Forks help please

[Brains]

My new project bike - KDX 200 1998.

The forks feel like I used a solid bar instead of a spring, realy hard!
I'm using 630 cc of 5w oill and std. springs.

They don't feel to bad untill I fill in the oill and then aaaaHH, where did the suspension go?

I keep on thinking it is something simple.

Any help appreciated.

Regards
Mark

 

[kciH]

Did you check your manual on the oil amount? If there is too much oil it can have the affect you mentioned.

 

[kdxjr]

I don't know a lot about forks, but you did bleed all the air out of
the top of the forks..

 

[Canadian Dave]

Measure the oil level with an oil level gauge with the springs removed and the forks completely compressing as per the manual. If you don't have a gauge try a turkey baster or if worse comes to worse a measuring tape. Insure you've bled all the air from the cartridge first. You can find instructions to build a gauge on the JustKDX web page.

Where they this stiff before servicing them? Do you know what rate fork springs you've got.

David

 

[Brains]

Thanks David
The amount of oill is per manual.
I'm not sure what springs are in there, is there a way of telling?
The air was bled from the top bleed screw after pumping them a couple of times.
I worked on the amount of oill and not the height of the oil. I will try doing it wirth the height method.
What should the height be?, I would guess at approx. 150mm - about 5.9"
I'm not sure of what the forks felt like before as I bought the bike as scrap and this is the first time I have sat on it.

A three month rebuild - I've said this before, but..........never again.

Thank you
Mark.

 

[Mikeb]

If the forks are on the bike ... Try loosening the front axle ... It may be twisted a bit and be in a bind.. If forks are off the bike .. Nevermind.

 

[canyncarvr]

A common oil height is 100mm (4").

Only way to tell what spring is in there is to measure them. Involves either the correct tool, or compressing the spring against a scale while measuring the spring movement.

You might luck out and have the rate scribed on one end of the spring..or may even be written with a permanent marker or paint.

They'd have to be pretty darn stiff to feel like a solid bar.

Hey..here's something simple. What are the clickers set to? Maybe all the way in? Maybe some L-A-R-G-E type was trying to fudge a too weak spring by jacking up the compression damping??

Yep! I've decided!! That's it!! ;)