Forked for now

mwriders wrote: What 440 model came with air forks? Are they an aftermarket bit?

Never mind. Appears to be '82+ LTD. I didn't know that.

Do you have basic hand tools out there?

Yeah, it's the LTD with the air over oil. No worries.

Well, stopped by the Kawasaki shop and bought a bottle of 20W fork oil. Pulled the top caps (god blessed circlips anyway). Drained the old oil. Wound up being about 100 ml in each side of old black, nasty looking oil. Didn't realize it had the copper washers on the drain plugs so I had to re use them, but they were in good shape. Put 150 ml of new oil in per Clymers manual, pumped them, and measured with springs out. Came pretty close to what suggested oil height was.

Went out for about an hour afterwards last night and definitely was an improvement on general riding and less diving on fast stops. No bottoming out, but still an occasional clunk (on extension, not compression) on rough tracks, etc... No oil leaks yet, but keeping an eye on the seals. If they start seeping, I'll break down and make the fork seals a winter project.

Wondering about the o-rings on the top caps. They don't look bad, but maybe that's where my air leak is happening. May replace them for the heck of it.

Thanks for the help offer and all the advice guys.

Is there o-rings in the actual plugs in top of forks or are you talking about the shrader valves?

Not sure if the same but I replaced seals on a friends 550 recently. There are 2 o rings on each tube with a hole in the fork tube for the air. It was right above the bottom triple. Also o rings in caps. The bottom o rings would be more likely to leak. A lot of soapy water might find out where.
Wayne

The O-Ring on the cap (92055) is what I'm wondering about. Will try the soapy water, forgot that. Thanks!