Oh dear – Servicing these for a mate – just as I had finished I noticed this. Problem is I was given them in good faith. I cannot for certain say that I did not cause this in transit. So unless I can source a set of lowers – I guess I had better get a new fork… crikes.
Yes the uppers are hardly pretty either! But work fine.

the crack across looks dirty, not new. I’d say it had been there a while.

It’s the top mount so the forces are towards the fork leg and it might not be noticed riding.

the uppers are scrap too.

It’s a setup. He probably temp glued the lug back together, knowing the slightest knock would cause it to fall apart.

*tinfoil hat*

i’ve run a old set a recons with similar wear to the uppers, the brake mount is not the end of the world. you could bond a adaptor to them possiblly even pin it. but it would be easier to source another pair of lowers, try some of the fork servicing guys they have probably binned better ones 😀

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/reba-uturn-team-90-120mm-fork-pics

OMG.

When he asked you to service them, why didn’t you just tell him to buy some new ones? I wouldn’t touch a set with that much stanchion damage.

Those are some pretty horrific forks. Bin. Simple as.

The lowers are fubared, and the uppers are going to let all sorts of rubbish into the internals.

Talk to your mate. It’s highly unlikely to have been caused by your actions, given the overall condition of the forks, unless you remember mishandling them/ dropping them badly in transit. If I was asking a friend to service some well-used forks, presumably for little or nothing, I wouldn’t be pointing the finger in those circumstances.

EDIT – god, didn’t see the stanchions, thought that was an effect of the lighting. Did he really expect you to be able to produce a worthwhile service.

OMG.

When he asked you to service them, why didn’t you just tell him to buy some new ones? I wouldn’t touch a set with that much stanchion damage.

Those are some pretty horrific forks. Bin. Simple as.

Don’t understand this.

The OP has already said they work fine.

So, if your forks looked worn, but they still performed fine – you’d bin them?

More money than….?

Some forks come with disc monts like that out of the box id still ride them.

They certainly look Fubared, however, given the direction of leverage on the disc mount, you could get away with riding them if you so chose.

had a Rev fork go on me…. not at the brake mount, but the QR tab! took a nice tumble down some rocks somewhere in Austria. i ended up getting new lowers from RS at trade price.

“god, didn’t see the stanchions, thought that was an effect of the lighting. Did he really expect you to be able to produce a worthwhile service”

Yes they will work fine, but they will still be worthless and ****.
the main issue will be the seals won’t sit against the stantions so they will let crap in and ruin the stant….. oh yeah 😆

There are some Reba lowers on flatout cycles I think.

Ask your mate if they were like that before you spend any money on them.

Grandad and the emergency canary springs to mind.

Don’t understand this.

The OP has already said they work fine.

So, if your forks looked worn, but they still performed fine – you’d bin them?

More money than….?

Well, no. But you’ll replace all the seals, as they’ve let in dirt and the oil has turned to brown water, so they feel like rubbish.

But as the stanchions are so worn, they don’t marry up to the wiper seals, so they let your new oil out, and dirt back in, which ruins your new internal seals, and your forks either stop working or feel like rubbish again.

You could lacquer them, but your results will properly vary, as you’ll mess up the sizing between the bushes and the stanchion, as I’m assuming that lovely destruction is present all down the stanchion.

More money than sense is spending £30 servicing them every few muddy rides, than buying a cheap fork from Merlin for £130 that works properly.

Each to their own though, but I prefer a fork that works as intended, rather than by the magical properties of grit and mud lubing my stanchions 😉

If everything else works i’d keep riding them. I’d take a bit of care when tightening it all up but there’s enough meat left on there to hold the brake. With braking forces in your favour i really can’t see it causing any issue. They are tatty though.

just a min, Its got a lipseal around the top. This isnt a bushing if the sanction is worn then it should still function. if its scratched then you will have sealing issues.

Well, no. But you’ll replace all the seals, as they’ve let in dirt and the oil has turned to brown water, so they feel like rubbish.

But as the stanchions are so worn, they don’t marry up to the wiper seals, so they let your new oil out, and dirt back in, which ruins your new internal seals, and your forks either stop working or feel like rubbish again.

You could lacquer them, but your results will properly vary, as you’ll mess up the sizing between the bushes and the stanchion, as I’m assuming that lovely destruction is present all down the stanchion.

More money than sense is spending £30 servicing them every few muddy rides, than buying a cheap fork from Merlin for £130 that works properly.

Each to their own though, but I prefer a fork that works as intended, rather than by the magical properties of grit and mud lubing my stanchions

That makes perfect sense and I agree, but

Yes the uppers are hardly pretty either! But work fine.

would not be the case if

as they’ve let in dirt and the oil has turned to brown water, so they feel like rubbish.

But as the stanchions are so worn, they don’t marry up to the wiper seals, so they let your new oil out, and dirt back in, which ruins your new internal seals, and your forks either stop working or feel like rubbish again.

Yes the uppers are hardly pretty either! But work fine.

Define ‘Work Fine’ 😉

Do they just go up and down? When did the damage get bad enough to let dirt in?

Like I said, totally up to anyone how they deal with damage. I service my lowers every month, and do an oil change once a year in the damper. So I don’t have that problem, and costs me about £20 a year in oil.

With a stanchion and seal that don’t mate up properly, that’d be more expensive to keep them running how they should.

But, given Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle those Rebas may well work as well as a 2014 RS Pike RCT3 for the rest of time.

Or maybe they’ll turn into a owl…. who knows?

You could reduce the travel…to 8mm.

And that disc mounts been broke for a long time. Still useable, unless your mate rides backwards a lot.

Any clever ideas how I could fashion something from a block of aluminium to make the top bolt hold more secure?
Like a small bolted plate to outside of tab to stop backwards move out. The hole is not quite by enough for the bolt to pop out, but not by much.

I wouldn’t think the brake mount would cause any harm.
Lefty brake mounts are open and I haven’t had any issues with my front brake dropping off.

That’s an interesting pic! Many thanks.