Help w/ fork stiction & advice for fork sag - MXT Lucky's

[DirtBikeHead]

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a set of the lucky carbob cartridges. Also had the shock revalved and "the tank" put on. 

I installed the lucky cartridges onto my 2017 KTM 250sx that is setup for technical, rocky eastern PA woods.  The suggested preload is 6-8 mm, I ended up with 7.3mm on one side & 6.7mm the other. Oil level: 100mm

It felt great the first ride but then I noticed a lot of stiction when sitting on the bike in the garage. More than what I'd consider normal. I went through a bunch of ways to try to resolve it like adding grease to the seals, re-aligning front axle, re-torque triple clamp bolts etc. No different.  

I just tried something different,  I used my sag scale on the front forks and it looks like they're sagging about 40mm. I think I remember reading that 25mm is typical target range. Does this mean my issue could be not enough pre-load or likely non related. 

The other possibility is my fork bushings. I didn't replace them at the time because they looked great. In hindsight, it should have been a no brainer to change them!! They were the original ones with 58 hours. 

Any help with preload and front sag targets and stiction would be greatly appreciated!

[Piney Woods]

I think you already know the answer. At least a big part of it anyway! I would stick with OEM.

[DirtBikeHead]

I'll go order some oem bushings ?‍♂️

[willbilly]

Are you sure your forks are parallel? Axle not pulling forks together on the bottom. If that checks out I have noticed less “stiction” after installing the SKF Glide kit. 

[Techteach]

Skf seals and new bushings makes a big difference.

[DirtBikeHead]

I did install the SKF seals, just didn't change the bushings. 

I also have the fork alignment tool from MotionPro to double check the front axle alignment.