[Closed] Pike full extension with no air

Pump the fork up and down a bit with the valve pressed in
You still have some pressure in the negative let it even out then try again

As above, trapped negative air

Turn them upside down and undo the lower bolts then crack the shaft seals.
Sounds like you have negative pressure in the lowers.

Well they effectively are being sucked down by the air in the negative air chamber. You've only emptied the positive chamber but not the negative.

By letting all the air out the positive chamber, the negative air spring has pushed the air piston up past the transfer port (allows air to pass between the negative and positive chamber) and you physically can't extend the forks enough to get the piston back to the transfer port and allow air to pass between.

What to do is reinflate your forks to a bit below your pressure, bounce the forks to allow the chambers to balance. Then drop say 25psi, equalise the chambers again by bouncing them or even just pulling down the lowers and finding the point where the air piston is over the transfer port, should be able to hear the hiss of air transferring if you listen. Repeat until you have emptied both chambers then you should find extending the forks to be easy.

Just to clarify seen as some of the comments above don't really help if you don't understand the terminology.

The pikes have two air chambers in the air spring side, a positive which holds the fork up and is what you push against to give support and a negative, which pulls the fork down, gives small bump compliance, helps with stiction etc.

Don't take off the lower bolts as advised above, you haven't somehow created a massive vacuum in your lowers sucking down the stantions just by deflating your air chamber.

Don't take off the lower bolts as advised above, you haven't somehow created a massive vacuum in your lowers sucking down the stantions just by deflating your air chamber.

Because he's already said he's put a cable tie down the seals which would let out excess pressure or let in air to fill a vacuum.

Thanks for the help guys.

Ive just tried yours suggestion poloding along and explanation much appreciated. Pumped upto 65psi cycles the fork then droped 25 cycled again and kept coming down until no air left but they still seem to be sucking down and i cant get full extension. Ive tried it a couple of times now but stlll the same.

Ive also tried the depressed valve whilst cycling for the fork as suggested above but still the same.

The strange thing is i managed to get them to full extension with ease when i was calibrating the shockwiz this morning but i wanted to recalibrate and now cant for the life of me get them to fully extend.

Is undoing the bolts as mentioned singlespeedstu my best option?

Thanks

And you trust someone to do a good job of that that doesn't know why their fork is sucking down.
Even if you let all the air out in one hit a swift pull up between the arch and crown is enough to equalize the pressure and get full extension.
Edit.
OP just try the vacume release from the lowers.
It wont do any harm if it's not the problem.

To calibrate your shockwiz do not let all the air out and compress the forks to let more air out. Keep the forks at full extension when you reduce the pressure to zero.

To calibrate the shockwiz you need to be able to fully compress and fully extend the fork with the device in place, that is all that matters

And you trust someone to do a good job of that that doesn't know why their fork is sucking down.

At least he can spell vacuum.

But not get full extension on his fork.
Grammar/spelling pedants often know **** all about how stuff works. 😛
But i'm sure the OP has found your post helpful.

OP, when you are going down the pressures and equalising, are you pulling the forks to full extension and listening for the hiss of the air transferring on the way? The ports about 20% in.
Basically you need to be getting that transfer, can tell by the hiss or when the shock pump reading increases as air goes into the positive from the negative.

You can try Stu's suggestion if you wish, doing the cable tie down the seal will have achieved the same effect if done correctly. Also the vacuum pressure in the lowers may cause sag but should never be high enough to stop you extending them with a bit of force.

Really, try to ignore the bickering, just don't let so much air out. You only need to let enough out so you can hold the fork at full extension for three seconds then full compression for three seconds. If you let the air out whilst holding the fork at full extension you should be fine.

Finally sorted - Thanks all

Tried undoing the bolts. and tapping them to release the seals but still the same.

With your suggestion poloding along what i wasn't doing as you mentioned in your last post was pulling up until i hear the hiss. Now they can be fully extended with 0 psi with ease.

Thanks again guys.

One thing i did make a rookie error by undoing the airshaft bolt a little too much and the airshaft sucked back into the leg. I ended up having to take the tokens out whilst the forks upside down and push the airshaft up until i could get the lower leg bolt back in.

Would that of caused any issues do you guys think?

The forks feels fine.

Thanks

Rather than take the tokens out and physically pushed the shaft out, you could have just reinflated the fork to a much higher pressure and that would have pushed the air shaft back out.
Think of the two chambers as springs pushing against each other, with no air in the positive, the negative spring pushed the shaft all the way in.

Your concern now is that whatever you used to push the air shaft back out has scratched the inside of the stantion and will let air leak. As long as it wasn't something metal or sharp then you'll hopefully be ok. Just keep an eye on pressures for the first couple of rides.

Or you could have compressed the fork until you could get the bolt in. Another rookie mistake would have been not to invert the forks and have lost some oil.

Undoing the bolts was a red herring though, was never going to help

Yeah i did try compressing the fork all the way but the bolt just wasn't long enough.

Thinking about it re-inflating the fork would of been the better option Doh! ......I used a plastic rod same i used when i altered the travel a while back so hopefully all should be ok.

Ive just had a quick spin and the fork feels nice. Ill have a proper ride with the shockwiz tomorrow.

Thanks all 🙂