Showa Fork Rebuild - Dampers doing my head in.....
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:17 pm
Hey there CRFers, new to this so go easy.....
Working on an 05 450x with Showa 49mm front forks.
Had an oil leak on the left so purchased requisite seals and parts and stripped the forks down. Main tube and outer all look good, inners and pistons all ok too. Oil was sludgy and smelly, has been in there a while.
Have cleaned the dampers up, filled with oil(192ml per manual), lifted the piston up and down to bleed and replaced the damper cap according to the manual.
Tightened to the cap, cycled the piston 3or4 times around 100mm, then cycled the piston full stroke.
This is where things go pear shaped.
When cycling the piston I lose around 75ml of oil instead of the 17ml the book tells me I should expect. Continuing to cycle the piston loses me more oil.
The piston then retracts and stays shut, pull it out and it goes back in - basically the whole thing is running backwards.
I’ve noticed the spring in the damper cap is lose when on the bench, is this normal? Is there a proper overall length for the damper cap? Can’t find any info on this part for service and specifications.
Have done both forks and getting the same result. Have watched a bunch of UTube, repeated the process and no change.
Any ideas?
TIA.
Working on an 05 450x with Showa 49mm front forks.
Had an oil leak on the left so purchased requisite seals and parts and stripped the forks down. Main tube and outer all look good, inners and pistons all ok too. Oil was sludgy and smelly, has been in there a while.
Have cleaned the dampers up, filled with oil(192ml per manual), lifted the piston up and down to bleed and replaced the damper cap according to the manual.
Tightened to the cap, cycled the piston 3or4 times around 100mm, then cycled the piston full stroke.
This is where things go pear shaped.
When cycling the piston I lose around 75ml of oil instead of the 17ml the book tells me I should expect. Continuing to cycle the piston loses me more oil.
The piston then retracts and stays shut, pull it out and it goes back in - basically the whole thing is running backwards.
I’ve noticed the spring in the damper cap is lose when on the bench, is this normal? Is there a proper overall length for the damper cap? Can’t find any info on this part for service and specifications.
Have done both forks and getting the same result. Have watched a bunch of UTube, repeated the process and no change.
Any ideas?
TIA.