Float rl oil volumes and air spring removal

Cqc

Hi all, I have a 2007 fox float rl 120mm open bath which I am planning to do a lower leg service to and change travel to 140mm. couple of quick questions:
1) on the fox website ( see number 4) http://service.foxracingshox.com/consum ... olumes.htm
it says to put in 150ml of green wt fluid in the damper side lower legs, but only 20ml in the air spring side lower legs- is this normal, and is it enough to lubricate the bushings?
2) I cannot find any videos online of people removing the air spring, but as I understand I undo the bit on the fork crown under the blue air cap with an adjustable spanner, and the it just drops down if I have the lower legs removed. Is that right? And if so how do I replace it?
3) finally, if I add a bit of extra float fluid to the air reservoir, will I make it more progressive, and if so, how much would you recommend me to add roughly?
Many thanks

oxocube1

1) The reason you need a lot more oil in the damper-side lower leg is because it is an Open Bath model. Which effectively means that fluid is free to move from the bottom of the lowers to the top of the stanchions. So that 150ml oil will be lubricating the bushings/lowers, whilst also serving as oil for the damper at the same time. And 20ml in the spring-side is plenty. Rockshox forks only use 15ml in each leg.

2) I serviced a set of 2010 140RL recently and to remove the air spring you just need to remove the lowers, then the air cap at the top of the left leg, and push the spring from the bottom out of the top.
Just to clarify, get it to the position in the photo below, then push the spring upwards from the bottom, out of the top:



3) And yes more fluid in the air chamber will make it more progressive, it would work in the same way the bottomless tokens work for the new 2014 Pikes here.

Hope that helps!

Cqc

Wow, thank you, that was very detailed! So, fox recommends 5cc of float fluid in the air chamber, how much should I add on top of that to make it SLIGHTLY more progressive? 2cc? 5cc? Finally, the fox website says something about removing circlips from the bottom of the stanchion? Did you need to do this to remove the air spring? Thanks so much, you sure know your stuff!

oxocube1

I would probably go up in 3cc increments and try to see what difference it makes. It's very easy to change the oil volume in the air chamber as you can do it with the fork fully assembled, just gotta release the air and unscrew the air cap and pour the fluid in/out.

You only have to remove the circlip if you want to gain full access to the inside of the stanchion i.e. using a dowel rod to push a cleaning cloth through it. Otherwise you don't need to remove it, you can push the air spring up and out without removing the circlip.

An no probs, glad to help!

Cqc

Great, thanks very much!

ricardo_smooth

make sure you have a torque wrench to get the correct pressure when doing up the air chamber caps. This os one of the main reasons people get creaking forks (or failing CSU) as they don't get the setting right on the top cap

Cqc

Is the problem under or over tightening?

Dick Scruttock

Don't push the air spring out of the top.

Cqc

And why may I ask?

ricardo_smooth

Rick Draper wrote:

Don't push the air spring out of the top.

The threaded area can damage the seals. IIRC the tubes narrow slightly too

The problem with the tightening is that they creek unless it's torqued correctly....can be over or under and it will do it

Dick Scruttock

ricardo_smooth wrote:

Rick Draper wrote:

Don't push the air spring out of the top.

The threaded area can damage the seals. IIRC the tubes narrow slightly too

The problem with the tightening is that they creek unless it's torqued correctly....can be over or under and it will do it

This is the reason. Better to remove the retaining ring and remove it from the bottom.

Cqc

Ah...