I’m trying to service my 2008 Reba Team Dual Air with some difficulty.
I’ve serviced other (coil) RS forks before, and I’ve been following the instructions on the service manual, and the Youtube videos.

Firstly, when I’ve removed all the air from both ends, should the forks to be fully compressed? That’s what I was expecting, but they have remained at pretty much full length and it feels like there may be some ‘trapped air’ as I can compress the forks 5-10mm then they expand again.

Secondly, I can’t removing the lowers. I’ve been tapping (and hammering with some more force) the allen bolt at the bottom of the right leg, and the schraedar valve on the left, but can’t seem to get either to disengage with the press-fit. So no oil is coming out, and even after removing the bolts completely I can’t seem to pull the lowers and uppers apart.

I have since opened both top 24mm bolts on the uppers to ensure that no air was still in the positive chamber, and to remove the oil from the dampening unit.

I can still here oil in the lower legs and I still cannot remove them. Any ideas?

the spring leg will still feel sprung when you push or pull it because of the vaccum/compression effect of moving the head through the air tube even when unpressurised.

Once youve taken the left hand leg nut off and youve partially unwound (but not off) the right hand leg allen bolt then give them both a good tap.
They will release and you can then take the damper leg allen bolt off. You may need to keep the neg air valve core depressed to push the shaft up.

Screw the bolts back on and tighten a bit, loosed a few turns and hit them again, and make sure you remove them before you try to pull the sliders off or you’ll just undo your work with the mallet. Mine stick a bit but a good sharp pull will give you a pop and oil all over your jeans and carpet, if you are lucky enough to have any oil left.

The forks won’t totally sink when the pressure in them has been removed.

Last time I did mine it took a really hard whack to get them to release; the loosened bolts that is.
With regard to whacking the valve on the air leg, it’s best to loosen the nut to the point that it sits level with the top of the valve or slightly past it, so when you whack it, you are whacking the nut & not the valve itself.

Might be wrong on this, but I don’t think opening the 24mm cap on the air side will remove any more +ve air, as the air is held in an assembly within the leg, not directly in the top of the leg.

What are you using to do your whacking with? I use a piece of wood placed on the screw head/nut & then hammer this, rather than directly hammering the screw/nut.

I was directly hammering the bolts, but will try a block of wood in the middle next time.

Will try bigjim’s idea of screwing them back in first and starting from scratch…

I was directly hammering the bolts

when you say “hammering” please tell me you mean with a soft mallet?

when you say “hammering” please tell me you mean with a soft mallet?

Yes, with a rubber mallet!