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Ok, so I've unscrewed the top caps, unscrewed the nut off the negative air pressure and the rebound adjuster is out.
The lowers seems to want to stay with the uppers so now what?
Do I need to start tapping with a rubber mallet or what?
Unscrew the rebound bolt about 5mm and the same with the neative air side, tap with rubber mallet then remove bolt on rebound side and negative air collar. Uppers should then come free. No need to unscrew top caps if you are just servicing lowers.
theres a guide on bikeradar.
Thanks guys, I managed to get to the gubbins I wanted - I wanted to see if the travel could be upped from 100mm to 120mm without someone coming along and saying "don't be silly, not on quick release Reba's".
A spacer fell off the piston rod in the air chamber so it seems I've just converted my 100mm Reba Race to 120mm. Result!
Ok, so I'm confused the Reba service instructions (albeit for 2006 on the SRAM website rather than 2009?) mention 5 wt suspension oil and 15 wt suspension oil.
I lost some oil out of the legs when I took the spacer out. Mainly out of the top (top caps removed from the crown) I think. I never got the lowers apart from the uppers completely but I got the piston assembly out of the air chamber leg to remove the space, and also removed the rebound adjuster so I'm guessing I will have lost some oil out of the bottom too?
What does putting oil in the lower leg do?
Do I really need both a bottle of 5 wt and a bottle of 15wt??
You only need one of them, I think its the 5wt as long as you havnt touched the right motion control leg.
2009 instructions
oh and check out these videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/SRAMtech
bit confused there.normaly to take out the air piston you remove the lowers, undo bottom circlip and take it out that way.not from the top as you say..
the 5wt is for the rebound chamber, around 118ml.
you post sounds a bit srtange and back to front.
I undid both the rebound adjuster (same leg as motion control) and the lock nut holding the negative air valve (other leg). I tapped this negative air schraeder valve until it moved upwards in the stanchion. I then pushed it up out of the stanchion (crown top cap hole) using a piece of rod. Out came a piston rod assembly with a load of grease on it.
The spacer dropped off the bottom of the rod and then I pushed the whole lot gently back in and compressed the forks until the scraeder valve was through the hole in the bottom of the leg and I could put the lock nut back on to keep it all together.
I think someone said on here it was possible to swap the spacer(s) out without taking the lowers apart from the uppers. I hope this is what I've achieved?
So I should now just be able to fill up the rebound chamber with 5wt oil now or I couuld I have damaged the contents of the air chamber leg?
So you took the large top caps off the crown before removing the lowers?
If so, that's not the right way/best way to do it. You should remove the lowers first using the method you described (undoing rebound adjuster bolt & schraeder locking nut and then whacking with rubber mallet) before fiddling with the uppers.
When you say that a spacer dropped off the bottom of the rod - was it a fairly thick white spacer with an o-ring on the outside & the inside too? If so, then that is the part that stops the damping oil from dropping into the lowers, while allowing the rod to move with the lowers as the forks compress.
I am 99% sure that this isn't the spacer that will alter the travel and all that will happen is when you put it back together and replace the oil, it will just fall from the upper to the lower & do nothing at all.
I am not 100% familiar with your Reba's as I own the Air U-turn version which are slightly different, but I think the travel adjust spacers will be contained within the air side of the upper leg.
If I were you, I'd put the whole thing back together and start again, once you have downloaded the RS technical manual for your forks from the SRAM website and read through it a couple of times to understand what needs doing.
On my forks there is a thin metal ring that sits on top of the white 'spacer' you mention. I assume you have this part too, and it's not just floating around in your fork leg somewhere?
When you replace the oil, it needs to be pretty accurately measured. For my forks, I think it's 110ml +/-5ml so you can't really just pour 'some' oil in and hope for the best. Sorry, if you knew this already, not trying to sound condescending. You'll find the required volumes in the tech manual too.
The 2009 Reba fork requires 10ml of 15wt oil in the bottom of each fork leg (the lowers) and 5ml in the top of the + air valve cap.
Get rid of all the 'old' oil and refill with clean new oil.
You only need the 5wt oil (125ml) for the motion control damper refill.
You've just 'short cut' a stage. Instead of removing the circlip at the bottom of the alloy stantion, you've pushed the rod up through the + air valve mount. The 20mm spacer you need to remove is black plastic and tapers out at top and bottom like a cotton reel.
No harm done as long as it all goes back in order and sits correctly inside the stantion.
Forgot to say I did the strip down last week and removed the spacer on 2009 OEM Reba SL 100mm (9mm QR). I now have 120mm of very slick travel tested in the worst conditions on a Peaks ride this weekend.
Ah yeah - I originally read it as being the damper leg that was pushed out, not the air side.
But re-reading it, I think it was the air side. Sorry for any confusion...
Yep, I pushed out the air side and the spacer was a cotton reel shaped piece exactly the same as the two that came in the bag with the manual.
They're back together, I think as ginsterdrz says I've short cut a stage. I'll just refill with fresh oil and all should be well by the sounds of it.
I remember dismantling RS Judy's - much simpler!! (but with good reason, on reflection....;-)