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Hey their everyone, im gonna appologize in advance for the long post, but collar bones all healed up from the crash back in april, got back to riding last week FINALLY!!!, boy it was like doing it all over again though, tried to clear a small triple and came up short blew the left side fork seal (bout time i put that dusty fork rebuild kit to use anyway). well i took it all apart most of the bushing look good (still got a nice Teflon coating on them) so im not gonna change them all out for new ones yet... or should i anyway (ive got the rebuild kit)? it seems that this has been asked before but im not quite sure if its the same problem or if im bleeding my damper assy wrong. im changing out the oil in the damper assembly's but both pistons dont fully return. as AS pointed out in a previous post there seems to be a problem with one of the seals in the damper assy. now from what i can see on the damper assy there are two o-ring like seals, are these the seals which are causing the problem? i retried assembling it and let the air bleed out of the chamber for a bit longer and it caused the piston to returned much more then before but stops about an inch from the top (again this has been said before i know) but if the seal was blown on the assy why does it behave differently everytime i replace the oil and bleed it? should i be more patient and let it bleed out for half an hour or more? or are my damper assy's truly in need of repair? also on the damper assy itself there is a piston like unit just below the two teflon coated collars held in place by a 10mm nut, should this nut be taught or slack? the end of the thread seems to be squashed to prevent the bolt from spinning off but the piston has play if the nut is not tightened, is this normal? or should i tighten up that 10mm nut... thanks for any opinions or advice in advance...

p.s. oh it is soo good to be riding once again

The seal that is failing is inside of the floating piston (aluminum cylinder with two bushings and an o-ring actuating the spring).
It is difficult to change.

The end of the assembly is the base valve. The threads are peened. That 10mm nut should be tightened to 4 ft/lbs.

ok, both of my damper assy. base valves are loose (or the nut is loose at least) so i'll tighten the nut to spec and try again, if it continues to have the previous symptoms then ill have to look into getting that internal seal as my pivot works (i know its not the best option) kit doesn't seem to have it.
as always, thanks a lot for the quick reply and valuable knowledge AS

Also on a personal note ive always wanted to ask you agent (thats right im used to your REAL name ) have you ever wrenched for the pro's or been approached to wrench for the pro's? i mean you've proven that you know these bikes inside and out, if i was lined up at the gate on a bike setup by you id have a definite confidence boost. i mean id run AS stickers and feel confident in my bike lol.

UPDATE. so yeah the seal is gone, the piston doesnt even retract anymore, the seals are hard to get out, i finally got them by cutting one side of the seal, heating up the aluminum housing and prying with a flat screw driver. ill have to get in contact with ken if he can send me two of those seals over to europe

update just got my seals in courtesy of crfsonly worked great on the first assembly but on the second the piston still stops about an inch from the top. anyway im putting it all together anyway since im riding tommarow cant wait...