X-Fly Shock Oil Change: Damper Side Comes Up Empty.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Subject: X-Fly Shock Oil Change: Damper Side Comes Up
Empty. From: "(Pete Cresswell)" <[email hidden]> Newsgroups:
alt.mountain-bike

Well, it's been two years and about 4,000 miles...and the
manual says every 1,000....plus they were making an ugly
"clunk" as they topped out... so I figured it was time to
change the oil.

The good news was that changing the oil cured the clunk.

What's bothering me a little is that the right side
(damper side) was just about completely empty of
oil....and it was filled to the right level at the
last change.

Been avoiding a seal replacement - figuring that the
shocks would tell me when it's time by letting oil weep
out where I could see it.

Seems like there's a very, very slow loss of oil going on
here...so slow that it isn't even visible.

So, the question: Is this normal and the reason that side
was empty was just that I went way too long before
changing oil? Or is it time to think about seal
replacement? I'm not real excited about taking these
things apart - seems like there are several areas where a
little "oops!" could be the end...
--
PeteCresswell

For an air sprung fork an oil leak is going to be blatantly
obvious. No I hope you remmbered that it is filled witht he
shock full compressed, not fully extended 🙂 Fully extended
they don't look like they have much oil in them.
--
_________________________
Chris Phillipo - Cape Breton, Nova Scotia ramsays-ramsays-Open ↗
online.com

RE/

Quoted message said:

I hope you remmbered that it is filled witht he shock full
compressed, not fully extended 🙂 Fully extended they don't
look like they have much oil in them.

Having forgotton the details since last change, it took a
couple of go-arounds to get the level right. Not much travel
when they're overfilled....-)

My error was adding oil with the bike on a rack...I
*thought* I had compressed the forks all the way...but
hadn't. Putting the bike on the ground made that 100%
clear....

If done right, the whole process is almost trivial: Bleed
the air, remove the caps, drain the oil, compress the forks,
fill, replace the caps, pump 'em up....probably 30 minutes
max for somebody who does it right the first time.
--
PeteCresswell