Front Forks went soft on me :(

[ArkAngel]

Hi guys,

I am hoping that someone might be able to help me with some of the problems that i have.
I went out riding this weekend and about 4 hours in i stopped the bike with my front brake and the front forks compressed all the way in and i almost went over my handle bars. Do you guys think that all my oil leaked out? because i could not see any oil anywhere when i stopped?
Do you guys think i must just try put some clean oil in and see how it goes?
Does anyone know how much oil to put in a KDX 200 1988 model front forks? I don't have a manual and have no clue how much to put in.. lol

If anyone has some advice for me on front forks it would be a major help, because all i got is some you tube vids at this stage.. hahaha

Thanks

[KDXnoob1]

Forks are rather easy to do Ark. Sounds like you lost all the oil. I imagine the springs are in there so you have some "Slight" feel to them but no compression feel really as its just slop. Go out and buy yourself a set of fork seals. Installing shouldn't take more then 2 hours. I'm not sure about the oil level but my service manual for my 1991 KDX 250 says 569ml +/- 4 ml. So I would imagine that would be ok for the 200 also. Maybe a tiny bit less. Somewhere in the region of 520ml +/- 5ml.
Should do the trick. But then again, I've only ever done fork seals on a TL1000R and a interceptor 750. Procedure is the same however.
Maybe someone with some more insight will answer soon.

[Tedh98]

You need to take the forks off the bike, take them apart and inspect. Dumping more oil in right now will just be a waste. Think about it, if something happened to allow all the old oil out, why would new oil suddenly stay in the forks?

I personally would need to find out what happened. Even if the new oil stayed in (for a while) I would never be able to trust the forks.

With all that said, I'm not so sure your problem is with the oil. Your fork springs are what hold the front end of your bike up. The oil, shims and valves provide the damping. If coming to a stop using the front brake fully collapsed the forks, I wonder if the spring seat (or whatever they are called in the KDX forks) broke in one of them, thereby leaving you with only one spring supporting the weight of the bike?

But anything said now are just guesses and you won't really know until you take them apart. When was the last time the forks were serviced?

[ArkAngel]

Thanks for the reply's..
I bought the bike just less then 1 year ago and well i dont think they have even been serviced.
I decided to drain the front forks and only got about just less then 200ml oil out each of them.. Well i don't think you can really call it a oil, it was more of a black sludge substance.. hahaha

[xcracer]

Not sure if you've sorted this already, but I just did my forks.

Oil level (from factory) is 133-137mm from top of fork with spring removed.
This level can be adjusted between 105-160mm.

Oil volume is 626ml-634ml PER LEG.

And as for rebuilding it, it was quite easy. Just take your tIme and have fun.

Cheers