oil out the air valve?

was takeing the air out my front end, when i went to let it out (the air), all i got was sum greyish oily substance. I thought maby the seals are bad, but i have no idea. I had no problems with them last year and no leaks. any ideas for me? Would it be a good idea to have them rebult? or just get new ones? thanx.

83' KZ550m1

paradon wrote:

was takeing the air out my front end, when i went to let it out (the air), all i got was sum greyish oily substance. I thought maby the seals are bad, but i have no idea. I had no problems with them last year and no leaks. any ideas for me? Would it be a good idea to have them rebult? or just get new ones? thanx.

83' KZ550m1

I'm a little ignorant of your specific bike. By looking at your bike on kawasaki.com, your talking about letting air out of the air assist in your front forks.

Its common enough that if you let the air out quickly some oil will come out too. The grey stuff sounds like contaminated oil - water got into the system at some point. Just drain out the old oil and fill with fresh and your all set.

Sam

From what I've seen in the past, fork oil removed from air-assisted suspension where the air actually remains in contact with the oil, breaks down in various shades of color and consitency.

Transparent w/yellow or tan color: Normal, keep on ridin'.

Light grey color: Normal internal wear being shown via fine metal particles suspended w/in the oil.

Dark grey color: Infrequent fork oil changes and/or more severe internal wear. Disassembling the forks and thoroughly examing all parts is a good idea.

Milky color: Recent contamination, and has yet to erode metal-to-metal parts or cause any fine metal particles suspended within the oil to rust.

Dark brown color: Not so recent water contamination, and has mixed with the fine metal particles suspended within the fork oil and/or started to erdoe the metal-tometal parts.

Blackish green color: Older/more severe water contamination. Not only is the rust damage more extensive, but the water has now started to grow mold.

The most common route that water/rust/mold enters air-assisted suspension is from the air supply (air pump at gas station for example).
Using a low pressure (bicycle style) hand/foot pump is recommended, since there's less chance of introducing water to the oil and they aid air in lower increments, which means less chance of blowing out the oil seals.

thanx