Rear Shocks gone Kaput!

baccaman21

So, having spent all day fettling with my front mech, adding a 3rd chain ring and tearing my hair out trying to sort the bloody indexing out again... I've just discovered my bloomin Rear Shocks got ZERO damping... i.e. seals have blown or something else gone pear shaped... :S

not best pleased as you can imagine - supposed to be going out for a ride tomorrow too!

what an @rse...

anyway... seeing that the damn things dead... and it's gonna cost me £76 for TFtuning to service it... I was thinking... is this the right time to replace the whole unit?

It's a Manitou Swinger Coil 3way SPV on an 05 Patriot 6.6.

Now, seeing that my ridings moving away from DH and more into XC... should I be considering something a lot lighter perhaps...?

maybe a FOX shock?

I dunno... price is an issue, but with my bike out of action now I don't care... I wanna go riding tomorrow and I can't

supersonic

You don't have much luck do you?!

CRC have some great deals on Fox shocks.

baccaman21

lol... not at the moment no... yeah - I noticed on their ubiquitous emails... I'll check em out...

any ideas what kind I should really be looking at... I'm not really sure where to begin tbh.

supersonic

First thing, make sure its the right size - eye to eye length and shock stroke (ie 51mm or whatever). One of the pro pedal shocks would make sense, especially with a single pivot bike like this.

baccaman21

I know that eye to eye is currently 215mm but I do know that the 05 Patriots 6.6 have a choice of 2 shock sliders giving an option of 190mm eye to eye...

what I also know is that I've forgotten the shock stroke length... remind me where I'd locate that snippet of info... is it the 2.5" reference on the shock coil?

supersonic

Usually written on the spring. Also Orange's website lists them.

baccaman21

just out of interest... is it possible to repair these at home?

I'm thinking that, if I'm prepared to get a new shock, then I may as well spend a bit of time first giving it a once over... that way i may learn a thing or two about how they work?

(more fettling frontiers to smash through)

Presumably I'd need seals and stuff and a decent walkthrough guide... I'm sure I've seen something in one of the old grimetimes?? any ideas?

(I've just downloaded the 05 service manual from answer) - on second thoughts having read this I think I'll not bother... too techincal for my current situation...

dh_nisse

I have found that manitou shock is really easy to work with. So a person with normal intelligence should be abel to fix it 8) Just make sure that you have let all the air out of it.. A seal kit is quite cheap... Good luck fixing it!