Was out last night and went off a small rock (about a 6" drop – nothing major)…on landing the bike gave an almighty crack – I thought it might be a stone flying up but wasn't…had a look at my shock a bit later on and the bottom of the air sleeve/can where the slider part of the shock goes into the can has the seal round the bottom of it sitting squint – the front of the unit it is seated properly but the rear of the unit has it almost squashed into the air can – on a brand new shock this air seal's edge runs parallel with the air can edge, but on mine it doesn't.

So I'm figuring the crack was something inside the shock but have no idea what (I've also no idea if that was where the crack came from) so was wondering how easy it is to disassemble and rebuild?

Not had a look on the Fox site yet for a how-to guide as I thought I'd ask here first and get first hand knowledge. also what do I need to disassemble and rebuild? Any fluids?

Thanks.

You can do the air can service but can not completely strip it down as it has nitrogen under high pressure which needs special equipment to replace. It needs to go off to either Mojo or TFT

Do an aircan service. It sounds like a seal might have moved/blown/burped to me. Very easy to do –

Deflate shock FULLY
Grab the aircan and unscrew from the body (Imagine you're unscrewing it from the bit where the adjusters and valve is) It should come off by hand but you might need a strap wrench
Remove shock from bike
Slip aircan off
Clean
New seals
Lube (Supplied with seal kit)
Reassemble
Refit

Ah ok, thanks…doesn't sound too difficult, thanks.

Good guide here

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/workshop-fox-rp-shock-service-25701

Nice link, thanks anjs…after reading that, is it easy enough to get the service kit?

Also noticed a mistake in my title – it's a RP23 not RP3 (whatever that is!).

Service kits are available from Mojo. Doesn't matter much weather it a 23 or a 3, they are pretty much identical for the purposes of this thread. 🙂

Hi

just one more thing, once you've replaced air seals and lubed everything pop the shock on to full slow rebound and turn propedal off, pop the air can onto the body tube/shaft and compress the shock, then push air can on and screw onto body.
This makes life loads easier. Mount the shock on the front shock mounts on in a vice to do this ( don't forget some protective jaws or bits of wood to protect the spacers!)

We have air can rebuild kits in stock too.

You need to check the Fox website for instructions on what to do if it "packs down" as this is pretty likely with a damaged seal.
There's a video on the Fox service guide site.
Basically you need a rag through the shock eyelet so that the sleeve doesn't shoot off like a rather large bullet…

You'll know if the shock is packed down as when you let all the air out, it won't return to full extension.

Any probs finding it let me know and I'll check if I have some info.

"Packed down"?? WTF was I thinking? "Stuck down" I meant! Doh.

Thanks for the info guys, didn't get round to it last night so will take a nosey at it tonight. The wiper seal at the bottom of the air can on the rod is squint – it seems fine looking at it from the top, but looking at the rear, it appears to be squashed and a much smaller distance between rod and air can (if that makes sense)…I think the seal has somehow managed to move out of position.

The shock seems to work perfectly well but I'm just wanting to know if having the wiper seal not sitting totaly square as it should would it be doing any damage? I can't tell if there are any gaps between rod and seal but it appears to be sitting tight against the rod so it appears to still be doing it's job.

I'm happy to take it apart but would prefer to leave it as I'm not convinced I'd do the job right (and as I don't have the seal kit I'm not sure I'd be able to 'sort' the existing one – got the fluid just not the seals). Out of interest, how much is the seal kit?

I suspect I'll be sending the shock off for a service at the end of the month so if the slightly misahped wiper isn't going to cause any damage for the next fortnight, I'll leave it as I'm sure it will be replaced with the service.

Thanks.

RRp on seal kit £10, part no: 803-00-142 but mail for price 😉
The wiper seal may have 'rolled' a bit hence it's not sitting straight. The other possible is the seal grooves in the air can have become distorted allowing the seal to move, however this is pretty rare and usually only happens in conjunction with the shock being stuck down/negatively charged and ridden for a while.