Folks
Can anyone help my identify the forks in the.pics below, all I knew is what it’s on the stickers, so thats they are a manitou sx. But I don’t know the year or version, so don’t know which service manual to hunt down so I can get them working again.

Any.help would be appreciated

I would reckon late 90s. 98 maybe.

umm about 94. do you want to sell them?? You may think the bushings are worn out but dont worry they came that way.

1997. I had a set of Pro C from the same year.

94 was still in the days of manitou efc and the like. elastomers not even being cutting edge yet 🙂

they are pre V brake, they are 1995 or late 94 ones.. im sure they are.. the later ones were red and were a one piece cast lower.. these are the early bonded ones, they always did look ahead of there time.

97ish give or take a year. Whats wrong with them?

I have a couple of pairs of these on the shelf in the garage! The V brake only ones date from before 2001 I think – least the ones I bought in 2002 have disc fittings as well. I have one set with the carbon yoke – seriously trick back then!

v brakes came out in the 1996 range. several forks still had an arch cable stop for a year or two after that.

na it defo 95/96

I had a pair like this the pro c ones

undo the bolts the ends of the legs and pull

I think the cartridge is not that serviceable

bushings are plastic

puttting in greece use to help

I’m fairly sure this is the manual so 1997

http://www.digitalimit.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Answer-Manitou-Manual.pdf

jumpupanddown – Member

na it defo 95/96

probably right – just checked the oldest set I have from the late nineties and they don’t have the arch cable stop

i had the cheap version for Xmas 95

This suggests 96
http://dougal.co.nz/dougal.co.nz/forkfaq.html

pretty certain 95 was efc forks

96 here too

http://mombat.org/Suspension.htm

i had the magnum.. they were **** shit..

They came on a 94 kona I’ve just bought. 95/96 is probably a good guess, recon the were probably fitted as an upgrade.

I think they just need a service as they are stiff, once I’ve checked them out and am happy they are working properly I’ll be selling them as I’m replacing them with a set of RC31s

I think they just need a service as they are stiff, once I’ve checked them out and am happy they are working properly I’ll be selling them as I’m replacing them with a set of RC31s

how much do u want?

I haven’t got a clue what they are worth, so I’m open to an offer

They have a 1 1/8 threaded steer tube bye the way. 165mm long I think.

These are definitely from 94. I had a set of these which I bought in San Francisco – a place I have only been to once – in 1994.

I have vague idea that I saw the manual for these sometime in the recent past – I can have a look when I get home at the weekend if you like. The bike with the forks on was stolen in about 1996 but being the hoarder that I am I don’t throw anything out.

I think they just need a service as they are stiff

They were always like this – at the time they were a vast improvement over the solid forks they replaced, but by the standards of todays forks they were positively agricultural.

I’d say the 1994-1996 folk are right. By 98 they had post disc mounts and no cable hanger for cantis.

They were also totally crap.

My first proper MTB came with a set of ’98 Spyders, they were awful, the only fork I’ve managed to bottom out hard enough that the brake arch dented the bottom headset cup!

Pretty damn sure those are 97’s

i had (and still have) the first production SX’s which came out in 96. these had yellow plastic preload adjusters, black bonded arch lowers with a cantilever boss.

the 97’s had the red top caps, and the 98’s had one piece cast lowers.

So far the 97 manual seems to match up, got the uppers and lowers split now. No wonder they were stiff the grease on the stanctions had turned into glue! Although it’s probably been in there 16+ years

These are 97’s I’d say – they came specced on the very first 1997 Marin Mount Vision and 1997 Marin Quake FRS bikes.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26193

This is great timing, as I’m now refurbing an SX that looks nearly identical to yours. The only difference is that yours has the brake cable hanger on the arch, but mine is V-brake only. By the way, I bought mine NOS years ago and mine were a 1997 model. By 1998, Manitou went to TPC damping and a much more rounded arch.

I’m stuck on the rebuild though (help)
… trying to find out how to separate the bottom casting from the fork tubes. The screw is removed from the bottom of the right leg, but still it doesn’t come apart. Is there a screw inside the tube (i.e. going in from the top) that has to be loosened up?

Also, I found the service manual on the ‘net, but it says nothing about how high to fill it with oil. Manitou suggests adjusting oil weight or volume for tuning, but with no specs at all???

There is a bolt in the bottom of each leg, if you’ve only removed one you may have missed the one under the damper adjuster knob.

All you need to do is wrap a wrag around the dmaper knob then grab it with a pair of pliers to pull it off. Once off you will see a 8mm allen key bolt, un screw that and the forks should come to bits

I moved the picture (above) and don’t know how to edit the post, so …

Thanks for the reply Dvatcmark.
Looking at the blow up I have, I don’t see another screw, but they label something under the adjuster as “damper drop out nut”. It looks like it may be threaded. Is this what yours had?

–

Hows your rebuild going? Did you get to the point of re-filling with oil? I searched the ‘net on this, and found another person wondering about oil level, but no suggestions anywhere.

I hesitate to guess on oil level, because they will supposedly generate air bubbles if under-filled. Not sure if over-filling could do any harm. Maybe I’ll try calling them.

I’ d say 96ish my Mt Vision (one of the first batch in the country) came with the V brake version fitted.

I’ve reached the same point in the rebuild, the oil! Having the same problem trying to work out how to put the oil in. at the moment they are re built with no oil, they are nice and free moving but a little too springy!

1997 had a pair on a Marin Mount vision pro.

so I can get them working again.

Good luck – they didn’t really work much when they where new!

I’ve got same but a 1″ tube. My old one blew the cap off on a ride, turned out the oil/grease had solidified. Could not find another with a 1″ tube, but eventually found a 1 1/8″ to buy and just put the newly acquired legs on the 1″ steerer/crown. Probably in desperate need of service now….

Filling the damper with suspension fluid – –

It must be free of air. Manitou set this up for bleeding it fairly easily too.
1. fill it most of the way, and stroke it until you don’t see bubbles anymore. There is an inlet hole in the damper rod that should not get above the oil while doing this, or you’ll pull in more air.
2. fill it up to about half way up the threads
3. temporarily remove the O-ring from the cap nut. Note: the nut has a bleed hole in the side, and the O-ring would otherwise cover this.
4. hold the nut in a position with the bleed hole facing up.
5. rotate the fork leg onto the nut. The fork leg should be at about 45 degrees from vertical when doing this.
6. when the nut is nearly full on, it will burp out the last bit of air and fluid. At this point, install the O-ring, and tighten to 30 – 50 in-lbs. Nut us 15/16”, but used a 24mm that worked well.

I used Golden Spectro 5 Weight 85/150 Fork Oil, which worked well with the adjustment turned to minimum.

I used a white synthetic Teflon grease on areas that needed something thick for high pressures, or for sealing. For other areas, I used M-Prep which is thinner, for less drag.

One issue that came up was … in the left leg, the coil spring and blue bumper below it had to be pushed out because the spring connectors (i.e. cups) were too tight in the tube. The fork previously felt stiff to me, and I believe this is why. Using a utility knife and very fine tooth file, I reduced the diameter of these Nylon parts to make them fit.

Some people comment that this was never that good of a fork, but after this rebuild, it really performed well for a short travel fork. Now the action is very smooth, and well damped. It rolls right over rocks and roots without drawing attention to itself. Plus, it feels more progressive than the air fork I have.

2wheels2 has it spot on. I’d guess thosr are 96 year forks. Ive still got a set of the original mach 5 sx forks from 95. My first set of suspension forks. Not bad for the time, but pretty flexible. The elastomer stack blew out of one leg blew out on two separate occasions!