Over the past few months my Manitou Marvel Pro’s have become ‘sticky’.

Ive got the service manual from Manitou. It lists all the steps such as air piston service etc etc..

But how far to go to just remove the unwanted stiction? Do I really need to do the MRD damper service and the ISO air chamber service?

I was hoping to get away with just splitting the fork and re-greasing the dust/wiper seals? Would this be sufficient?

Also, it only mentions semi-bath oil for lubrication, would you not want to get the dust seals covered in fork grease or is oil sufficient?

Thanks all.

The service manual should say what level is needed at what interval.

I think RS and Fox say a lower leg is needed every 20-50 hours of riding. That includes taking the lowers off cleaning and regressing the wipers and seals and changing the lubrication oil.

And a full service should be done every year. Which includes replacing all air spring o-rings and damping oil.

Although most people do neither and just ride it till it breaks. I tend to do a lower leg service a few times a year and full service every year.

Depending on how long its been since the last full service a lower leg service should sort you out. If the seals are old then it might be worth replacing with new ones rather than just cleaning them.

They have only had about 15hrs since new, so I will just do a re-lube of the current seals and lower leg oil.
Hopefully that should sort it. I doubt the oil needs changing as they have not had 1 proper wet ride yet.

I should undertake an semi bath service every month according to the Rockshox service interval recommendations vs my riding. In practice I do it every 3 months(ish) and change the damping oil every year. I try to extend the semi bath serice by religiously cleaning the stanchions with a few drops of chain lube after every ride. It’s seems to work out.

I only every change seals when they are obviously leaking. What’s the point otherwise?

Ah OK didn’t realise they were new. Hopefully a clean and re-grease should fix your problem.

Another thing to keep them running smooth is to put a few drops of chain oil around the seals, pump fork a few times and wipe off excess. You can get some specialist oils for this but I find chain oil works fine too and is much cheaper.

Flip ’em upside down and give ’em a jiggle. After only 15 hours they should be just springing to life.

Well its ended in tears…

So I follow the various guides and found I could not remove the compression rod nut at the bottom of the left leg, it just spun around.

I had to re-essemble and re-inflate the fork to 125psi then remove the nut. (I was pooping myself while doing this!) First hurdle dealt with.

Then when attempting to remove the wiper seals there is a hidden spring ring that nobody mentions, so that’s now bolloxed and crushed. Darn it.

Re-inserting the stanchions into the lower legs and moving them they feel OK, but moving the compression rod up and down feels a bit sticky.

So I attempt to remove the 2mm bolt at the top of the right leg to get the compression assembly, it rounds off immediately.!!! I’m not heavy handed at all, it must be just a cheap arsed bolt.

I’m so annoyed.. Gonna be a sent to TF tuned now as if anything else goes wrong I’ll end up throwing them through the window in a rage.. 👿

So much for giving it a go myself.. 😳
I failed.. 😥