First off, I should say that I already know the answer to my question: throw the **** thing in the bin, write off the 200 person hours I’ve spent on it and litre of fork oil, and go place an ad in the wanteds for a rockshox.

However, I want to have one last try… I’m doing a shabby parts bin build and I want to make it work. The problem I have is that when I put the type 2 (deliberately mystical and unhelpful naming) damping oil in the right leg the fork ceases to rebound properly – it returns very very slowly. If anyone is still reading… Does this point to anything obvious that I can tweak before I bin it?

I used to have a Thor that was brilliant. Sold it on a bike. This one (same 2010 model) has always been a sod.

Thanks.

Type 2 is very thick isn’t it? Are you sure that’s right for the damping oil? That might be for the lower leg lube…

I’m fairly sure I used to use 5wt for the damper on my old Laurins.

Thanks. Hmm. I had the same thought, but the type 2 is what’s specified.
I tried some 5wt in one of my earlier attempts to get the bloody thing working – no joy.
Fork seems to work fine just with the air and no damping oil, but I’m not going to chance it in use.

What happened when you tried 5wt?

With no oil in the damper it should be like a pogo stick, so I wonder if somethings binding. Swollen seal or something?

With 5wt it went solid and wouldn’t compress.
You might on to something there. Thought maybe something on the damper side was blocked and not allowing oil to flow but everything looks clean.
Pretty confident that the air side is working fine.

If it boings up and down with some air in the air chamber then the air side is working fine!

I’ll bet the lockout is seized in the on position, or there’s something blocking the damper shim-stack. Only option is to disassemble the damper to check.

I enjoy fixing things, and find it hard to give up but after 200hrs I’d be heading towards the bin!

My 2008 Laurins are in the garage, looking cosmetically very poorly. However the damper is probably working so if you can be bothered to do some research into whether they’re compatible I’ll happily exchange the damper for a few beer tokens + postage.

I also have a fox 32 vanilla r qr 140mm with some stanchion wear (hey – it’s a fox!) going spare. Still buttery smooth…

I meant 20 hours (but it feels like 200).
I’ll have another look at the shim stack, though I also suspect the rebound unit might have seen better days. To be honest I’d probably do well just to dump the thing, but I can’t help trying to fix it.
Thanks for the fork offers. I need a 20mm thru axle though.
Thanks for your help.

Hurrah. Think the rebound adjuster had seized. Managed to get it moving again and now things are functioning a bit more like they should. Now, how long will it last…. Before I inevitably buy another fork.