Lyriks – 15wt oil in lowers?

Just swapped the spring on a brand new set of Lyriks and found there was no oil at all in the lower on the spring side. Is that right?

I stuck 10ml in there as a lube (and greased up the spring obviously).

Also, should I notice much difference with the various compression settings when I compress the fork off the bike?

cheers

nope ye dont need any oil on the sring side, just a liberal amount of grease

ive assumed it’s a u-turn but even if its the none u-turn it will be the same

How to fit a u-turn spring TF-tuned

15ml of 15wt oil in spring side lowers

You still need oil in the bottom of both the lowers though. 15ml iirc.Stanchions would be dry otherwise and wear the legs.

Its all here if you dont have this already:
http://www.sram.com/_media/pdf/rockshox/dealers/TM_MY08_E.pdf

You still need oil in the bottom of both the lowers though. 15ml iirc.Stanchions would be dry otherwise and wear the legs

not with coils ye dont, just a liberal amount of grease on the coil, obviously you do on the compression/rebound side

Its all here if you dont have this already:
http://www.sram.com/_media/pdf/rockshox/dealers/TM_MY08_E.pdf

the table is wrong look at the actual instructions, im sure they corrected it in the later tech. manual

craig – so by inference Boxxer’s don’t need oil in the lowers?
Check this video – http://video.mpora.com/watch/dfsINRabP/

If you didn’t put oil in the lowers the bushings would be running dry and completely wear through your stanchions. Are you getting confused between oil in the lowers and oil in the damper?

na mate… ive got coil pikes and lyriks, hud my pikes for 5 years never worn the bushing out same goes for the lyrik hud them nearly 3year, cant comment on boxxers as ive never played with them, theres nowt in the tech manual that say’s you should put oil in the coil side, say’s nowt in the 2010 ver. either, niether do TF-tuned

2010 tech manual

Check here – http://www.sram.com/sites/default/files/techdocs/gen.0000000003511_front_fork_oil_chart_2012_0.pdf

10ml in both lower legs of damper side and spring side.

EDIT – just seen your post and page 6 of that Tech Manual also says the lowers need oil in both sides.

You definitely need oil in the lowers of both sides whether you have coil or air springs. Without this oil, the bushes will be running dry. You don’t need oil in the upper on the spring side if you have a coil as there is nothing that slides over anything to need lubricating. A bit of grease on the spring is plenty sufficient.

Craig seems to just have his upper and lower chambers mixed up

apart from the table… where in the instructions does it say you need to put oil in the coil side ??? why dont they tell you to put it in on the break down instructions ?? it doesnt say you need to put oil in the coil side only apply a liberal amount of grease?? why would TF-tuned not tell you to put oil in there either ???

ive certinly not got my lowers or uppers mixed up, ive done well plenty of services on my forks… if youve ever pulled appart or taken out the u-turn form your forks youll know there isnt any seprate chamber like on the rebound/compression side, theres just a coil assembly which needs a “liberal amount of grease on”

“Apply fresh grease liberally to the entire spring
assembly, and top cap threads.
Insert U-Turn spring assembly into upper tube
through crown, shaft end first. Align and seat
the spring shaft through the shaft guide/base
plate.
Insert top cap into upper tube/crown and hand
thread into upper tube. Using a 24 mm socket
wrench, tighten to 60 in-lb.
Using a magnet, insert each detent spring into
top cap detent holes, evenly spaced. Place each
detent ball bearing on top of each detent spring.
Place U-Turn adjuster knob on top of hex.
Tighten U-Turn knob screw with a 2.5 mm hex
wrench.
this concludes the spring service for your fork. you
did a great job! you are now ready to move on to the
next section: lower leg installation. enjoy!

There’s obviously been a mis-understanding here.

The lowers that Rickos and I are referring to are the lower legs. You definitely need oil in these on both legs. This oil goes in once the fork is mainly re-assembled and is squirted in through the hole in the bottom at the very bottom of the fork right by the dropouts.

The uppers are basically the stantions and they house the damping and the springing elements of the fork. The damper needs oil regardless of the spring type. The spring side requires oil in it if it is an air spring. If the fork is a coil sprung for then the spring does not need oil, just grease. Oil for the upper sections is generally added from the bottom of the stantion once the lower legs have been removed.

Craig, you’re not talking about the lowers of the fork at all and in your quoted section in your above post it even says that the next operation is “lower leg installation”

You absolutely, definitely need to have oil in the lowers of both sides regardless of what spring is used.

Just to add, it is not entirely clear whether the OP is actually talking about the lowers that Rickos and I are referring to or not so that maybe where the confusion has arisen.

Oil in both sides of the lowers, air or coil, any fool knows that.

if you stick oil in the lowers of the coil side it would just float about the hole lenght of the fork, top to bottom ?? theres nothing in the coil side that seals the lowers from the stanchion uppers ??

What the problem reading TF,S instructions.
(Hold the fork horizontally for the rest of the procedure to prevent oil from leaking out of the lowers…. Use 5mm Allen key to unscrew lower foot bolt by approx 5mm. Use a soft hammer to hit the end of the bolt to free the spring plunger from the lowers – be careful not to hit the lowers!)
You defo need it in the coil side or on your head be it.
😀

There is a baseplate in the bottom of the stantion that does exactly that. The oil has to move about though to keep the bushes (which are mounted in the lower leg assembly) lubricated where they slide over the outside of the stantion. Hence putting the oil in through the very bottom of the lower leg once the fork is back together.

I’m not sure quite how to explain this any better but even the links to tech docs you’ve posted show this, explain it and actually detail the amount of oil to be used.

Take a look at page 67 of the 2010 tech manual you linked to earlier. Operation no 5 says:

“Invert fork to about 45°, fork legs pointing
upward. Measure and inject/pour 15 wt PitStop suspension oil into lower legs through
each shaft bolt hole, according to the lower leg
oil volume values found in the Oil Volume chart,
located in the “Getting Started” section of this
manual. Wipe all excess oil from the lower legs.
Note: For hollow bottom fork legs you will
need to position the fork horizontally and use a
syringe to inject oil into the lower legs from the
dust wiper end prior to lower leg installation
onto the upper tubes”

Note that it says “through each shaft bolt hole” i.e. both legs. Makes no mention of what the spring type is because you need oil in both lower legs.

Anyway, I’m off to bed now as I don’t think I can make it any clearer.

Definitely need oil in the coil side of the lowers, did my lyriks the other month. The coil should also be liberally greased.
Doesn’t matter whether air or coil, both sides still need oil.

Simply put Craig you don’t know what your talking about.

+1 on the oil arguement. You need oil in both lowers, coil/air makes no difference. In airs you need a tiny amount of lube oil in the upper too, for coil some grease is fine.

Lower leg oil change is the most frequent bit of service all RS forks should get

Yes, a little knowledge is dangerous especially when posted on a public forum where people may actually follow this ‘advice’.
matthew h has it spot on.

😉

Craig you are wrong. If you remove the lower bolts from a fork oil should always be in there. As far as i am aware it doesn’t matter what make or model forks they are the lowers always need oil in them.

**** me so it does, awe well i stand corrected, you cant get it rite all the time LOL…

completely missed that, my forks havn’t melted down or fell apart after all them years, any time ive looked down the lower, ive only seen a rubber bumb washer there and never had any oil come out that side… next time i pull them apart ill have another look

They’ll run a lot smoother and feel better with oil in both sides Craig!

not convinced that it will make that much difference, but i’m an idiot that knows nowt 😆

craig1975

Didn’t your forks fall apart in Morzine 😉

I’ll still let you fix my brakes though 🙂

OP here, just checked back. Seems the jury’s out on this one. A bit of oil can hurt, so stuck some in. They are u turn, so the spring side is one continuous chamber. Plenty of greasrle on the spring too.

But, there was definitely no oil in them when manufactured, only 2 weeks old and not a drop leaked out. The presence of a crush washer at the bottom of the leg suggests they are supposed to hold fluid.

Rock Shox are notorious for not putting oil in the lowers during assembly at the factory. 1st thing you should do on buying new Rock Shoxs is open them up and check that their is oil in the lowers!

…which is pretty poor of them and will just lead to warranty returns. I probably ought to assume that the damper side is empty too and stick a few ml in there too

Most fork brands always underlube their forks out the factory, its probably something to do with cost cutting. 15ml of oil on every fork made over a year could make a massive difference

Boxxers, lyriks, pikes, rebas and I’m pretty sure every motion/mission control rockshox fork uses the same lubrication principles, Air or coil sprung

Didn’t your forks fall apart in Morzine

awe rite nick not seen you out for a while 😉 na they just got water in them, a quick oil change and they where fine again, one of the LBS there told me it’s a common problem, not surprised with the amount it rained lol

does beg the question as to how important it is to put oil in that side, guess it wouldnt do any harm, but i cant ignore the fact that my pikes have been running fine without the oil in there for near five year, then theres my lyrik’s…..

But, there was definitely no oil in them when manufactured, only 2 weeks old and not a drop leaked out. The presence of a crush washer at the bottom of the leg suggests they are supposed to hold fluid.

Are you saying you had to take the lowers off to change the spring?
I think on my (a few years old now) lyriks the spring comes out the top, just remove the u-turn adjuster and top cap, there shouldn’t be any oil in there just grease, the oil is in the lowers, unless I’m getting mixed up with another fork, which i probably am….

Confused 😀

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I understand that my Rockshox Revelations need 5ml of 15w oil in the bottom of each fork leg and 123 ml of 5wt in the damper.

I have seen on other forums people putting synthetic motor oil in their forks. The Enduro seal site even recommends fully synthetic motor oil over the 15 wt fork oil for the damper side. What oil should I be putting in my forks on the damper side and at the bottom of both legs. Any advice would be welcome.

jackal – nope, didnt need to take the lowers off to change the spring, it pulls out the top and is covered in plenty of grease. But, this allows you so see into the fork leg (and you will have removed the 10mm bolt holding the lowers on) so it’s easy to see that there is no lubing oil in the fork leg. “lowers” might be the wrong term, as the spring side of the fork is essentially one long tube.