shock from the 93 k5 evidently had some pitting in the shaft, was gonna be a huge expense to rebuild it(shaft from Kaw is 400 some odd $)
found a few shock on ebay and stuff, but you never know till its in your hands if its any better.
so the 01 kx250 shock was goin in there one way or another...it took a little ball peen modification to the pipe to get the gas res. to clear the pipe, but it wasn't that bad, its in and everything is bolted in and the muffler is on.
don't know the valving differences, but it felt pretty good for the bounce test. still need to set the sag, that'll be a first, but I think its gonna work. had to rotate the pipe mounts a little, and I hope the pipe still sits flush in the cylinder, but....we'll see