however as I still suspect that oil is getting past the seals in the inner chamber leaking to the outer chamber and letting air back into the inner chamber causing the piston rod to retract. This reason I say this is because once I fully assembled the left fork leg, I then proceed to use my body weight and bounce on each of the fork legs comparing the feel and the problematic fork was making a lot of internal 'swishing' noises, where the other one had none of this.

Anyway, I both forks feel good once back on the bike, and with 350mls of oild in the outer it seems to have a lot more compression at the finals stages of the stroke. So now, I need to ride it a couple of times and see how it perfoms, but most likely some of the seals on the damper piston are stuffed and I'm going to need to rebuild it after the next couple of rides.