full travel on reba sl

Mastineo

Hi all
Looking for a bit of advice..... again :roll:
This last week I've noticed that I'm regularly bottoming out my Reba SL 100mm on bumps it reckons to float over. Ive not suddenly gained a stone in weight and the fork is maintaining air pressure ok.
Ive emptied both positive and negative chambers and put 150 psi in the positive chamber and measured the fork extension.It appears that my forks have a massive 37mm of travel!!
The lockout dial works as it should and the rebound damper seems to work properly as well.
Any ideas?
John

supersonic

Doesn't sound good - possible the postive chamber is leaking into the negative.

Deflate the negative first, then positive. Refill positive. Does it suck back down?

stumpyjon

Could be an oil leak in the right hand damper leg although I would have expected the lockout to have failed as well. If oil does get into the lowers it can cause exactly what you've described travel wise as the oil won't compress.

Noticed my lockout had gone on Friday night and when I dropped the air out of the positive chamber I had over an inch of stantions still exposed, so looks like a seal has gone again :evil: .

Mastineo

Thanks for the quick replies.
When I add air to the negative chamber it does pull the fork down. Tried emptying the negative side and leaving the pump attached, added more air to the positive side (with a second pump) to see if there was any leakage from one side to the other, also bounced on the forks a few times. Dont know if this is an effective way to check for leakage but it didnt show any. Also checked the lockout again, now this doesnt seem to do anything!!
John

stumpyjon

With no pressure in the positive chamber and the negative at 100 PSI, how much stanchion, if any is showing?

Mastineo

Hiya
Just done what you asked and theres 73mm of stanchion showing, am guessing this is not 'quite' right.
John

supersonic

Can you push the fork any further down? Beginnong to think the damper may be faulty.

It should never be overfilled though, and works best with 5wt.

stumpyjon

Really does sound like what happened to mine. After mine were fixed the first time under warranty I checked and when compressed there was no stanchion showing (well maybe a couple of mm) when compressed. Since my lockout has gone again they bottom out completely with about 30mm still showing. I'm guessing the lockout is gone as well, just felt locked out permenantly due to the lack of travel.

I've got a seal kit on order, last time it went it was the seal on the push rod on the damper leg, oil into the lowers, no lockout and about 20mm of travel before the stanchion bottomed out on the oil in the lower leg. Assuming my seal kit turns up I'll be servicing my forks over the weekend, I'll post up to let you know what I find when I open them up.

Mastineo

No, with just the negative air pressure in the forks are solid.

supersonic

Soild with... 73mm left?

Mastineo

Right then, its all got a bit confused or rather, I have!
Just done the -ve air test again, with 100psi -ve and 0psi +ve there is 35mm of exposed stanchion and the forks are solid. Yesterday there was 73mm of exposed stanchion. The forks have been laid flat overnight so perhaps some oil has seeped back to where it should be. Or I could be talking b*ll*x about something I know nothing about.

supersonic

Something definitely not right, they obviosuly can't compress to the full travel. With no +ve pressure you should be able to push them down to just 5mm of stanchion left.

Mastineo

theres now 10mm stanchion showing and oil seeping out the top of the left hand leg

Mastineo

theres now 10mm stanchion showing and oil seeping out the top of the left hand leg

supersonic

Sounds like the damper is damaged. And overfilled ;-)

Any warranty on it? If not I'd send to TF tuned to have it servied or replaced.

Or you can try at home with a new O ring and seal kit. But I am unsure of the exact problem.

Mastineo

The forks off my Rockhopper that was written off by a Fiesta. Less than a year old but dont know how I stand with regards warranty as I cant prove they're from that bike.
Will try tomorrow, failing that TF tuned's looking like best choice.
Thanks for helping chaps.
John

stumpyjon

Sounds more and more like the push rod oil seal or something similar has allowed oil to escape from the top of the leg into the lowers. Laying them down flat may well have allowed some of the oil to leak out of the lowers which would allow for more compression.

As I said I've got a very similar problem to fix at the weekend. Thing is a seal kit is £ 24, TF tuned will cost a lot more. As long as you don't damage anything by being cack handed what have you got to lose. if you can fix it you're £ 24 down and back to TF Tuned. Look in the in here for your forks service guide. There are very comprehensive instructions in the service guides including loads of piccies.

However you may want to wait until after I've followed my own advice and got my own forks working first :? [/url]

stumpyjon

Well I sort of serviced my forks today. As expected there was a lot of oil in the bottom of the damper, right hand leg. Anyway stripped and cleaned everything (then realised I'd got there wrong service kit) and put everything back together. Also realised I needed 15 wt oil for the lowers as well as the 5 wt I had for the damper circuit (ended up using the 5 wt).

Anyway the lockout is working again (20mm of travel or so then solid) and I'm getting full travel. We'll see how long it works before the oil leaks again :roll: . Will do a full service on both legs next time with the right bits. That said at least it was all pretty easy so I won't be too fussed doing it again.

All I've got to do now is get my Fox TALAS forks working, think I fixed the travel problem with and old nail :shock: The lockout on those is now playing up. 30mm plus of travel when left overnight, cycle the fork a few times and then the lockout is absolutely solid, looks like it's lost some oil as well. Really getting on my nerves, so much for top end forks :evil: .

Mastineo

Quick update.
Had forks repaired under warranty, according to the worksheet the rebound damper was replaced. World is full of bouncy goodness once again (my little bit anyway). Thanks for the help chaps much appreciated.