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Just started using these forks an an Epic Expert.
Anyone got any tips on cleaning the seals - specifically how do you get the hollow legs clean to take the lowers off?
Also, the brain adjustment seems a bit harsh - about 8 clicks out from full firm they get very stictiony and clunky - but fine at 9 or 10 clicks out. Is this normal?
Cheers
I don't have the SID's with the brain - or a Spesh for that matter, but I serviced my SID's last weekend, and just used a small bottle brush to clean round the rebound adjuster & neg air spigots. Local branch of Boots (other chemists are available..) will sell them for cleaning babies bottles & breast pumps etc.
That was the first time I'd stripped them after 1400 miles, and the seals & foam rings were pretty grubby, though the oils that came out looked pretty clean, and there was no damage or visible wear on the stanchions. FWIW, the kit from TF Tuned seemed pretty good value at £40 - new seals / foam rings / oils / syringe & grease.
You'll need a deep 10mm socket to get the neg air side undone, and I wound up buying an adapter so I could use my 1/4" drive torque wrench with the 1/2" drive socket, as they tighten at just 7.3Nm
Oh, and try and find a 24mm socket where the inner (working) facets extend right to the open end (most sockets seem to have a generous chamfer on the inside), as the top cap nuts on both legs are very slim, and it's very easy for the socket to slip off.
Hope that helps.
Great, thanks for the advice.
Are the crush washers the same as used on Fox forks??
Thanks again.
Hello mate, sorry, bit slow getting back.. I've never serviced Fox forks, but I think I know what you're referring too. There wasn't a washer under the neg air nut, can't remember how the rebound adjuster sealed, but I didn't replace anything crush washer-esque, and it all seems fine.
One thought;
If you can, try and get a larger syringe (c. 150ml)to put the damper oil in with(agricultural supply store, 'Moleavon' WHY) - I think putting the oil in in stages with the 20ml syringe supplied in the TF kit can lead to errors (perhaps it was just me).
Having put in (what I thought was) the required 106ml, I found I couldn't get full travel.
The fix is simply to take out the damper unit (no need to remove the lowers for that) and use the syringe with a short length of plastic pipe (fish tank hose - also good for brake bleeds) to extract a few mils of oil. I took out two ml and re-assembled & tried it. Much better. If you take out too much, I guess the damping will suffer. Hope thats useful.