Originally Posted by rdeppen

I do the bleed method.

Fill the shock, piston at bottom.

Put the bladder in the cap seated as best you can.

Screw the cap on about 50 % and then position the bleed hole up so your holding the shock on an angle with the bleed hole as the highest flat point.

Slowly rotate the shock body closed if the shock is good and full you should start to get some fluid weeping out. As soon as fluid starts to come out slowly push the piston up. More fluid should push out. Once the piston is at the top tighten the cap the rest pf the way. I try to build shock with as little rebound as possible. With a normal bladder they will even pull back in slightly when fully extended and usually have no more then 10-15% rebound tops. With the webbed bladders you wont get as much rebound.

If you get excessive rebound slowly unscrew the shock body (again while holding the bleed hole up) until you get a purge of fluid or air. If you did it right you'll only get fluid. If you nail it first time you wont need to do this step.


The other way and I'm not a fan of but a lot of people do it is to just simply put the piston at the bottom, fill the shock and push the bladder down on top of the shock body and displace the extra oil. Then just screw the cap down tight. You'll end up with a lot more rebound but some prefer that method