Forks compress but won't rebound

[BigBeau]

I have a 2003 Ktm 300exc with stock suspension. I just recently bought the bike and everything was working great. One day I went out and took the bike off the stand and felt something weird with the front end. After messing with it For a bit I discovered that any weight at all would compress the forks almost all the way and it wouldn' rebound at all, I have to pull up on the bars to get it to uncompress. I messed with the clickers and it helped a little buy not much. My only two guesses are the oil is low or the springs need to be adjusted, but i don't know much about suspension so any ideas will be extremely helpful.

[mog]

Fork binding due to bad fork alignment

[DEATH_INC.]

On 12/11/2017 at 9:21 AM, mog said:

Fork binding due to bad fork alignment

Wouldn't that make 'em hard to compress too? He does say "I discovered that any weight at all would compress the forks almost all the way"

I'm thinking more like a broken spring or 2.

[mog]

Yes that sounds serious

[E-TECH]

 Well I do not know where to begin, I will say the 03 fork is a disaster but it can’t be greatly improved .

[BigBeau]

Alright well I'll work on the alignment just in case. Don' know much about forks but I can watch some videos and check it out. But if newer forks are the answer, well riding on them as is cause damage to any part of the bike other than the forks themself? Won't be able to get new ones for a little bit

 

[jmfreeman535]

I'd begin by pulling the forks off the bike, and simply compressing each one by hand.  If one/both are super easy to compress and/or does not rebound, then it's time to open them up to see what's going on. 

I have a feeling whatever the problem is, it will be pretty obvious...like no springs inside.  Because that's really the only thing that I can't think of that would cause your problem.

 

And please DO NOT ride your bike until you resolve the problem.  Riding a bike with collapsed suspension is an accident waiting to happen.  Not to mention the fact that it would be terribly uncomfortable.  

[BigBeau]

3 hours ago, jmfreeman535 said:

I'd begin by pulling the forks off the bike, and simply compressing each one by hand.  If one/both are super easy to compress and/or does not rebound, then it's time to open them up to see what's going on. 

I have a feeling whatever the problem is, it will be pretty obvious...like no springs inside.  Because that's really the only thing that I can't think of that would cause your problem.

 

And please DO NOT ride your bike until you resolve the problem.  Riding a bike with collapsed suspension is an accident waiting to happen.  Not to mention the fact that it would be terribly uncomfortable.  

Alright that all makes sense, but the one thing that I can't figure out is for the first 2 weeks I had the bike the forks worked perfectly fine. I hadn't touched them or the front wheel. Then all of a sudden one day they weren't working properly. Any ideas?

[jmfreeman535]

The only other possible cause that I can think of is a broken spring perch.  But even then, I don't think it would be as drastic as what you are saying it is...both would have had to break.  And the likely-hood of them breaking at the same time is pretty much zero.

 

Anyway you can post a video of it?  I'm super curious...