Thanks to the good offices of some of this website,s members I tracked down some Isopropyl Alcohol, and set out on my Fork service experiment, on a pair of dodgy (stuck) Recon 351 SL Air that I'd bought off here as 'having damping problems' 🙂 they were cheap with a frame so I thought a good chance to look inside some forks.
Anyway.
Ignoring d/l servicing instructions I had to hammer the lowers off with a wooden mallet ('damping problems' my foot)I then had fun taking it apart cleaning with my IPA, topping up with new fork oil etc. I then had to hammer the lowers back on :(.
There's really nothing obvious, not a mark on the stanchions, I was so proud I'd got it all off and put it back together.
Yes, I know, I could send it to Mojo. Thought I might ask you first and save meself a ton.
Martin
Sounds like you need new bushings/seals. You can buy them from places like TFT.
You can only say you've put it back together when it works. Reliably. Otherise it's still bodged 😉
Use of a mallet to get the lowers off is normal, no? (Seriously!)
You also have to give the foot bolts a whack (once mostly unscrewed) to get the lowers free.
you should only need to use a mallet to free of the rods that the nuts or bolts on the end of the slider.
Can you give more detail as to why they need to be hammered back on?
Can you name the fraudster who sold them with "damping problems"?
Watch the man at work & see for yourself
[url= http://dirtmag.co.uk/news/category/videos/how-to-maintain-your-boxxer-forks/dirt-1231194.html ]TFT & Rock Shox Service[/url]
Thanks guys; when I got the forks they were stuck, no movement at all (I don't think the person who sold them to me is a fraudster, so I won't name and shame - I only paid £160 for an FSR XC frame, and these forks, so I was expecting problems, but their 'working but a lot of 'stiction', and not mentioning the rear shock also needs attention, was a bit shy of the truth 🙂 Anyway, having hammered them off I found the internals all looked fine, I didn't take the 'air' side apart, but I took the damping motion bit out cleaned, checked seals - which looked OK to me, and I can't see that they'd cause no movement at all? - and I had to hammer the lowers back on because they wouldn't go on otherwise! A bodge as the man said. The problem seems to be something preventing smoothe movement between the upper and lower legs, but without any obvious signs like scratching, blockage, skew etc. I'm not sure why? Cheers Martin (ps: I'll check the vid out now TinMan thanks)
Oh, those are the seals 😳 I thought they were the blakc rubber bands inside, and that those were just to prevent dirt and that getting in, to sort of eh, seal them, OK yeah, it could be the seals then, I'll try taking them off and see if the uppers/lowers slide OK (or is that not recommended?)
Are the inner legs straight? If they aren't them the outers will bind on them.
New crown lower and steerer assembly prob about 200 quid.
Should be OK, seals are replaceable.
Can you not work out what is causing the problem from the point at which the stanchions stop moving?
take the air cartridge out and try to see if they move ok, if they do the air spring is the problem
who did you buy them off so i can avoid them in the classifieds!
no names, no pack drill 😆