KDX forks air bleed

[fatty_k]

Today I went to bleed the air out of my forks using the screw on the top of the fork leg. It was the first time doing this in about 10-12 rides. As it goes, when I unscrewed the left fork leg screw nothing came out, but when I did the right side quite a bit of air came out. My question is, is this because one fork leg is ajusted differently than the other? All I have done is play with the clickers at the bottom of each leg and Im sure they are both the same amount of clicks out. Could it be the oil level?

thanks.

 

[PK]

I have noticed that when one of my forks doesn't have any pressure in it when I go to bleed them, it generally means that the fork seal is getting weak, not necessarily bad, but weak. When that starts to happen, I gear up for a fork oil/seal change. Also, you should be bleeding your forks after each ride. If you keep an excess amount of air pressure in the forks, it will affect the way the forks work and probably isn't too good on the seals. The clicker adjustments and oil level have nothing to do with the pressure developed in the fork. It comes from the heat built up in the forks from inherent friction developed inside the forks. Bleed them more often and keep an eye on the fork seals for weepage.

Pat

 

[Jeremy Wilkey]

PK,
One other thing actually, if was just heat then the forks would lose presure when they returned to amibant temperature... Heat is a catalist and the presure rise is a function of a chemical reaction of the oil and AL parts!


Jer

 

[FLBob]

Can I screw in a valve stem type fitting to make it easier to bleed the pressure? Seems like it would be less likely to allow dirt to get in.