Small issue re-assembling Fox 32 forks after DIY service

aongo

Hi all,
Quick question for the experts if I might... Attempted a DIY seal clean and oil change on my Fox 32 F100 RL ALPS OB forks last night (fitted to Cube Ltd Race). Needed it as it happened, as oil side was reasonably ok, but air side o-ring sponge underneath wiper-seals was dry and dusty...
All went ok; bike up-side-down, front brake off, fork lowers off, seals out & cleaned, oil changed and fork re-assembled without making a mess of anything but having a slight hiccup in tightening up the external retaining nut underneath lower leg on the oil side (saved the crush washers btw). In trying to screw it back down onto the threaded oil damper rod, the rod is also rotating in the same way that I am trying to thread the nut - does that make sense?
Maybe I jogged the damper loose when I had the legs off? though I didn't notice it rotating at any stage... I had noticed when undoing it originally that the nut was a little stiff on the threads, so added a little grease for the re-assembling... now it threads for about 1/2 a turn then the whole nut and threaded rod itself starts rotating.
Decided to call it a night and get some help before doing something that I'll later regret - any and all help is really appreciated!
Many thanks!
A

PS; the "threaded oil damper rod"-thing may not be the correct name for the part I'm trying to describe, but hopefully you'll know what I mean and feel free to correct me!

97th choice

I had the same problem with a set of marzocchi's. used a battery powered nut gun. Prob the wrong thing to do but it worked!

Shackster

That sounds a bit like what happened to me (although in my case the rod didn't rotate, but the nut was stuck) - you were right to stop, as I pressed on and knackered the thread on the damper rod (don't use a nut gun!). Hopefully that hasn't already happened to yours, as it cost me a service at Mojo to fix it

Is the top of the damper fixed securely into the stanchion? Or maybe the old crush washers are obstructing things? Try the nut without the washer, to make sure the thread's OK.

I don't like the way you have to hit what is a quite delicate part (albeit with the nut threaded back on a bit) to dislodge the damper when taking the fork apart. You can't thread the nut on too far as the rebound adjuster would then be exposed, so only a few threads are taking the impact; I'm pretty sure that's whenI knackered mine!

aongo

Thanks lads!

Yeah, I thought the same, I was hesitant enough too, even in hitting the rethreaded nuts with a rubber mallet... I guess I am lucky in that there is no rebound adjuster on my forks down there, and I don't think I have damaged threads or nut (I hope!)
Might avoid the nut gun for the moment - save it as a last resort!

To answer your question, it does appear that top of the damper fixed securely into the stanchion, externally at least, though I'm afraid now that I may have dislodged something internally...
I may whip all off again and take a closer look at the damper and try thread the nut on without the leg of the fork being in the way...
I don't have the big shallow hex tool to take the damper out of the top of the stanchion (and would be well out of my depth at that stage anyway) so if this doesn't work, it's hang my head in shame and organise a trip to OC Tuning in Kildare (Irish equiv of Mojo)

Dammit and it was all going so flippin' well and all!

aongo

Just a bit of closure on this, for anyone searching the forum in future...

Was recommended on Pinkbike to always replace the crush washers when attempting this reassembly, so I sourced some new ones.
However on opening the forks back up again, and checking the old crush washers carefully, I decided to reuse them. I first cleaned the threaded air-side and damper-side rods, crush washers and foot-nuts thoroughly. With the bike upside down, and putting the slightest hand pressure down and forward on the fork legs to hold the edges of the holes tight to the threaded rods poking through. I added a tiny bit of grease to the threads to help things along, then threaded the crush washers on the damper side first, tightening them carefully against the bottom of the lowers with a needle-nose pliers til they were snug & tight (so far so good with no rotation I was dreading.)
Then started threading the foot-nuts, again with light greasing and the slight down and forward pressure on the fork legs, and happy days the nut started to thread the rod properly without the rod starting to spin internally - Woohoo!

Reassembly on the air-side was much easier, brake & wheel back on, and handful of proper rides later everything is nice and buttery smooth with no explosions.

Thanks everyone for the help!

cyclotom

I find it helps to put a socket (with no arm) over the re-threaded bolt. That give you an extra few mm's of thread without exposing the rebound adjuster. Then whack the socket rather than the nut.