Shock Help

morleyman200

Hello all

My brother is having a problem with his shock and bushings. Over time his bike has started to produce some play, When you lift the seat the play is apparent.
He has a X-fusion O2 RC shock, the shock its self is fine, compression and rebound damping all working well.
The problem lies with the bushings and the eyelets. The eyelet in the top has elongated, rather than circular it is now oval in the vertical direction.
Took the shock to a steel fabricator to see if he could make me some bushings for it, but he said i'd be pissing money away, as the problem lies in the shock its self. He checked the eyelets and confirmed they are oblong.

Have any of you come across this situation before?

Any ideas what to do?

Thanks Tom

poah

sounds like its been ridden a lot with movement in the bushes so its been elongated. probably need to get a new cap and mounting hardware.

cooldad

Could only have happened if he wore right through the bushings - are you sure?

morleyman200

positive, the bushing are still intact, just worn on the insides where they sit into the shock eyelet, there is no play laterally, just play vertically which supports the fact the eyelet has been elongated

benpinnick

What bike is it on? I cannot see how you could elongate the bush housing. There's just not enough force pulling the shock.

morleyman200

Merida One Twenty TFS 400D

http://www.merida-bikes.com/de_de/bike/ ... +TFS+400-D

Ive had the eyelet measured in the vertical and the horizontal and the vertical is longer than the horizontal, hence why it has elongated, im just telling you what i have found from measurements

trooperk

picture will help.

YeehaaMcgee

benpinnick wrote:

I cannot see how you could elongate the bush housing. There's just not enough force pulling the shock.

Doesn't have to be pulling the shock. If the rear shock was always bottoming out due to chronically low air pressure/spring rate, then the suspension linkage would be crushing it, potentially elongating the eyelets inwards by hammering away at the shock body.

morleyman200

shock pressure was never that low, always maintained sag, but my brother does like to throw his bike about, more so than the average person

I would upload a photo, but you cant see the extent of the damage from a photo, so thought it was pretty pointless,

benpinnick

Just to clarify, and please be patient as I know hundreds of riders over two decades of running shocks and Ive never heard of one issue like this, is the bushing (not the aluminium top hats) still round, or has that ovalised too? To Yeehaa's point did your brother suffer from a lot of bottoming out? Is he prone to hucking off cliffs and the like?

morleyman200

I didn't get the bushings measured, but I will do that tonight, but they look circular by eye.
The shock eyelet has become elongated and it's noticeable by eye, will measure again tonight to see actual measurements.

My brother does throw his bike around a lot, but likes a firm feeling, so the shock doesn't go to the point of bottoming out.

Like you all I am confused as I wouldn't expect the shock part to fail.

If there are any more details needed, I will do my best to get them accross

Thanks your help
Tom

YeehaaMcgee

Pictures would help clarify. If it's noticeable by eye, then it's noticeable by an electronic eye.

pesky_jones

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Pictures would help clarify. If it's noticeable by eye, then it's noticeable by an electronic eye.

Er, I dont know if that's right; the angle you take the photo of the hole will determine whether the hole appears circular of ovaled. You'd have to be pretty accurate

YeehaaMcgee

Pesky Jones wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Pictures would help clarify. If it's noticeable by eye, then it's noticeable by an electronic eye.

Er, I dont know if that's right

Yes, it is.

pesky_jones

It's not surprising that you have taken that part of my comment in the quote to reply to - given your nature, but would you care to explain why what I said is wrong?

YeehaaMcgee

Because, if you can see it by eye, then a camera can see it.
Cameras aren't magic. Apart from that, I just can't explain it, since I cannot even to begin to fathom why you'd insist otherwise.

pesky_jones

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Because, if you can see it by eye, then a camera can see it.

Ok, so are you saying that this ;

The angle you take the photo of the hole will determine whether the hole appears circular of ovaled

isn't true?

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Apart from that, I just can't explain it, since I cannot even to begin to fathom why you'd insist otherwise.

Because you are infamous for saying "Just saying it does isn't enough", pot, kettle, black springs to mind

YeehaaMcgee

What the hell are you on about?
Yeah, you could take a picture with a fricking fisheye lens and distort it to hell as well. But even then we'd still have a better understanding of what exactly is being talked about.
I'm lost for words. Just... Wha... What the hell is the matter with you?

pesky_jones

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

What the hell are you on about?
Yeah, you could take a picture with a ******* fisheye lens and distort it to hell as well. But even then we'd still have a better understanding of what exactly is being talked about.
I'm lost for words. Just... Wha... What the hell is the matter with you?

Oh so you've realised your mistake and are now trying to make it look like it was obvious to you before. Atleast your not going to continue arguing a retarded argument for the sake of it.

YeehaaMcgee

Pesky Jones wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

What the hell are you on about?
Yeah, you could take a picture with a ******* fisheye lens and distort it to hell as well. But even then we'd still have a better understanding of what exactly is being talked about.
I'm lost for words. Just... Wha... What the hell is the matter with you?

Oh so you've realised your mistake and are now trying to make it look like it was obvious to you before. Atleast your not going to continue arguing a retarded argument for the sake of it.

What bloody mistake? You're the only mistake here.
All I said was that a photo would help us figure out what's going on.

rockmonkeysc

If you ride with worn bushes that causes shock loadings which are passed on to the shock eye. This can cause the hole to elongate. There doesn't have to be contact with the bolt or wear.
I check mine regularly as Nukeproof frames are prone to elongating the top mount on the frame when the bushes are worn.

morleyman200

thanks for getting back on topic rockmonkey.

I have attached a photo of the bushing and the shockeye. You can not see the extent of the elongation (if thats a word) it still looks circular.

The frame is fine, the bolt doesn't rattle in the frame, nor does the bolt rattle in the bushings, its all in the contact between the shock and bushings.

Hope the photos help

morleyman200

and the bushing

rockmonkeysc

You need a new shock and keep an eye on wear next time.

morleyman200

I was thinking of popping out the eyelet and getting someone to fabricate a new eyelet, which will be elongated on the outside, but the circular on the inside. How easy is it to strip out the eyelets.

Also just realised I have posted this in buying advice, when i meant to put it in workshop, my bad

YeehaaMcgee

morleyman200 wrote:

thanks for getting back on topic rockmonkey.

I have attached a photo of the bushing and the shockeye. You can not see the extent of the elongation (if thats a word) it still looks circular.

Hmm, there's a tiny bit of elongation - which is a word - but the main use for the picture is to make sure we're all talking about the right parts in the same terminology.

I'm going to put my hands up and admit that I'm baffled by this. Those aluminium top-hat bushes are far softer than the shock body, so how have they managed to do that to the shock? No idea. Very odd.

morleyman200 wrote:

I was thinking of popping out the eyelet and getting someone to fabricate a new eyelet, which will be elongated on the outside

Hmm, that might prove incredibly difficult. I haven't done any machining in a looooong time, but I can;t think of a reliable, accurate way of doing that, unless you were fabricating both parts from scratch to begin with.
It would be more straightforward to ream out the shock eye, and get a bushing made to fit it.

morleyman200

I asked a fabricator about producing a bushing to fit the elongated eyelet, and let the bushing rotate around the bolt rather than the bushing in the eyelet. but he told me due to the extent of the milling and the fabrication, it would cost in the region of £100, for that money on bushings, i'd rather buy a new shock for a bit more

YeehaaMcgee

I thought so.
Ask him about reaming out the shock so that it's round again, and making a bushing to fit that. Should be far cheaper.

morleyman200

in basic terms, is that making the whole in the shock, where the eye is, bigger, to fit a new eye in along with new bushings?

YeehaaMcgee

Yes, sorry. But making it only just slightly bigger. Just enough to make it round.

rockmonkeysc

Reaming it out might be a bit dodgy. You dont know how much spare material there is before it gets too weak. You also dont know how its failed, its very possible that the whole eyelet is deformed, not just the hole.