Stripped down my forks a few weeks back but only got round to carrying out the service and rebuild today, although looking at the stanchion damage probably a little to late!

Stanchion Wear 001 by mrsbotticelli, on Flickr

Everything went OK, but I seem to have two parts in the box of bits I collected during the strip down that I haven’t used.

One is a split washer, key ring type piece and the other is best described as a cup with a hole in…hopefully the photos below will help.

Fork service leftovers 001 by mrsbotticelli, on Flickr

Fork service leftovers 002 by mrsbotticelli, on Flickr

So, are they parts of the forks? (Fox Van R’s circa 2006/7)

If not, what are they…they must be bike related and the obvious option would be something to do with the headset, but I’m not sure what.

Any ideas?

They go in the bottom of the stanchion.
On my 40’s they are fitted to spring side, black cap fits in as it is sitting and spring clip is located in groove in stanchion bore.

😆

Thanks Bren, you confirmed what I feared…guess I’ll just have to sort it tomorrow, hopefully in the sun with a beer.

What’s my best option; Turn the forks upside down, undo the bottom nuts and lift of the lowers fit the missing bis and rebuild? Or, just pull the spring section from the top with the forks the right way up?

They’ll go in from the bottom, probably not even possible to get them in via the top.

Must be OEM version as mine has a 50p.

Drac, definitely OEM and im guessing yours aren’t Kashima ones as they come with a £2 😉

Can I get away with
Inverting the forks
Undoing the nuts on the bottom of the lowers
Lift of the lowers
Fit the two parts
Slide back on the lowers
Refit nuts

Or will this result in oil everywhere?

Does any have a picture of where this parts should be?

Thank for the help, will attempt a fix when I’m back from a ride through the bluebells with he family.

Interesting how that previous post formatted, didn’t look like that in the preview 😕

You’re gonna loose some oil so I would just treat it as another oil change service.

Remove the preload cap and spring.
Strip the lowers off.
Refit the cap and split ring which you forgot to fit initially.
Give the foam rings a soak in either float fluid or 10wt oil as Fox recommend now then refit.
Refit lowers to stanchions but don’t enter fully.
Refit spring and preload cap.
Fill with required oil volume and weight.
Enter forks and tighten base nuts to required torque crush washers should be ok.

Think the above is right but no doubt if I’m wrong I will be told in the usual STW way!

what the hell has happened to the page formatting?!

Retro – you’ve lost me?

Drac, definitely OEM and im guessing yours aren’t Kashima ones as they come with a £2

Kashima. I have the Platinum one with the £5 coin in the bottom.

Drac, you want to change that coin for a note will be quite a weight saving 😉

Bren, feared a full strip was going to be he answer…hope I can tell where the two ‘spare parts’ go once I have the fork apart.

Retro, I assume you saw the strange two tone formatting on my post where it looked like I had quoted the first paragraph and then added the rest. All looks normal now, although the bullet points on my list don’t appear.

Will try and sort the forks during the week, spent all day riding with the family, eating ce cream and drinking beer! 😀

Thanks for all the help with this (and a big thank you to Loco for the help he gave me on the phone) forks are rebuilt complete with the missing bits!

However, it couldn’t be that simple and have another question 🙂

If I compress the forks, then let them rebound everything seems fine, but if I then lift the bars the forks extend by about 5mm. Any idea why?

I think I’ve had a eureka moment! 😮

Which way is the cup meant to be fitted, cup facing up into the upper stanchion, or cup facing down?

I can’t remember which way I fitted it, but have a feeling I had it with the cup facing up the stanchion, which would make the stop for the spring to push down against about 1cm longer than if the cup is facing down. That would explain the fork not completely extending on rebound.

Does that make sense? Will have to strip it and check 😡

Cup facing up.

Thanks LoCo, is that as in the image on the right?

Fork Leg by mrsbotticelli, on Flickr

cup up

Cheers LoCo, thought that was what you meant but wanted to be sure.

Was confused as there was wear on the outside bottom (oh ere!) of the cup and none on the inside.

Pretty sure that’s the way round that I fitted it…which means I’m still not sure why I’m not getting full extension on rebound.

At least we now know why there was oil squirting out of the seals in the Alps last year…

Indeed, a costly lesson in not putting off maintenance. I had the service kit before the Alps but just didn’t get round to getting it done, and the result is a lot of leaking oil, knackered stanchions and a squashed spring.

Hopefully, they’ll hold out for this years trip as well!