[gryhrt]

I recently stumbled across a Giant Rincon (sans wheels) lying out for the trash. Now that I've relocated it to my basement, my thought is to tear it apart over the winter and rebuild it into something for my girlfriend to ride to try out the whole mtb thing. As I've gotten into it, it's obvious that it had been left in the rain for a while.

I want to tear apart the fork -- a SR Suntour XCR -- to clean and lube it. I have all the internals out, and all visible screws removed....but I can't get the inner fork tubes to come free from the outer fork tubes. I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious....any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[XSL_WiLL]

I recently stumbled across a Giant Rincon (sans wheels) lying out for the trash. Now that I've relocated it to my basement, my thought is to tear it apart over the winter and rebuild it into something for my girlfriend to ride to try out the whole mtb thing. As I've gotten into it, it's obvious that it had been left in the rain for a while.

I want to tear apart the fork -- a SR Suntour XCR -- to clean and lube it. I have all the internals out, and all visible screws removed....but I can't get the inner fork tubes to come free from the outer fork tubes. I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious....any suggestions?

Thanks!

Spring/elastometer forks require little to no maintenance.

As for removing the stanchions and crown from the lowers. The two bolts in the bottom of the lowers should be holding it together.

 

[Warp]

I recently stumbled across a Giant Rincon (sans wheels) lying out for the trash. Now that I've relocated it to my basement, my thought is to tear it apart over the winter and rebuild it into something for my girlfriend to ride to try out the whole mtb thing. As I've gotten into it, it's obvious that it had been left in the rain for a while.

I want to tear apart the fork -- a SR Suntour XCR -- to clean and lube it. I have all the internals out, and all visible screws removed....but I can't get the inner fork tubes to come free from the outer fork tubes. I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious....any suggestions?

Thanks!

You'll need a socket (of an unknown size) and a nice lenght extension... I had wanted to pull mine apart but I don't have the tools.

Look down the stanchions and you'll see at the bottom some square shaped nuts. You gotta remove them to remove the lowers and service the bushings or at least clean and relube the thing.

Below you'll find the negative springs (or that's what the diagrams say) that go between the lower part of the stanchions and the bottom of the lowers.

At this point, check if you get proper sag. If not, maybe your elastomer/spring stack is too long and already preloaded, no matter if your preload adjuster is all the way back.

Mine were preloaded 15mm!!! I cut those 15mm off and I got nearer to sag and I got some more travel. I get nearly 70 of the 80mm of the fork.

These forks have one of the stiffest chassis around and mine had been nearly indestructible... they work for real crap, but at least you can be confident you'll not break them.

Good luck!!

 

[Warp]

Spring/elastometer forks require little to no maintenance.

As for removing the stanchions and crown from the lowers. The two bolts in the bottom of the lowers should be holding it together.

Not at the bottom of the lowers. Those are simple caps.

The ones that keep them together are the ones that are at the bottom of the STANCHIONS! Maybe you were referring to those too.

These forks have a crappy design... why?? Yes, they require little to no maintenance but the maintenance you have to do involves removing the lowers which is not good. They don't have actual seals but rather crappy wipers that allow huge amounts of dirt into the lowers/stanchions overlap... without an easy way to access that part.

What I have done recently is to put lighter oil (ATF) down the wipers and make kind of a flush. ATF is just fine for lubrication of the bushings but might shorten its life and allow for more play... but who cares on such crappy working fork? In any way this has made my fork work more like a real fork than the pogo stick it actually is. I get more ... uh, plush? travel than before.

Sometimes I think of my 2.4 Motoraptor as my shock absorber....

 

[gryhrt]

Look down the stanchions and you'll see at the bottom some square shaped nuts. You gotta remove them to remove the lowers and service the bushings or at least clean and relube the thing.

Hmm...I just took a look down the stanchions, but at the bottom is what appears to be a rubber or plastic seat/plug. It looks similar to the plastic "end caps" that came out with the spring. I've attached a couple photos so you can see what I'm looking at. Do I need to get the object pictured out of the stancion to uncover the nut you talked about?

Alternatively.....I've slid the boots and the wipers up the stancion...what's left is the plastic piece with a lip that the wipers and boots sort of set into. I wondered if these plastic pieces would thread out of the lowers, thus allowing removal of the stancions from the lowers....but I figured I'd ask before I took the vise-grips to 'em.

Thanks...

 

[Warp]

Hmm...I just took a look down the stanchions, but at the bottom is what appears to be a rubber or plastic seat/plug. It looks similar to the plastic "end caps" that came out with the spring. I've attached a couple photos so you can see what I'm looking at. Do I need to get the object pictured out of the stancion to uncover the nut you talked about?

Alternatively.....I've slid the boots and the wipers up the stancion...what's left is the plastic piece with a lip that the wipers and boots sort of set into. I wondered if these plastic pieces would thread out of the lowers, thus allowing removal of the stancions from the lowers....but I figured I'd ask before I took the vise-grips to 'em.

Thanks...

Mmmmmmhhh.... XLS_Will should be right and you need to remove the foot nuts.

It's a mess... some Suntour forks (like mine) follow the method I described. Some others follow the method XLS_Will described. There's a third one (and god knows how many more) where there's an allen head bolt inside the stanchions... but that should come out also like XLS_Will said...

Try removing those ones and pulling the lowers gently. make it carefully as these forks have pieces between the lowers and the bottom of the stanchions.

Sorry for not being more helpful.

 

[gryhrt]

Mmmmmmhhh.... XLS_Will should be right and you need to remove the foot nuts.

At the bottom of the lowers (on the outside, right by the dropouts) were two allen head bolts -- one for each lower. I removed those right off the bat, but they don't seem to do anything other than fill a hole. I've tried slowly pulling...I've tried pulling a bit harder and faster...but no dice. I think I may go try to poke that black rubber/plastic thing out of the stanchions and see if there's anything else under there.

Sorry for not being more helpful.

You've been quite helpfull -- at least I know I'm on the right track! It would be nice if Suntour had better documentation on their web site, though...

 

[gryhrt]

Success! As it turns out, it was the bolts on the bottom of the lowers that was holding the whole thing together.....but it was also slightly seized. The right size allen key and a bit of persuasion with a hammer and it came apart nicely. The stanchions aren't in great shape....but a rebuild should make it at least workable.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[Warp]

Success! As it turns out, it was the bolts on the bottom of the lowers that was holding the whole thing together.....but it was also slightly seized. The right size allen key and a bit of persuasion with a hammer and it came apart nicely. The stanchions aren't in great shape....but a rebuild should make it at least workable.

Thanks again for the help!

Please post pics... it might be happening that to my fork!!

Did you tapped the bolt at the bottom of the lowers or helped them to turn with a small hammer??

Cool you could take them apart!!

 

[gryhrt]

Did you tapped the bolt at the bottom of the lowers or helped them to turn with a small hammer??

Hmm....I didn't explain very well. There were two bolts at the bottom -- I removed those right off the bat, but it still wouldn't come apart. What I did was used a small allen key that would fit into the hole in the lowers that the bolt came out of, but the key was big enough that it hit against the "black plastic thing" that I was talking about. Then I just tapped it with a hammer a bit and it popped loose. I repeated on the other lower, and the whole mess came out!

The first pic is the two black "retainer" pieces that go inside the stanchions. The brass insert at the bottom (second pic) goes all the way to the bottom of the lowers, and is threaded for that allen bolt that I removed. The top of the retainer has a rubber bumper on it, which is what limits the extension of the fork. The last pic shows it all going together.

The stanchions turned out to be pretty bad -- the plating was worn off at the load bearing points, and there was some rust. I steel-wooled the bad spots, and with some grease it'll be good enough for my girlfriend to get an idea of what she thinks. It was free, so I'm not complaining!

Thanks...

(Hmm....picture upload isn't working for me right now -- I'll come back and put 'em up.)

 

[Warp]

Hmm....I didn't explain very well. There were two bolts at the bottom -- I removed those right off the bat, but it still wouldn't come apart. What I did was used a small allen key that would fit into the hole in the lowers that the bolt came out of, but the key was big enough that it hit against the "black plastic thing" that I was talking about. Then I just tapped it with a hammer a bit and it popped loose. I repeated on the other lower, and the whole mess came out!

The first pic is the two black "retainer" pieces that go inside the stanchions. The brass insert at the bottom (second pic) goes all the way to the bottom of the lowers, and is threaded for that allen bolt that I removed. The top of the retainer has a rubber bumper on it, which is what limits the extension of the fork. The last pic shows it all going together.

The stanchions turned out to be pretty bad -- the plating was worn off at the load bearing points, and there was some rust. I steel-wooled the bad spots, and with some grease it'll be good enough for my girlfriend to get an idea of what she thinks. It was free, so I'm not complaining!

Thanks...

(Hmm....picture upload isn't working for me right now -- I'll come back and put 'em up.)

I get it. You actually explained it very well this time. Thanks!!

If uploading is no working for you, please e-amil the pics to rpalacios at techint dot com dot mx

Thanks again!! I'll try tonight (if my kid allows me) to do the same.

 

[gryhrt]

Here are the pictures!

 

[Warp]

Here are the pictures!

Thanks, Man!!

I'll give it a go whenever I find the time.