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stustjohn
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Posts: 3
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 Posted Sun Nov 1, 2009 9:32 pm |
I have a bike with Suntour XCM forks on it - yes, I know I'm on a low budget! - and they have recently become rather sluggish. A friend suggested that they are probably seizing up with dirt, etc., because the seals aren't too good. This sounds quite likely. To get them serviced would probably cost more than they are worth, so I would like to have a go at cleaning them myself. (If it then goes pear-shaped, I haven't lost much, apart from the time it took, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?) I have only come across one place on the net where this is mentioned. It has some nice photos, but the text is all in Greek, and Google's autotranslate generates more gobbledygook than sense! Does anyone know how to get hold of an appropriate Tech video, or description of how to dismantle (safely), clean them, then reassemble? (I am reasonably technically competent - recently rebuilt the entire drivetrain successfully.) The forks consist of a coil spring on the left and a nitrogen gas damper on the right.
Any helpful comments gratefully received! Stu.
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nicklouseLives Here
Joined: 20 Mar 2003
Posts: 48250
Location: A Yorkshire man in Sweden
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Lapierre t 400
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 284
Location: nielles les blequin FRANCE or kent
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Posted Mon Nov 2, 2009 9:26 am |
not difficult if they are anything like my suntour xcm
with an allen key undo the screw at the bottom
with a 10 mm (i think) spanner undo the other scrw on the bottom
with a big socket undo the lockout knob
go to your bike shop and ask them if they have the special tool for undoing the rebound or otherwise take a pair of mole grips or stilsons or srewdriver and hammer and undo that
I think you will find there is not much to fix in your forks
Lapierre Technic 400:08 reba teams,EA70 monkeybars,thomson elite stem, XT fr and rear mechs,XT chainset,chain,XTR cables,outland grips |
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stustjohn
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Posts: 3
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Posted Wed Nov 4, 2009 7:22 pm |
Many thanks to those who replied to my request for help. With your guidance and advice, I managed to safely dismantle, clean up and rebuild my forks. Now they are like new!
You've made one skint mountain-biker very happy. Thanks, Stu. 
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saracen fan
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Posts: 132
Location: thetford, norfolk
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stustjohn
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Posts: 3
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Posted Thu Nov 5, 2009 7:00 pm |
I make no claims regarding the correctness of what I did, but (for me) it seems to have worked so far. So, for those interested, here goes:
1. Took off wheel and brake assembly, then removed handlebars, etc., and pulled out the forks
2. Unscrewed the allen key bolt on the gas damper side (RHS on my set) and the nut on the coil side
3. Undid the large nut on the upper end of the gas damper stanchion using a 27mm socket spanner
4. Undid the (admittedly flimsy) plastic 12-toothed nut thing on the top of the coil stanchion using a mole grip - this was the diciest part of the process and I'm not sure how many times I'll be able to do that before shearing off all the plastic teeth! (Presumably there exists a special tool for extracting these doo-dahs) By the way, all nuts and bolt undo the conventional way - there are no reverse threads, even though to begin with you might think so, as they can be VERY tough to shift at first!
5. Pulled the stanchions out of the large U-shaped piston-tube thing. They got stuck at first (due to all the muck and stuff that was lurking inside) but a few well-struck taps with a rubber mallet soon brought them out
6. I soaked the spring in a measuring cylinder filled with paraffin while scrubbing the chromed outers of the stanchions with a green plastic kitchen scourer and hot soapy water
7. I used a piece of wood (broom handle would do) with a green scourer stapled to the end to scrub out the big U-tube thing (since it was caked with all manner of crud)
8. I used a slightly more refined process with paraffin and old rags to clean out the inside of the chrome stanchions
9. I left all the bits on the top of our Rayburn to thoroughly dry out before applying Manitou Prep-M (the only fork grease my local bike shop sells) to the bottoms of the forks, the coil, and the chrome stanchions just below where the rubber seals go
10. Then I reassembled the whole lot. Seems to be working good as new. I'll update this post in a week or two once I have given them a good testing, although to be honest, they were compressing and then staying down, so they were no good at all before I took them apart to clean them up!
Hope this is useful...
Stuart.
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