Fork Swap Recommendation for Short Folks

[billie_morini]

HeyItRuns,
your black spacer placement is similar to the black plastic spacer I installed in my 1999 KDX 220 forks. Also, there is a metal OEM spacer in my forks. My photos show before & after I put the black spacer on the rod. You can see where a spring is on mine.

[KDXGarage]

Wrap some plumber tape on the threads before you put the rod back through the seal / bushing.

[HeyItRuns]

Update:
I reassembled the forks. I bought the wrong springs from RaceTech, so they just came in. I am working on the shock for now.
I'm rebuilding the rear shock and I'm going to lower it internally using the race tech spacers as mentioned by Chuck78 above. I used the guide from RaceTech (see link below) and measured the distance from fully extended to the length extended when I raised the wheel 1". It looks like it's about a 5-6mm difference.

https://racetech.com/ip-spls-lowering-spacer/

[HeyItRuns]

Update:
New springs from RaceTech came in. I installed them and used the included spacers to set the preload. It took me longer than I like to admit to decipher how to place the spacers using the surprisingly bad instruction sheet that came with the forks (see link on previous page).
Basically, I just needed to add spacers until the springs touched the fork caps (which makes free length = set length) and then measure out the number of spacers equivalent to the desired amount of preload (4mm according to their website). This ended up being a total of 5 spacers. For anyone reading this in the future, the spacers go at the bottom of the spring because if they don't, you can't attach the fork cap.

I then set to work on the shock. I used these two videos:
The first is kind of a general overview, but is really well edited.


The second has worse camera angles, but is specific to the kdx. It was good for some things but not others. More on that in a minute.


I was able to get just about everything apart. It was incredibly dirty and things were stuck that had no reason to be. The top video kind of shows how to disassemble the shock, but shows a different KYB shock with a different retaining ring. Ours use 2 overlapping rings that fit in one another. Mine were rust welded together and I had to hit em with a hammer a little. The cap that goes over the bladder was also a pain. I ended up putting a socket over the schraeder valve and using an even bigger hammer. I was able to pull the cap out with this tool, which I recommend.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=atv+shock+tool

Then things started going sideways. I ran into 2 issues:
1) I didn't have everything I needed. I bought the parts to do this a while ago, and I thought I'd bought a kit. I didn't. I bought a seal head and bladder from All Balls. I realized after reading other threads here that I still need a new nut, piston ring, and piston o-ring. I bought them from ebay and they are on their way.
2) I also made the mistake of following the instructions of the second video step-by-step, and in the video he mentions that he did not remove the peening from the top of the piston rod and just chased the threads. This was a terrible idea. I put it in a vice and just used a big wrench to crank on it. I did in fact get the nut off, but it took with it the top 2 1/2 threads, which were left half attached at a jaunty angle. I had to grind off those bits as carefully as I could. The link below is a post from this site that has really good instructions on how to do this the right way if someone wants to see that.
viewtopic.php?t=25898#p224264
This is a Facebook post that has really good pictures of the process.


This is a picture of my piston ring. Note that it is in fact cooked.


This is a picture of poor piston shaft. Note the marring at the top from where I had to grind it.


Questions:
1) I have a snap ring that came with the new seal head, but I don't have a new one for the bladder. Do I need a new one, and if so, where can I find one? I've been looking at the diagram, but there is no part number.
2) Does that piston rod seem saveable, or should I just call it and try to scrounge up a new shock?
3) Does the nut really need to be a KYB one?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[KDXGarage]

OUCH!! I did that the first time I worked on one, but that was before Youtube and forums.

I would try to find a thinner bottom plate / washer. That would move the nut down. A KYB nut has the metal portion to catch the threads. 25 foot-pounds of torque and red Loctite.