After running mine all winter I would like to take the lowers off and change the lube oil and give the seals a clean. I have the PDF on how to remove them, just need to get the oil ordered later.
Any advice would be appreciated, I have never done this before but I'm pretty decent at doing the rest of the bike myself.
Ta 🙂
Peice of pie.
The easiest forks I've had to service.
How much are you stripping them?
Fitting new seals to the air damper?
Make sure you twist the cap the air damper circlip sits in before attempting to remove it.
If so get some decent circlip pliers mine were twisting under the force needed to pinch the ring (fairly cheap ones).
Use slick hunny for lube.
The air damper is a sod to get pushed in while removing the clip no easy way.
Find a decent price of doul for attaching a clean rag to, to get to the bottom of the legs.
And mind the rebound side bottom bolt as they are rather soft 😉
Care you don't do as I did.
There is a small port on the air damper to equalise the pressures. I was a bit to enthusiastic with the grease and blocked mine.
If you **** up loco/tftuned are a great help.
Port was blocked Simon.
Hammered them in afan at the weekend and that sorted them.
Nobody likes a blocked port do they...
Oh yes and get some spare crush washers...
One of mine was totally goosed and had pulled into the lower leg.
fozzybear - all i want to do is a seal clean and re-lube. And i think that's above my technical ability at the moment 🙂
Be careful when pulling the lowers off - mine took some force to shift and then came off suddenly (I'm a bit ham-fisted mind!). In the process the rebound shaft got knocked and it damaged the seals in the seal-head (where it enters the damper assembly) so that oil leaked out of the damper! :-/ ...on the up-side my LBS sent them back to SRAM and they turned them around in 1 day ...all done under warranty (new seal-head) 🙂
Dead easy to do a lowers service, just follow the SRAM guide and use a torque wrench.
I got a 2oz tube of slick honey grease from Billys BMX but now out of stock and Ison Distribution has an ETA of 14th April, not sure what else is a suitable substitute but slick honey looks very much like a thin calcium based waterproof grease. I got a litre of Rockshox 0W-30 oil from bike-discount.de as couldn't find it in the UK and wanted to stick with the specified oil on my lovely spendy new forks but I'm 99% certain it is Maxima Ultra 0w30 ester synthetic motorbike engine oil and it definitely smells and looks like it is but I guess there is a chance the engine oil has additives in it that aren't in the RS stuff. As there is so little oil in the damper side lower leg I removed the lowers to check before I used them and although they was oil present it only dripped out of the air side lower leg and at least I know they're lubed properly now.
We've got the 0W30 oil in along with a load of other parts 😉
Got my bits from loco (plus longer damper rod)
Need to remember crush washers next time.
We've got the 0W30 oil in along with a load of other parts
Nice one, I got the oil from ze germans a while ago. How much are the air side rods and do you sell slick honey?
air rod rrp is £34.99 although next delivery of these is due mid April as have sold all the ones we had as the forks are so popular as well as the mods to shorten them below what's available in stock lengths from Rockshox.
Don't sell slick honey as Ison don't seem to want to sell it, currently using some rather nice Maxima stuff that's not stupidally expensive and P600 on o rings which is rather pricey!
will you sell a lowers refresh kit like tftuned do?
Guys, cheers for the replies. I am a bit more confident now. Loco, I'll call you tomorrow to chat and get some oil and parts ordered. 🙂
Rob, yes we have the small 120ml 0w30 oil bottles at £3.99 plus postage and can also supplier wiper seals and foam rings so as much or little or much as you want really 😀
cool 🙂
Are the foam rings the same as in lyriks i.e. 35mm foam rings?
Lyriks have wiper and oil seals, foam rings out of the pike are shallower than the oil seal in lyriks, however we have others that will fit the lyriks 😉
I've bought stuff from loco and I'm very happy with advise, products and help I hope he doesn't mind me saying this.
Don't email him as he is so busy and misses them I think. Also bare with him when calling as I'm guessing he is a one man band and is out biking or working elsewhere sometimes.
i have some in a bag at home that i replaced my lyrik oil seals with - maybe boxxer foams??
fozzy but its ok to page him on here yeah??
He answers a lot of suspension threads.
I bought a longer damper rod (which he had machined for me) and fluids etc.
All good and Happy.
I did call a few times and leave messages (asking to buy crush washers) and I left a message another time and didn't get a call back.
I'm just being honest here, like I said I'm happy with his service just could do with a reliable message service. 😀
The hardest part for me was sourcing the Rockshox 0w30 oil. Couldn't find any Slick Honey grease either but SRAM support said it was ok leave out for the moment. Not sure how important the grease is. LoCo?
After I completed the 'lowers' service I'm convinced mine sound different on rebound. Feel fine on the trail though. Can't see how anything could've changed as the damper is sealed. Weird.
Rob, boxxers have oil and wiper seals too, from rockshox.
Entonox, it's only a bit of lube for the wipers so won't make a huge difference at the lower oil does the lubrication of the lower legs, saying that quality grease is a must IMO.
If the forks are working ok after the lower service they should be fine, as long as you put lower oil back in right?! 😉
Not really sure what prompted your comments Fozzy, if you need any parts I'm still at the workshop so feel free to give me a call to place an order.
The mails may have co incieded with me being off work for 2 weeks odd inc. a hstay in hospital, one of the other technicians should have made you aware of any delays though
Nope nothing Simon.
Left a message a few days back I was told you were biking. Some enduro project thing.
As above its not a problem. 🙂
Either way my lbs gave me some crush washers.
PS. Hope it was nothing serious
Thanks Loco. Do recommend any particular grease? Can't find Slick Honey anywhere.
Yep I put oil in 🙂
I'm wondering if the damper needs bleeding and air has got in, can't see how though. They definitely sound different on rebound. Strange.
Is the charger damper syringe the same as the reverb bleed syringe?
bump
rob jackson - Member
Is the charger damper syringe the same as the reverb bleed syringe?
No http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/rockshox-charger-damper-rebuild-880622.html#post10932547
You need this 11.4318.010.000 Bleed fitting Charger Damper (fits basic Rockshox Bleed Kit, 3mm ID)
and this or maybe just a bogo syringe 11.4315.011.010 ROCKSHOX Bleed Kit (Totem) Qty 1
Serviced mine after only a few hours use, just to check enough oil in there (didn't turn out to be much oil at all so glad I did it).
One slight issue was when I removed the lowers a tiny ring of metal came out of each lower: looked similar to a stripped thread but a complete circle: looked to me like each shaft had tightened onto the inside of the lower and crushed the metal there. Bit concerned of this happening again and potentially damaging the internals. Anyone else experienced this??