*** 1985 Honda ATC250R front fork question ***

[bkvette3]

Hello all,

Question in regards to my '85 Honda ATC250R which I purchased from the original owner last April. Really nice original R. Anyways, just reading thru the owner's manual and noticed the front forks are air assisted. Decided to check mine with a low pressure gauge. No PSI. Filled up to about 5lbs and within a couple of checks later with the gauge. Nada. I am guessing the shocks are leaking. Rebuild required?? And what does that entail??? No service manual available on my end.

Thanks in advance. BK3

[Mr. Clean]

I would not put air in the forks, I would use the valve to bleed off any air in the forks.

As far as service manual, a couple different members have links in their signatures for PDF download-able manuals.

[NeverLift]

http://www.oscarmayer.net/atc/manuals/

[yaegerb]

Hello all,

Question in regards to my '85 Honda ATC250R which I purchased from the original owner last April. Really nice original R. Anyways, just reading thru the owner's manual and noticed the front forks are air assisted. Decided to check mine with a low pressure gauge. No PSI. Filled up to about 5lbs and within a couple of checks later with the gauge. Nada. I am guessing the shocks are leaking. Rebuild required?? And what does that entail??? No service manual available on my end.

Thanks in advance. BK3

Shocks don't get air. That Schraeder valve is used to bleed off the air that the shocks create under loads. Ask me how/why I know this ;)

[onformula1]

Many old service manuals said you could add air to make the forks stiffer up til 10 PSI on some forks.

A few years later the industry found out air is not good for stock atc forks and stopped.

Thank goodness the fork seals lasted more than a hour once you dont use air.

Allways bleed the air out before you ride with the front forks topped out, front wheel off the ground. You don't want contractive suspension. LOL

Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk

[Red Rider]

...just reading thru the owner's manual and noticed the front forks are air assisted. Decided to check mine with a low pressure gauge. No PSI. Filled up to about 5lbs and within a couple of checks later with the gauge. Nada.While the air could be leaking out through the seals, the most likely reason they indicated zero after a few checks is that all of the air escaped via the pressure checking process. You're dealing with a very small air chamber, so 2-3 pressure checks and all of the air is gone. While your R's forks were designed to be air adjustable, the ride gets very stiff, very quickly with anything more than 1-2 psi in them. The problem is, there is no easy way to get that little of pressure into a fork leg. Then, without an equalizer tube, connecting both forks together, it's damn near impossible to get the same air pressure in both fork tubes, and you definitely don't want that situation. If you need to tune the action of your front suspension, your best bet is to adjust the oil weight, oil amount, spring weight, and/or spring preload.

If and when your forks start leaking oil, that will be the main sign that they need to be rebuilt.