No, it’s the not the title of a new niche grumble movie.

I just bought some old Pike 426 U-turn forks for my lad’s jump bike. They’re not very smooth in the travel and leaking a spot of oil from up near the pop loc knob, so I thought I’d strip them and have a look.

I’ve taken the lowers off and there’s a fair bit of grease on the damper rods and when I look inside the lowers it’s caked around the inside of those.
I didn’t think there should really be any grease there, just oil?

Also the foams are a little bit out of shape, not sitting evenly in their recess, would the recommendation be to swap these while I’m in there?

Help me STW, you’re my only hope….
Unless I do a bit more Googling.

No, there shouldn’t be any thick grease in there. Clean it all out with some IPA/rags and then go here to find oil volumes/weights http://biketechtools.com/forks/oil-volumes/rockshox/select-fork

I would do the foam rings and the dust seals as well while I was there. Leaking oil is probably a seal somewhere internal.

Is it definitely grease or could it be emulsified oil?

I thought oil at first but it really does seem like grease, the oil that came out looked in good shape too.
I’ll order a seal kit while they’re in bits, makes sense.
cheers guys.

Well I found the reason for the wonky foam rings and the oil leak.
There were no oil seals on the lowers!

Previous owner / maintainer might have used the grease to make up for a sealing deficiency….