[Closed] Marzocchi 55 rc3 spring size?

I seem to recall that mine was around 300mm free length and as as far as I can remember didn't have any colour coding marks.
This is all from memory though, when I was experimenting with fitting a Fox spring (which I'm still using, btw). As I'm a couple of thousand miles away from the bike, I can't go and check for you either.

thanks. did the fox spring fit straight in or did you chop it?
did it work well, and was it the Ti Evo V2 version that you have?
Do you recall if it was exactly the same length as the marzocchi spring?

I shortened the Fox spring by about 5mm, as I recall. Probbably the least I could take off it and grind the end square anyway. Yes, a complete success - I'm still using it and it was the Ti Evo 2. If you could live with slightly more preload then you could run it with the spring unmodified - I did for a while.

Hi, I tried fitting a fox 36 spring in my marzocchi 350 forks. The spring was a tight fit in the fork leg without any shrink wrap.
It was a purple spring, one up from the black one. I didnt take it any further.
I was wondering if the black spring might be slightly smaller diameter being a lower spring rate and wound from thinner metal?
The marz spring was 28.8mm. The fox spring was 29.3. Measured with cheap digital caliper.
Maybe 350's are slightly smaller than 55's inside the fork leg?

I used the black spring (the lightest?) and it fitted the 55s fine, even with the black shrink wrap.

so what weight are you andy?
It looks like a soft(purple) would be ok for me, or maybe x-soft(black)
what year/model were the fox 36s?
I'll measure the 55 fork leg ID later
I suspect that I have the wrong spring in my 55s, they are second hand, so I'd like to know lengths.

I'm around 70kgs, ready to ride, and I'm not the most "agressive" of riders - ie no huge drops to flat or that sort of thing. I bought the spring from TFT but, to be honest, I can't remember what year forks it was intended for, although I suspect it was 2005/2010, which are now only available in medium.
Sorry I can't be more help......

that's helped a lot already..

omaknees- what year was your fox spring from?

It was 2011 - on
Fairly sure the black one will have been wound from thinner diameter wire.

andy r-
did you get full travel with the black spring? was the sag normal?
did you leave the spacer on top of the spring?

Well, I'm back in t'north now so I can actually check the dimensions for you - as far as spacers go, there's only a plastic centralising spacer on top of the spring, one end fits inside the spring and the other end locates into the mechanical preload arrangement. I left that in place, just as it is with the Ti spring.

I'm at around 35-40mm sag, with no mechanical or air preload.

As far as full travel goes, I don't think that I've ever had full travel from them - always maybe about 10mm less. I don't worry about it, one day I might hit something hard enough to use it all up.......

I'll nip out and measure the free length of the spring and get back to you. In fact, I don't need to "nip out" - I've got another set here in the house, so it'll save me getting wet going to the workshop.

Right, my friend - here are the numbers for you .......these are all for the Ti spring.

Free length - 307 or 304mm (two different examples)
OD = 29.9mm (over the shrink wrap)
ID = 20.0mm
Wire diameter = 4.9mm
Weight (as accurately as I can measure) = 170gms.
Red colour coding, so that'll be the standard spring, not the unicorn -like soft spring.......

So the Fox spring must have originally been about 310mm free length, as I shortened it by the least possible and it's ended up around 305mm. ID must be about the same as the Ti (or slightly greater) as it locates at both ends ok and OD is slightly less (I'm guessing at around 28-28.5mm, I can strip it out and check if you'd like me to) as it fits inside the stanchions fine with the anti-rattle shrink wrap, (which is thicker than the Marzocchi stuff) still in place.

Anything else you need, just shout!

thats the spacer I referred to
Ta muchly
I didnt get full travel with the ti spring nor the black fox, I wouldnt mind if I got 80-90% travel, but its more like 50%
Havent actually ridden it yet with black spring so just pushing down on them, but there's virtually no sag, even with air valve removed
I didnt lop the end off the spring,yet, but would 5mm less spring get me 25% sag?
Without th spring in I get full travel
So I'm confused!!
Hopefully I can hit something large at the weekend, and test it

No, 5mm extra preload won't affect static sag that much, as it's not changing the spring rate, just moving the "start" point in the load/travel curve. You can experiment with this yourself by just leaving the top cap unscrewed by about 5mm or until you feel you've no pressure on the spring.........just to test, obviously.

What oil level/quantity are you using in the spring side, or the damping side for that matter and what viscosity?

They do improve with use, in my experience, and also benefit from lubing the seals and stanchions with Molykote 33. I must like them well enough anyway, as I've recently bought a second set - just to future proof myself, I suppose.

They don't feel as good just playing about testing them as they do when you just forget them and ride - some forks are far more impressive in the "carpark test".

They're not, in my opinion, as plush as a set of 160mm 55 TST2 forks that I use out in Greece - I converted those from port orifice to shim stack damping and now they're like butter but I don't think they're as controlled as the RC3 damper through rock garden type stuff, At lower speeds though I love them.
If you do shorten the spring you need to heat up the last coil and flatten it, before grinding the end square otherwise the spring will load with a curve over its length and rub the inside of the stanchion - I'd just leave it as is, to be honest.

ok, i'll try riding them
I had 888 rc2 before, many years ago, thats what I like about marzocchis

thanks a lot