New hardtail, came with this pogostick. Went out for a short ride, sixteen miles, came back with it feeling wooden as dust got under the seals and needed a loving grease before taking it out again.
Here's the exploded view from the manufacturers website.
Having looked at that .pdf I sensibly assumed that removing the two footnuts would allow me to slide the lowers down so I could clean and then grease up the seals to allow me to ride again. Unfortunately, whilst the first footnut came loose perfectly normal, upon trying to loosen the second I heard a nasty cracking sound and the nut started turning complete with the bolt it was attached to.
There's some play in the nut, and riding the bike down my driveway and hitting any crack in the paving slabs I hear a noticeable banging from that leg. I'm not going to bother taking it out on the road. I'm allergic to faceplanting.
Going back to the exploded view, there isn't much point going and buying the custom top cap remover is there? I understand some Suntour forks you reach down with a long allen key to undo inside, but I'm guessing in this case the 'crack' sound I heard was the footnut bolt snapping and it's warranty time? Fork is going on my commuter when it's all shipshape again.
Try compressing the fork while you turn the nut.
Suntour internals are made from brie though, so no surprise if it still spins!
Yeah, tried that but no joy, quite fun on your own lying across the bars and trying to reach under with an open spanner to get at the nut. Had preload max on/off too. I ought to take a photo of that area later just to let the terror sink in. The diameter of the foot bolt, the size and format of nut and the closeness of the nut to the dropout made me wonder how anyone could trust this fork to stay together on a ride.
Follow Up: I got no reply yet from the bike shop, so took my rotary tool to the leg. Cut a slot in the bolt so I could jam a screwdriver in there and undo the nut. I dropped the lowers and the forks when done up again are safe to ride. The bolt coming down from inside the uppers (I can't open them without a special topcap tool I can't find for sale anywhere) is loose, has obviously had the piece inside the bottom of the spring break. The bolt doesn't come down because it has a welded on piece that prevents it coming down through the uppers. There are no loose pieces of plastic in the fork though in evidence of the plastic piece in the bottom of the spring shattering. I can now strip and regrease the lowers whenever necessary. It's rideable for now.
Hi I work for Greyville Enterprises who are one of the UK distributors for Suntour. Contact me (email in profile) and i can help with the tool you are looking for and any servicing queries you have.
They're serviceable? Who knew. 😯
Servicable?? Many have tried...
@Limy, I honestly probably don't need the tool for a while and I'll have emigrated by then most likely (serious prediction) Thanks for the approach, I'll bear it in mind if something seriously affects me.
The fact I finally got the lowers off and back on secure whilst greasing up the seals did the job I needed and will continue to do so for the short to medium term.
Nice commuter fork really now. Stupid balloon tyres give small bump 'suspension' effect 🙂 100mm of travel works better than the 63mm RTS's of old. Now works vastly better than when I got it as an off-the-shelf bike, as it seemed to have hardly any grease at all on the seals. But then the entire bike was sadly lacking and required a pretty much full strip down and grease to use.
The fork is fine for commuting or sustrans type routes (the above 16 mile ride) I wouldn't want to take it properly offroad as it's a bit dangerous hitting hard bumps, with the front end pogoing off the ground and it tops out sending a right shock through the bars. Tracking is okay up till then as it's very smooth when greased right. Came with quite firm springs which suit me as a heavier rider. That may have been as it was supplied for a 23" frame.
@Atlaz/Bikewhisperer: Servicing? The seals won't keep the crap out, so you'll want it open to clean and regrease the inside of the uppers and spring/mcu so it doesn't rust and kill the stanchions. I have some Marz Dirt Jam Comp's here on an ickle hardcore bike with rust on the stanchion under the seal because the previous owner of the forks couldn't remove the topcaps due to them needing a special tool. Barring breakages due to misuse, if the tools for these forks came with the fork and a sheet of basic cleaning instructions I bet the forks would last 4x as long as they do and not have beginners pulling their hair out and having an awful foray into MTBing.
Go and ask your LBS for the topcap tool. They are bound to have a couple lying around. They used to include them with the instruction sets for the bikes, but most shops would rarely give them out. Now the don't even bother with that.
Those Marz Dirt Jam forks were made by... Suntour! At least they don't have the same shitty bushings and seals. It's the same topcap tool though. I think I should have one you could borrow, provided you post it back before you leave the country!
email me if you need it.
You can't really see from the pdf, but it sounds like the top cap you describe might be the same as the one on my Marzocchi MZ Race (also a Suntour in drag), a sort of 'castelated' design? If so, I undid mine by very gently tapping it round with a flat bladed screwdriver and pin hammer. Judging by the state of the bike when I bought it, I don't think the previous owner did any maintainence whatsoever, so I'd wager it was the first time the fork had been opened, the top cap still only took a couple of the very lightest of taps to undo before it was loose enough to unscrew with finger and thumb.
Just taken a pic of the two topcaps. They are the same diameter with the same 'teeth' so I guess one tool fits both forks. Not sure how the other topcap on the Dirt Jam will take the tool though, it got upset when I tapped it round with a screwdriver (never to be recommended!) But I needed to get in since they were oozing mud and the rebound was strange (previous owner was a lightweight who removed an elastomer and 'forgot' to inform me)
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