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Forks not holding air

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

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My forks will not hold air more than a few hours. The air lock bolts are seate properly. What else seals the air? Do the fork seals themselves hold the air in? Please give me a clue. Its an 83 1100E
Thanks, :D
 
More then likely, bad fork seals....(other than a bad shrader valve)
 
In an air over oil system, I don't think that a bad fork seal could pass air without losing fork oil, unless the fork oil is lower than the fork seal.

A bad or loose schraeder valve could cause it to leak. The O rings that seal the tops of the fork tubes could be bad.

That's all I can think of. Anybody else got an idea?
 
You could squirt some soapy water on them like you would when checking a tire. The actually lucky that you have a big leak...forks don't hold much air to begin with so it is hard to find small leaks.

Steve
 
The schraeder valve shouldn't be a problem unless the air lock bolts aren't themselves holding air.
To test the air lock bolts for leaking: Jack up the front end and open the air lock bolts. Via the schraeder valve, put the appropriate amount of air in the forks. Close the air lock bolts. Now exhaust the little bit of air that is trapped between the forks and the schraeder valve. Applying a low pressure gauge (I like the Progressive Suspension version with the double seal connector that doesn't allow escape of air when applied) should show no pressure. Ride the bike a couple of times, then check the schraeder valve again when the bike is cold. If there's significant pressure behind the schraeder valve, your air lock bolts have to be leaking. Of course, if your schraeder valve is also leaking you won't show pressure! It might be worthwhile to spend a dollar to replace the screw-out schraeder valve core before doing this test.
Then you can get really sophisticated: Fill the forks as per usual and ride the bike a few times. Jack the front as usual. Connect your low pressure gauge to the schraeder valve. Then, open the air lock bolt nearest the schraeder valve and check the pressure. Then, without disturbing the pressure gauge in between, open the far air lock bolt and check the pressure again. If the pressure has changed markedly when the second air lock bolt is opened, it should be easy to determine which leg is leaking air. Of course, if both air lock bolts are leaking you may show equal pressure!
By the way, my fork seals need replacing (this winter during my down time) as they are weeping just enough oil to make wiping the forks mandatory after a ride, but they still hold air perfectly!
 
If the fork seals are getting bad, it will leak air regardless. If there is little or no oil in the forks, air will pass without the oil. It gets out the same way as the oil does. Mine did this on a Honda i had, and I never could figure why I had to fill it every day, but never saw any oil......till i found out there was no oil in the fork anymore. It had all leaked out weeks prior.
 
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