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Noticed while out for a ride that I was loosing pressure from my rear shock and when I looked found a scratch on the shaft.
Bugger
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It's deep enough to get my nail into and is right on the 20% sag marker where the seal spends most of it's time so I'm guessing this is the cause of the leak (in fact I removed the shock and tested it in a bucket of water which showed nothing and it stays pressurised overnight).
I've tried a YouTube repair with nail varnish which I thought had worked but didn't last long (looks like it just got pulled out by the seal)
So has anyone successfully repaired a shock shaft with something other than nail varnish? I'm staying near Keswick on my hols and non of the local bike shops has a 230x57.5 shock or shaft and repair lead time is two weeks
Had a few rides planned so would like to get it sorted if possible. Cheers in advance.
just ride it then get it serviced with a shaft replacement.
That's the thing. I'm having to pump it up every 15min when riding.
is it a trek thru shock? If so you’re going well to get it fixed in two weeks - TF tuned said end of the year for a service on mine.
You could try some JB weld or similar 2 part epoxy. I’ve had success with this in the past. Once set smooth it off with some very fine grade wet and dry (and I do mean VERY fine!)..
It's a Deluxe RL off a Remedy and two weeks was what a couple of shops mentioned.
Thanks for the epoxy suggestion timbog - I'll try it out and report back.
Clean it with brake cleaner, from a car shop before the epoxy. 2000 grade wet and dry. If it fails then nothing lost, well a bit of time and money………..
Buy something with next day delivery.
You don’t mention if you changed the air seal or not after you attempted to fix it? The seal is likely shagged now so will likely leak even if you replace the damper body (the bit that’s scratched) with a new one
I know its a bit 'locking the stable door' but Lizard Skins still make shock boots. Not really going to protect against a major impact, but flying stone chips it will give a fair amount of protection from.
They also used to do neoprene gaiters for stanchions, but I've not seen any for sale in quite a while.
I always found it odd they removed protective rubber gaiters from fork stanchions. Such a delicate and highly critical part of one of the most important components on an mtb.
Gators and boots were sticking plaster to work with the crappy seals we all had to live with at the time. The problem with them is that if any grime/grit does make it in there it’s not coming back out again and you might not know about it until bad things have happened.
A new damper body (for Fox so might not be the same here) was £35 as part of a service @ J-Tech for me a couple of weeks ago
No, I didn't replace the air seal (not that I've got one anyway). It stays pressurised overnight and when locked out (so the damage is kept more away from the seal) so I'm hoping it's ok. Going to try the epoxy repair this morning and if it doesn't work I'll just leave it locked out.
Pump it up hard/set the compression up stuff, slow the rebound and ride it like a hardtail for your holiday. If it’s stiff enough that the seals don’t pass the damage then it might stay up longer.
At least that way you could still ride the bike without (hopefully) having to pump it up all the time.
Well I tried another repair, this time with Araldite 'Steel' epoxy and it turned out very good.
Used 2000 grit wet and dry as mentioned above and then toothpaste to polish it up.
Shock is still leaking air but not nearly as bad as before - managed to get all around Whinnlater with just one top up which is good enough until I can service it (or upgrade!).
Thanks everyone
They also used to do neoprene gaiters for stanchions, but I’ve not seen any for sale in quite a while.
Thank ****
They were grim
Some shock servicing places also do stanchion repairs, pretty sure Jtech do (though they've also got fairly long lead times). Not usualyl worth doing on shock shafts since they're cheap to replace but could be an option if getting the replacement shaft in stock isn't possible. Sprung are booking for next week but I don't know if they'd patch it or if they can get the replacement sthaft into stock, worth checking though I reckon.
Possibly it's one of those things where it gets harder once the customer's done a repair... But really a shock will normally still be totally airtight even with a fair amount of scratches on the shaft, so I personally would replace the seals too. Or at the very least pop it apart, inspect for damage and if you don't see any clean and reassemble, just basically do a basic no-new-parts service.
Just a small comment to re-iterate the difficulty in getting spares for the trek specific shocks.
Sent mine in for service (it had to go to SRAM) and ended up having to wait a couple of months for a warranty replacement.
Bought an ohlins coil from Tf tuned to tide me over, works incredibly on the remedy.
The air shock arrived but has gone straight in the cupboard! 🙂