Changing a Fox air shaft – easy job?

Have worked out I can increase the travel on my forks despite previously being told I couldn’t. So that’s good news. Have ordered the air shaft and checked out YouTube vids. Looks like a bit more of a faff that is expected…

Anyone on here done it that has experience of screwing things up when it gets complex?

<pulls up a chair>

Bumped my 160mm 36’s up to 170mm with a new airshaft assembly. Only added 5 mins onto a lowers service.

Also, if you have never taken out the current airshaft, you’ll likely find a lot of excess grease in there from the factory.

Easy if you have to tools and space. Not easy if you don’t.

I’ll echo what teethgrinder has said, dropped my fox 36’s from 160 to 150 whilst servicing them as was an easy task really.

Ok, so I haven’t serviced my forks before. I have space. But I don’t have a lowers removal tool or the correct size flat socket for top of the forks.

I think I have a bolt that will act as the removal tool and am hoping a standard wrench will suffice for top of forks?

I would suggest either getting the correct socket for the top or better still some Knipex plier wrench, a standard spanner will dig into the alloy and leave a mark.

When you do it, have plenty of space to lay everything out in order (you will forget otherwise) and lots of shop towel to keep/get everything clean

Remember you need oil and might as well do the lowers, it starts adding up if you need to buy some 5wt, 20wt oils and the grease (slick honey), also a chance you could need a new crush washer, and be careful with the lower air shaft nut when removing. You’re also best to have the required flat socket and a vice.

So in short, it’s not too hard to replace, but without the appropriate kit it’s probably cheaper getting it done by a shop or pro suspension company.

You don’t need to take the top cap out of the air side to change the shaft of you hear just remove the valve core.

Don’t need a vice.

You can but small quantities of oil on eBay. I’ve just literally bought some 20wt gold and 5wt teflon infused for my Grip2. I also just **** the 10mm and 15mm sockets (gently) to release the shafts with the nuts still on.

You don’t need them, but it’s nice to clean and check all of it while you can, hence doing a lower service at the same time, plus when tapping out the lowers i’m not brave enough to not use a vice with a bucket under it for the oil, let along removing the circlip holding the air shaft in.

Ordered the air shaft from tf tuned and they are sending me all the oils etc I need.

Was thinking of putting bike on a stand and leaving forks on the bike to service. Bad idea?

Going to need a vid to help me do this so if anyone can recommend one that doesn’t need you to take off the top cap please let me know 🙂

The forks are pretty new so not likely to need much of a service etc I would hope

Fully remove the forks from the bike when performing surgery.

If you can do a lowers service on a Fox fork then you can change the air shaft, no problem. There are some excellent videos on youtube to help you alongside Fox’s own technical documents and I had no problem bumping my 120mm Fox 34s up to 130mm with the appropriate air shaft.

Please do use the correct tools though. You can get by without the expensive lower removal punch tools (thread nuts on backwards, long socket, gentle tap with a plastic faced hammer) but you’ll need a flat socket for the air top cap, a workstand to hold the fork (you need to remove fully from the bike and give it deep clean before opening up), isopropyl alcohol to clean everything, the correct weight Fox oil or equivalent, a pick to remove the air shaft circlip, slickoleum / slick honey grease etc etc etc as others have said above.

Any doubts though, send it to the professionals.