A friend overtightened the footnut on the air side of his X-fusion slide forks.

As a result, this twisted off the U-clip that the black rubber bumper rests on. Straightening the clip makes it snap in two.

The clips don’t seem to be a thing you can just buy in a hardware store, so I’m my friend is wondering what bodges might work.

If the clip is just to space out the bottom of the bumper from the bottom of the leg, could Ihe just drop in something like a rubber door stop, cut down to the right height?

(And doesn’t this design mean that when you bottom-out, the footnut will be briefly forced away from the fork lowers, letting out a tiny spray of pressurized oil onto your brakes?)

Maybe the circlip was there to prevent the rod from shooting out the bottom of the fork leg?

I’m sure someone will be able to obtain the correct clip for you, far better than sticking a door stop in there.

Your friend could make a new clip. If there is no decent ironmongers near him there are plenty of sellers on ebay with the dimensions of their stainless washers given in the listings. You can buy 10 or so for a quid and give them as a present to your friend. That should be enough for your friend to practice their cutting and filing.

Maybe the circlip was there to prevent the rod from shooting out the bottom of the fork leg?

Yes, I think you’re right.

The clip is there to give the footnut something to tighten against, when you tighten the nut up you are pinching the bottom of the leg between the clip and the nut so that it can be both pushed and pulled. It’s effectively a removable shoulder on the rod so that, as above, the rod doesn’t just come all the way out of the leg.

Edit: you can’t do without it but you should be able to get one or something else that works somehow.

What are the Dim’s of the circlip you require?

There is a shop in Macclesfield called Delaney’s that sells pretty much everything. I could pop in (but not till Monday) and post out what it is you need.

I’ve had a cir-clip off them for my old Rev’s, bits to rebuild the lever on a Joplin, tiny grub screws and matching hex keys, single washers, bolts etc.. and a ton of other stuff.

Carlos

It’s got a 20mm outer diameter, and 8mm inner diameter, fitting onto a 10mm diameter rod.

There’s a local engineering shop; I’m going to go over and see if they have any ideas (they welded a new steel steerer onto another friend’s forks. No, really, not actually me 🙂

The problem is there seems to be some mushrooming on the rod itself, and a new circlip might not have a sharp enough edge to rest on.

Quick phone call and they have a 20mm outer but internal is about 14mm (allowance of 3mm for either side) or an 8mm inner but external is only 14mm (again allowing for 3mm either side) 😕

Might be worth trying the UK dealer/distributor

UPGRADE BIKES LTD
Star Road Unit A/B, Partridge Green,
West Sussex, RH13 8RA
tel: +44 (0) 1403 711 611
fax: +44 (0) 1403 710 753
Info@Upgradebikes.co.uk
http://www.upgradebikes.co.uk

Plan B is of course to sell the uppers to someone who has gouged their stanchions, and buy some new forks…

@Carlos – thanks!

The guy at the local engineering company thought that he could just split a regular steel washer of the right size in half, and then tack-weld it back together in-place. Which would be pretty much ideal. Pictures to follow on Monday.

In the end they made a new clip of the same diameter and clipped it into place. No welding, just punched out a segment from an existing washer of the same dimensions (OD 20mm, ID 8mm).