So I have a set of 2010 fox float 36 forks, Last year I got some old stock stanchions from Mojo with a 1.5in steerer for £50. Works absolutely brilliantly on my Intense tracer 2.

Unfortunately the internals have always been a bit flaky, the old school none-inverted FIT damper blows up like a balloon and becomes more like a spring and the air piston has the common issue of letting all the fork oil into the air chamber.

So the fork doesn’t really work very well – but I didn’t want to change it because I love the chassis as it is and you can’t get the 1.5in sheerer standard anymore. Also I can’t afford (or want) to change my headset and stem as well as forks.

So I found an inverted FIT damper on ebay for £100. No problems there as it’s the one they made to retrofit onto pre 2011 forks (they have changed the threads on the uppers)

I also found a 2014 air spring and negative plate for £60. This I was less sure about but I thought for the price I would take a punt.
Bugger – I’d forgotten this; Fox increased the internal diameter of their stanchions (probably to save weight) and neither the spring nor the plate will fit inside.

Instead of doing the sensible thing at this point and trying to return the parts I thought sod it – lets get the electric sander out and see if we can MAKE them fit.

So took off the scraper seals (noticing they seemed identical in diameter to the one from the original spring) – clamped the sander in a vice and slowly turned the air piston to remove material. Eventually got the piston to slide inside the stanchion using the old piston as a guide to how much play there should be. After putting the scraper seals back in I did notice a fair bit more stiction than the old piston but then there are double the number of seals…?

Followed a similar process to make the negative plate fit – put it all back together, pumped it up and discovered I only had 150mm of travel. No problem. Disassemble and cut 10mm off the shuttle bumper with some scissors. Voila – 160mm.

Round the block test feels pretty good, although I am now wondering whether I should have removed some material from the piston behind the scraper seals. This may account for the increased stiction.

Anyway I will take it for a spin this afternoon and see what happens.

ultimate bodge, but let us know of it explodes some time in the next few weeks!

ultimate bodge, but let us know of it explodes some time in the next few weeks!

Sounds like an interesting bodge to me although I have no idea what you did.

Good luck with it.

Leave the original air spring in there 😉

Its garbage though! 2 rides and the air chambers full of oil

Its an old fork – whats the worst that can happen…. 🙂

Let me know if you need any help with your forks I use a lathe to turn my pistons down and turn the lower legs to fit neg spring and retaining spring. If anyone else is struggling with compatibility issues on fox or other forks get in touch.
Cheers mike 07971275184

Cant say I’ve had the problems with the fit damper and oil leaking you’ve had (2010 36 Float FIT RC2) but in an effort to get that extra bit of travel out of them that they rarely use I followed some instructions I saw somewhere about lowering the air side piston by taking about 5/10mm off it to effectively increase the size of the air chamber. Removed the piston head, used a small pipe cutter to take a bit off the tube, re-drilled it then re attached the head. Rebuild and test..

Sod all difference!!

To be fair though I did notice I’d used that travel after going off a drop that was bigger than I thought, so it is there for emergency purposes only though 🙂

I like your bodge though. No reason it wont work as long as the seals hold on the reduced piston head. Job well done.

Its garbage though! 2 rides and the air chambers full of oil

Is the air chamber wall scored & have you changed the air seal?

turn the lower legs to fit neg spring and retaining spring.

That’s quite a large lathe…

Is the air chamber wall scored & have you changed the air seal?

Changed both the stanchions and the scraper seal last year – no difference. Mine was the piston with just one scraper seal and no foam ring – the new one has 2 scraper seals.

As an update in case others were thinking of trying this bodge-mod….Looking good so far and has transformed the bike.

Main benefits are the fork no longer dives all the time and I can run the bike with a lot less sag, propping the front end up more. On top of this I now use almost all my travel with out dropping off roof tops. Its supple, has lost no air pressure and the air chamber oil is still nice and blue. i.e. not contaminated with oil from the lowers.

Just to reiterate – I did swap to an inverted FIT damper at the same time (one which is actually a damper and not another spring – i.e. when you push the rod all the way in… it stays in and doesn’t want to fire back out). So this I’m sure has also had an effect on the performance of the fork.

Real triggers broom of a fork now – only the lowers, and schrader valve are original.

Excellent 😀 , the second scraper was a fix for the fluid transfer issue that occurred on a few of the forks when the foam ring was fitted.

Perhaps the old single seal piston had a crack in it leading to the air loss, not unknown.

The inverted FITs are pretty good, we’ve fitted a number of these in the older 36s (pre 2011) and they make a really difference, worth doing if the chassis is still in good condition.