I just pulled my 1995 KX250 forks apart and ran into issues with reassembly.

No prob with the basevalve but when I pulled the rebound rod out of the cartridge I ended up with a copper washer that I don't recognize or see the utility in. Seems like it was in the open end of the cartridge but when I try to reassemble - it won't fit.

I'm trying to soften the KX forks over the small stuff. Just checking everything - including the midvalve. It's supposed to be a checkvalve setup but what I found was a 22 x .4 and a bunch of small spacer shims which I think were closing off or severely limiting the checkvalve action. I suspect this to be the harshness I feel in compression. Won't know untill I get her back together though.

I could pull the other one to check it out as well, but was hoping to do them 1 after the other instead. Really limited workspace....

 

Got any pics of the part and/or the assembly? While it's true that the washer in question might not be ultracritical, I've found that it's not good practice to discard parts without knowing exactly what they do or how they perform.

On those numerous spacer shims you mention, do they float and do they have a spring or such to provide some kind of control?

 

Like TNC said, a photo would help. I do have some photos of my disassembled KX forks.

edit: Or see if you can locate the part here:
https://www.kawasakiepc.com/SystemSe...TOKEN=72385850

Ride on
Brewster

 

Thanks for the help all. I finally just removed the other fork , broke it down and took a look. No copper washer in sight. Don't know where it came from (on the first one) or why it was there but apparently a mistake. The forks are plusher but only a bit with the alterations to the midvalve. I also removed 1 more large shim in the base valve (down to only 2) and increased the air gap from 100mm to 120mm.

Bout time to make up homemade subtanks to calm the initial hit. BTW - it's stinking fantastic on harder hits - rolls over them with ease. Still, way better than the stockers on the trail trash, but not as plush on the small stuff as my WP 43's were.

Thanks for the help all.

 

Just curious, dj...exactly which portion of your damper assembly are you referring to as the "mid valve"?

 

The 95 and beyond KX forks have a midvalve installed on the backside of the rebound piston. The 95 was supposed to be just a checkplate, the 96 and beyond forks had actual valving in place of the checkplate. Because the midvalve is an addition to the compression valving in the basevalve - most riders found their forks more plush when they replaced the midvalve shims with a simple checkplate arrangement which acts as a simple bypass valve and flows more oil on the compression stroke.

I found that my forks had the checkplate but also had several thick spacers which limited how far the checkplate could travel and therefor stiffened the compression circuit.

I also must admit to operator error. I took her out this am on one of my favorite rides (lots of trail trash plus a lot of moderate rocks and a few extremely hard hits) and found the forks to still be stiffer than I like. In the process of playing with my rebound clickers I also checked the compression clicker settings and found that I had left one of them in the fully closed position when I had them out. So, I set the compression clickers back to fully out and the forks behave much more to my liking. It's definitely plusher and more bottom resistant than my goldvalved KLX250 stock forks ever were.

It now becomes painfully obvious how bad the shock damping is. I've had the specs for a revalve of the shock all winter and never made it around to pulling it off. Now it becomes first priority.

 

Glad you found that clicker adjustment issue. Yeah, I was just making sure about your reference to the mid valve. It sometimes gets mistaken for the 2nd stage in a 3-stage compression setup. Sounds like you've gotten things sorted pretty well. You mention OEM damping/valving. It's amazing how many high end bikes still require revalving by many riders regardless of price.

 

I've never owned a bike that didn't require a revalve to fit me - KTM included. It's relatively simple work - wish more people would delve into it although that would put some tuners out of business.