Compression damper problems
LimitedGarry
Posts: 400
Well I don't even know where to start. Has anyone experience with servicing compression dampers?
Mine has stopped returning to unlocked position. Happened overnight. I was riding the bike yesterday. Came today to give it some servicing and change cables and noticed it. First I thought it was the Poploc, but it wasn't. The compression damper was getting stuck - or rather the turning thingy inside (pardon my terminus technicus here). So I opened it up to see what's going on. The spring seemed to be fine. It was springy alright. So I took every single part out of the damper, inspected it for any apparent damage and saw nothing. Put it all back together except for the top cap (the one that screws into the fork). I put the blue control button on to see if it's working and springing back - it was. The thing is, once the top cap is on the damper, it no longer springs back. I can only turn it manually and when it turns, there's an apparent clicking noise in there.
I tried cleaning everything of any possible grit and checked if the spring is installed correctly (also made sure there's enough tension on it). Still no cigar.
So the conclusion is that some friction has developed inside the damper which prevents the spring from returning the turning thingy into it's open position. What baffles me is that it happened overnight and I've never had any issues with it. Like I said, worked fine just yesterday.
For the time being, I've removed the spring from the damper and it works. Turning it is kinda hard and there's still the clicking noise, but it works. The thing is, I ride very varied terrain and the remote functionality is important to me.
Anyone any tips? I gave it about an hour of messing around today. Will try more tomorrow. Will give free thanks to anyone who provides useful information.
Mine has stopped returning to unlocked position. Happened overnight. I was riding the bike yesterday. Came today to give it some servicing and change cables and noticed it. First I thought it was the Poploc, but it wasn't. The compression damper was getting stuck - or rather the turning thingy inside (pardon my terminus technicus here). So I opened it up to see what's going on. The spring seemed to be fine. It was springy alright. So I took every single part out of the damper, inspected it for any apparent damage and saw nothing. Put it all back together except for the top cap (the one that screws into the fork). I put the blue control button on to see if it's working and springing back - it was. The thing is, once the top cap is on the damper, it no longer springs back. I can only turn it manually and when it turns, there's an apparent clicking noise in there.
I tried cleaning everything of any possible grit and checked if the spring is installed correctly (also made sure there's enough tension on it). Still no cigar.
So the conclusion is that some friction has developed inside the damper which prevents the spring from returning the turning thingy into it's open position. What baffles me is that it happened overnight and I've never had any issues with it. Like I said, worked fine just yesterday.
For the time being, I've removed the spring from the damper and it works. Turning it is kinda hard and there's still the clicking noise, but it works. The thing is, I ride very varied terrain and the remote functionality is important to me.
Anyone any tips? I gave it about an hour of messing around today. Will try more tomorrow. Will give free thanks to anyone who provides useful information.
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The forks are?I don't do smileys.
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Parktools0 -
Done! I did everything right except one thing - instead of tensioning the spring by one full turn, I only gave it half a turn (as I didn't know how much am I supposed to tension it, really, and felt that full turn might be too much).
It works now. Not really that bad for my first time ever doing anything on the fork, considering I didn't actually do any prior research.
I was pissed about it so instead of watching a movie I went down into the basement to mess around with it some more. I noticed that while the damper is inside the fork, the clicking cannot be heard or felt, so I thought the problem has to be in the spring. Gave it another clean and then watched a vid about it and the guy mentions tensioning by a whole turn, at which point I knew exactly where I effed up. It was no friction, but the spring has unwound a little.
The thing is that now I don't really know what caused the spring to unwind. I'm hoping that I did it myself somehow when I was changing cables and cable housings on the shifter and lockout. That way I'd know it won't happen again.
Anyways, I gave my bike a nice functional clean, full service including brake bleeding and learned something new in the end. Jack Daniel's is about to call this a day.
Oh and by the way, the forks are some RockShox Gold TK 100mm.0
