Hey guys,

I have a TXT 280 2008 model with the 40mm Marzocchi forks which after they have had the oil seals and dust seals replace they feel a bit hard and the rebound is a bit on the slow side. The seals were replace by a marzocchi specialist so I'm pretty sure they are done right but my friend also had his oil seals done on his 2010 TXT 250 at the same time and his feel a lot softer and rebound quicker.

The oil weight which was used in mine was ipone 5wt with a 165mm air gap (as recommended by GasGas for my weight).

I'm not sure whether there were some changes to the two different years on the forks but I would love mine to feel like my friends. As far as I'm aware the springs haven't been changed in my forks (I did pull them out to check and they were a dark brownie sort of colour).

I'm not sure whether they also need to bed in but I've used them for a couple of rides and they still seem to be the same?

I have the rebound adjuster all the way out, same as compression (which is the same on my friends). If someone could point me in the right direction on what to check or what it could be that would be great.

Thanks a lot in advance

The most important question is are you getting full travel up an down?

I'd look into an alignment issue ("stiction"), if the forks worked o.k. before the work was done.

I'd loosen all the fasteners (especially the fork brace and axle) except the top triple-clamp bolts

and work from the top down, pushing on the forks to "center" them with each new set of fasteners

tightened. The fork brace is always last.

Jon

I had sticking forks on a KTM EXC and that was down to me not setting them in the triple clamps correctly as above post. I loosed clamps slighlty and moved left to right whilst compressing forks, then tightened clamps only to find they were ok.

You could turn rebound off as they are usually turned right off on these forks to make them springy soft.

<p>Misalignment and a stiction are not the same thing, stiction is friction that resists surfaces moving.</p>

<p>Aligning the forks minimises stiction.</p>

B40rt brought up a good point. A lot of after market seals have terrible stiction, so not so smooth a stroke. No matter how great a mechanic did the job, lousy seals can be a bummer.

Thanks for the replies guys. I havnt had time to look at these yet, I will hopefully later today! If it helps, the seals were Athena ones. I always thought that they were OK?

From a dealer perspective Athena seals sell well world wide. Greater number of sales and profit. Almost no matter the brand OEM seals are usually better for the rider.

Hey guys, Thanks again for all your help. I think that the brace for the mudguard might have been bent. It was pretty tight to undo the bolts when the axle was in. Got the file out to the holes and sprayed some silicon spray onto the legs so this lubricated the dust seals a bit and they seem a lot better now!

Cheers