I’m in the process of giving my Pike Charger Damper a full on strip down and rebuild service as the damping of the shock just suddenly stopped working so something is amiss. Upon dismantling I noticed the damper just was not functioning and as I slid the piston shaft it offerd up no resistance and made a squelchy sound and when the damper was taken apart it was clear the oil quantity was very low. That tallied with there being a lot of oil in the lowers, so obviously oil has got out of the damper and into the lowers.

Upon inspection as I’ve been dismantling the shock I’m struggling to find signs of any failed seal or eveidence of a leak or leak path – all looks spotlessly clean and all find and dandy. I’m pretty sure I’ve read either on here or other forums, that there has in the base been an issue with Charger dampers leaking, so I’m interested in understanding what the problem was and what component has either failed or needs replacing to fix the issue. Can anyone enlighten me?

The forks are over 2 years old and only just failed hence the rebuild, so they’ve had a decent life of abuse and working fine, so they’ve not done badly.

Thanks.

It’ll be the head seal at the bottom of the Charger. They all do it so when you get a service kit, make sure it has the uprated 2017 seal. TFT do it in their kit.
Like this
https://www.shockcraft.co.nz/charger-damper-skf-seal-head-for-pike-lyrik-sram.html

I blew a hole in my bladder, no signs up there?

Thanks guys. The bladder looks fine so probably not that. I’ll check for the updated head seal. The forks are of a 2014 vintage and I’m using the seal kit that came with it, so probably best to get a new one to be sure. It’s lasted over 2 years and only blew a few weeks ago so it’s not done too badly.