CRF's Only Forums

After failing to get the push rod to extend one one of the forks i took it to honda and they said they had no idea what was wrong with it and that they might have to send it off somewhere. They did say they werent very experienced with suspension however i gathered that when they told me it was normal for it to suck in instead of extend LOL. Does anyone know what is causing this? its a crf250r 05.

Most likely a bad floating piston seal in the base valve.

I just replace the fork seals using the post on CRFs only. It worked great except when I removed the outer tube the inner piston was not extended. I removed the inner chamber and found that there was no oil in it. Where did it go? I refilled it per the manual and reassembled everything. Seems fine now. Will I have to do something with the inner chamber?

wardnasc wrote:I just replace the fork seals using the post on CRFs only. It worked great except when I removed the outer tube the inner piston was not extended. I removed the inner chamber and found that there was no oil in it. Where did it go? I refilled it per the manual and reassembled everything. Seems fine now. Will I have to do something with the inner chamber?

Yes. The piston seal is allowing the fluid to escape into the outer chamber upon compression.

I've looked at the parts list for the fork and don't see anything called a piston seal. I do see several o-rings. Is it one, or all of these o-rings that I should replace?

Honda does not allow you to replace the floating piston seal by itself. They tell you to replace the entire inner cartridge if it won't bleed (seal leaking). You need to have a qualified suspension pro remove the seal and replace it. The seal itself is about $20 and is somewhat limited in availability as far as suppliers go. You're gonna have to send in those forks and have someone like AS do them for you.