Suntour XC60 fork disassembly...

DaveMcM

Hi All,

I've got a Saracen Nzyme bike that has SR Suntour XC60 forks which have developed a nasty squeak whenever they compress... I've tried oiling them but it's not made any difference so I am trying to take them apart to see what is up and see if I can fix them / grease them / whatever...

I can get the forks off the bike following the threadless headset disassembly instructions in park tools big blue book, but can't work out how to actually split the forks themselves open to get at the innards...

i've found an exploded diagram of the forks at on the Suntour website (http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/SID=si5f2d17f56712ef2af15db89cc9fadf/index.php?screen=sh.detail&tnid=1005 - pdf link near the bottom) but I can't work out how to get the adjusting assembly off the top (number 4 in the diagram!)

Anybody got any experience cracking these things open?

Cheers,

Dave

skyliner

You need to loosen the footnuts with a 5mm hex key, wind them out few turns (but not remove them) then tap the head of the footnut with a softblow mallet to break the bond between the shaft and lowers. Then remove the footnuts, and pull down on the lowers to remove them.
The seals aren't too good on those forks though, you'll probably find scoring on the stanchions (upper legs) is the cause of the noise, or a damaged damper cartridge if it's the lockout version.
You may need to bin them and invest in a better fork.

DaveMcM

The footnuts (assuming you mean the bottom caps from the exploded diagram) look like they are pressed in - they certainly don't seem to have any kind of hex fitting or nut that you can use to undo them...

I eventually managed to split them by unscrewing the top adjuster (and chewing it up a bit in the process as it's made of pretty soft plastic!) and found that both springs were looking pretty scratched up and the bottom of the stems had quite a bit of water in...

I think I may need to invest in some better forks - does anyone have any recommendations for cheap (sub £100!) forks?

looking at it the XC60s are down at £22 on chain reaction...

Cheers

Dave

Andy B

RockShox Tora's are possibly the best ~£100 fork.

Andy B

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=21988

skyliner

I've stripped XCR75's before, I assumed they'd be similar.
It looks like they're even more disposable than the a75's!

DaveMcM

Well I managed to clean up the springs, empty the stems and put everything back together with a load of fresh grease...

I did 12.5 miles today with not a peep from them so depending how long this lasts I've at least bought myself a bit more time to save for some better ones...

Thanks for all the advice and recommendations...

dave