Forks not holding air for long

Hi I'm a newbie so please be gentle LOL
I recently had the fork tubes off my 1982 Maxim 650 I was adding some fork gaiters and ever sense I put them back on they won't stay up.
I fill them with 5lbs of air and they jump right up but the next day there back down. what the heck????
I even marked the lil hole on the air collar and on the upper fork tube so I could line them up.
I did raise the front end about 3/4" so now the collar don't sit in the little peg on the top tree, could this be why they keep bleeding down???
Any ideals guys???????
Robert

 

It must be the fork seals, the air valve, or the o-ring on the plug that the air valve screws in. I think if it were the fork seals you would leak oil as well as air. You could unscrew the valve core and check for rust or corrosion on the valve seat. I think they are the same as the valve core in a tire. Good luck.

 

I'd lay bets that this is part of the problem, along with old o-rings. The air collar has to be set so that it seals the air inlet for the upper fork tube. There is a small snap-ring that seats into a groove on the upper fork, which prevents the air collar from going too low on the fork (and keeps the fork tube from being raised any further) The upper triple clamp (along with a rubber spacer) holds the air collar in place, and prevents it from rotating and damaging the o-rings.

 

OK
Thanks you guys! I think tomorrow I will put the forks back down as stock making sure to fit the collars back in the peg on the top tree pull the valve stem out inspect the O-ring and blow out the inlet.
I should have thought about that lil thing ya know they say always check the least expensive part first
Oh I know I lost about a table spoon or 2 fork oil so if it's not to much trouble could one of you tell me how much should be in them and what oil 5w, 10w, 15w???
Kinda flying blind with out a manual. All bikes work on the same princables but have different specs
Thanks again guys
Robert

 

This post should cover the information that you need.

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8355.html

Fork oil volume is near the end of the first post.

 

Thank you K-Moe
The link was very helpful I'll be jumping on them fork tomorrow
And let ya know how it go's
Thanks Again
Robert

 

personally i don't like the idea of using air in the forks. how do you know it's in there, if you check it, most of it's gone.
what if one side leaks, now your wheel is trying to twist.
put some pre-load spacers in it and be sure what you put in there stays in there.
Progressive makes new springs for not a whole lot of money too

 

Checking air pressure won't release most of the air. The advantage of air forks is being able to adjust preload to suit riding conditions. I'm not a fan of having soft suspension when riding two-up, or having too much preload when riding solo. Having said that, I don't run any additional air unless I'm two-up or carrying my traveling gear.

 

On road bikes, they went the way of anti dive.

 

OK Guys
I took the front end apart again today and it seems that threw my many sleepless nights I put the air collars on upside down so they were on the wrong sides as well...LOL (THERES A PEG ON BOTH SIDES OF THE TOP TREE ) well I got all that back together to stock standards and pulled the valve stem as Ron mentioned and blew it out after soaking a Q-tip with PB Blaster and saturating the valve after an hour or so I wiped blew 100lbs threw from 4" outside the hole and repeated this process 2 times I added a bit of petroleum jelly to the O-ring on the valve stem to help it swell up and seat added 14lbs and she stood at attention for me stout and pretty!!!
OH Ron no leaks from the fork seals that I can see and never had any residue on the top tube (upper's)
I'll let y'all know if there is any change by tomorrow (CROSSING MY FINGERS)
Thanks again fellas
Robert

 

That was done as a cost-cutting measure. Most of the heavy touring bikes still have air-ride systems (though that is going away as the ferrofluid systems and servo-adjusted preload have become reliable). The 2014 Gold Wing even has anti-dive.

 

this may be to little to late, but the best way to find air leaks is with a spray bottle of soapy water.

CN

 

Well yeehaaa
The forks are still up and holding
I think it had more to do with the fact that I had the collars upside down than the valve stem or valve but in any case I did as y'all suggested and it seems to be fixed
Thanks a bunch guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh Cyclenoob thanks for the thought bout soap n water mix I have used that one on tires trying to find the slow leaks many times and found the valve stem to be the evil gremlin most of the time
Thanks again everyone
Here she is now! I'm turning the clubmans back over my back can't handle that kind of stretch...LOL
Robert

 

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Interesting! My reading of it was that they didn't work! I suspect that the anti dive on the Gold Wing is something far removed from our primative one :lol: