Since it's fresh in my mind as I've just done it, I thought that I would write up this how-to for setting the rebound adjuster back to the factory baseline. Why would you do this? Well, maybe yours are off or one has more or less clicks than the other, or if you had your forks rebuilt and they didn't reset them correctly. I did it because when I did my last rebuild I didn't set the adjusters correctly and the clicks didn't match... No, you don't have to drain your fork oil to do this, but if you haven't changed it in a while, then maybe you should.
Ok, step one. Before you take the forks off (one at a time) make sure to loosen the top cap otherwise it's a bitch to try while they are off. If you are like me and you don't like marring the nice aluminum caps, then use some thick paper or thin cardboard with your wrench to loosen. Loosen the pinch bolts on the triples and remove your fork. You may have to work it back and forth with a downward motion and spread the lower triple carefully with a screwdriver or such. Next unscrew the cap the rest of the way and place the fork in your neat spring compressor tool. What? You don't have one of these?
Go buy one, worth every penny. If you do forks yourself without help, you will want this tool. Push the tube all the way down. Compress the spring to expose the jam nut fully on the damping rod. Now stick something underneath to keep it from falling down inside. Loosen the nuts by turning the damping nut clockwise and the cap nut counterclockwise. Unscrew the cap fully and remove. Now you want to back out the rebound adjuster fully. Then, turn it back in 15 clicks, this will give you 14 clicks of adjustment with one more at the top that doesn't quite click. You may wish to turn the adj back out again and then 15 clicks back in to be sure. Ok, now make sure the jam nut on the damping rod is threading all the way down...if it won't move then it's there. Next thread the cap back onto the damping rod until it is fully seated by hand. Now take your 14mm and 17mm wrench (damping nut / cap nut) and turn them toward each other to tighten just snug, don't break the frickin' thing... damping counterclockwise and cap nut clockwise. NOW, before you put the cap back on turn the adjuster out, you should get 14 clicks plus one that doesn't click, just tops out. If so you are all set, if not do it again. Raise your compressor tool so that the spring tension is released. Slide the tube back up and seat and screw the fork cap back on. Remove from the tool and tighten by hand. After you place the fork back in the triples, then you will tighten the cap but don't gorilla tighten it, just snug. Repeat with the other fork. Pics below.
Robert
