I’ve just done a lower leg service on my sektor RL gold fork. Solo air model.

Done it the way I’ve always done them, so release pressure, undo bolts at bottom and pull lowers off.

Then clean and re oil foams and refit.

Put lowers back on and fill with oil (6-7ml) of 15wt.

This time they feel horrendous, put same air pressure in as before and have no sag, but get past some initial stiction and the fork is blowing through its travel and now feels like a pogo stick.

Any ideas what I have done wrong ?

I’ve had some issues recently, but it was inability to achieve full travel after a lower leg service. It was the damper in my case. How this came to be, I don’t know, but putting the correct HEIGHT rather than volume of oil in the damper side fixed the issue.

I’m not sure that there isn’t some black magic at work on Sektor Golds. So I’m following this one with interest.

Put the shock pump on and check the pressure again.

Sounds like you didn’t equalise the positive and negative air chambers whilst pumping up, and now that they have equalised, the pressure is a lot lower than you need it to be.

Hi Mark.

I did that at 50psi and then again at 90psi.

Then took up to normal pressure of 110 and they feel shit.

Proper stiction for the first 40mm of travel and then woof blown the lot.

Well weird ?

Trapped air in the lowers?

How would I be able to tell that Paul?

Doesn’t sound like air but you could try burping them.

(1min)

Take em to bits and do it again?

What Jack said, you have got something wrong in there rebuild is the way to fix it.

Yes, do it again.

And do it properly this time.

Cheers all.
To be honest Im not sure where Ive gone wrong though.

Ive done loads of Rockshox lower leg servicing before on various models of fork and this is the only one thats give me issues.

Defo do it again, then if they’re still broken after the second go you know it’s (probably) nothing you did wrong.

Sounds like you’ve done it fine, the way I always do mine.. but something is obviously wrong, and if it only started after your service then the only way to find out is to do it again. Out of interest, did you take any of the air spring assy apart or just the legs off, clean and lubrication oil replacement?

Did you cycle the damper to remove any oil from it before reassembling?

How are you trying to equalise them? Did you release the second schraeder valve behind the air side foot nut before pumping them up?

CP. Lower legs only.

Honourable George can you explain please. I didn’t touch the damper just lowers.

Just pump the rebound damper rod up and down a coulle of times with the lowers off

It takes in the oil from the lowers through a wee hole – so it may be full of oil already, then when you add the specified oil volume it may have too much in there.

Cycling it should squirt out that oil. If you do it just right, you can get it all over your face and clothes.

It takes in the oil from the lowers through a wee hole

on Sektors? they aren’t open bath

Couple of misconceptions being put up on here:

Sektor soloairs don’t have a Schrader valve at the bottom – the only inlet/outlet for air is the valve at the top. I’m pretty sure this is the definition of ‘soloair’, but am willing to be corrected on that if anyone knows better.

The damper circuits do not borrow any oil from the lowers on these forks – the oil in the lowers is solely for lubrication – in any case it is a different weight of oil (15wt) compared to the damper oil (5wt), so there is definitely no sharing of oil between the lowers and the damper circuit(s).

Solo air Reba’s, and I assume other solo air forks, have a valve in the bottom of the air shaft to bleed air out of the negative air chamber (it is filled through the transfer port from the positive air chamber). Undo the foot nut on the air side and you should see the valve inside the bottom of the air shaft.

Agree on the lower/damper oil separation.

There are two different Solo Air systems:
– in the old one, as used in Sektors/Recons, and, until recently, Cannondale Lefty the piston moves a wee bit on the shaft and opens a valve
– in the new one, there’s a transfer port/dimple in the stanchion

Ok thanks for the info.

I will take the lowers off again later and have a look.

With regards to the lower schrader valve is there anything I would need to do after releasing any air from it?

Mine are 2016/17 models

Bit of grease stopping the negative/positive spring equalising?

Possibly, I need to take the air spring out and have a look I think.

Might drop them to 130mm travel if I do.

dannyh – Member

The damper circuits do not borrow any oil from the lowers on these forks – the oil in the lowers is solely for lubrication – in any case it is a different weight of oil (15wt) compared to the damper oil (5wt), so there is definitely no sharing of oil between the lowers and the damper circuit(s).

Prepared to be corrected here, but the compression damper is separate form the lowers as it’s a drop in unit that goes into the top of the CSU (the Sektor R doesn’t even have a damper, just a top cap) but the rebound rod does take oil from the lowers. Maybe I’m mixing up my forks, been a while since I looked in a sektor

Tip

Don’t deflate air forks when doing a lower service, when you reattach the lowers and reinflate it creates a vacuum in the lowers (acts like a secondary – spring), always reassemble with stanchions fully extended. I would still try again this time reattach the lowers but with stanchions aired up and fully extended.

I may try that however it says to remove all air as art of the service?

Maybe someting has changed but that throws the balance out between negative and positive, I know that for fact, it can easily be demonstrated on dual air forks.

Does it actually say that in the RockShox manual or are you following MBR video on you tube?

Does it actually say that in the RockShox manual or are you following MBR video on you tube?

Following the Rockshox manual.

Item 2 remove all air from the fork.

Just watched Rockshox vid and yeah they remove the air but when they reattach lowers the stanchions they are fully extended (this is the important bit), pointless removing air anyway and prevents stanchions compressing when reassembling.

Might not even be that^ but I’d try and rule it out

So I’ve got the form stripped down and there is no valve in the bottom of the airshaft.

I’ve also took the air shaft out ….

Can anybody see anything obviously wrong with it ?

Morning bump.

Stripped down the airshaft and rebuilt it with a couple of new o rings.

Also changed the spacer so now running 130mm instead of 140mm although the stanchion length hasn’t changed?

Built the fork back up and it seems a lot smoother.

Fingers crossed it may be sorted.

DO sektors have spacers to adjust travel rather than having to buy a different length air spring unit? Revs and Pikes you need to buy the length you desire, but not had sektors.

Yeah my sektors are solo air but with spacers to adjust travel.

hijack, not really worthy of new thread.

had a squishy shock (RS RockShox Monarch Plus RC3)

did a quick air can service clean up job, but then realised i had no 15wt 15 oil they recommend, they only use a teeeeny amount in the air can so i stuck a few drops of 2.5wt i got with a reverb in there… is this gonna be catastrophic?? have not ridden it yet

^^^ I ordered some 15wt oil but it has not arrived. I want to do riding now – will I die??

I imagine it will be fine as long as there is some sort of lubrication in there. Apologies if you die!