Fox's Worn Stanchions

A Float came into my possession with worn stanchions. The fork had been ridden for a year by a rather large fellow. The bushing had worn through the because the seals leaked quite a bit of oil, so the work was frequently low, and the guy didn't do regular maintenance. The leaking seal also allowed the oil to be contaminated very quickly, which accelerated the wear. He used stock Fox seals.

This isn't my fork, but the wear pattern looked exactly the same:



With mine, I replaced the stanchion/crown/steerer assembly with a new one from Fox, installed Enduro seals, and then have just kept the fork maintained.

I think, ultimately, it's problem with both the seals allowing the oil to become contaminated, and the stanchion bushing interface not being tight enough. Fox says a little movement is ok, but if you send your fork in to Push, they'll adjust the fit to remove all the slop, which I think is the right way to do it.

Wore out mine with about 6 months of heavy AM riding. After 3 months of riding I noticed it developed some top out play when I pulled wheelies. I called Fox and they said that was normal. Other than that the fork seemed fine then all of a sudden I noticed oil coming out of the seals. After further inspection I noticed the stanchions were very worn with slotted grooves. When I took the fork apart the bushings were worn down to the metal and the oil that was in there was a thick sandy mess. I changed the oil and installed Enduro seals but it could not contain the leaking. The top out play got worse as the fork got more and more messed up. Fox quoted me $350 over the phone to fix it but I did not have the cash so I installed a baby sock around the stanchion to keep the oil out of the brakes and I just kept adding oil. I eventually replaced it with a Totem and then about 6 months after that I sent the 36 in to get fixed. They ended up replacing the whole fork with a brand new 09 for about $375. They also gave me the line that the Enduro seals caused the problem. I told them I installed them after the stanchions were worn.

In Fox's defense I ignored the recommendation to get the bath oil changed frequently. All of my forks recommended about the same amount of maintenance but I've had them last 3 or 4 years w/o any doing any maintenance and not one issue. After having these problems and reading the info on these forums I've realized you really need to keep an eye on your bath oil.

Hey Chris! Glad you checked in. I love the passing the buck they do, especially when I've seen forks with bushing marks that indicate anything but seal wear, along with the fact that plenty of Fox stanchions wear while on factory seals (which are garbage, BTW).

At Eurobike, Fox's reps immediately stopped me while I was explaining my opinion of their seals, which are really not that effective to begin with. I like the lube to stay inside and not pick up dirt and bring it into the fork on compression. The rep also offered to sell me a Talas III cart when I spoke about how I might need to rebuild mine, and he also tried to sell me a new RC2 cart (the 09 model when I asked how different it is and if they would be willing to let me test one out and publish a review on this site if they were so confident). Basically, I was offered to buy a complete 09 36 at that point.

On another note, maybe Darren will chime in, but some months ago, he announced a project with Turner bushings and a different material. I asked about the possibility of fork bushings being made of a better and more wear-resistant material. I don't know if there has been further development, but I'd love to try something out that helps improve my fork's durability. These things are starting to cost more than medical equipment.


*I also read my wording above and it was strange in the OP. My stanchions aren't worn, but at certain angles, when greased, light reflects a polished imprint of the bushing's slotting pattern.

My 2004 Vanilla 130 RLC started developing grooves on the front, coil spring side within a year of use. Back then I observed:

1) The groove started about 2cm above the seal (when static), and expanded down into the seal. At a glance, it clearly meant something below the seal (sure could’ve been the seal) was causing this.

2) Taking the fork apart for a regular oil change, I could clearly tell that the bushing (white collar) was worn, where the stanchion has been “rubbed” on. Exact spot.

Therefore, my conclusion was that this has been caused by the slop in the Fox bushing.

Shortly after I noticed this (about a year into using it), I switched to Enduro seals. Yes I noticed the wear before I put the Enduro seals in. I’m happy with Enduro seals – even with the groove, the leakage is still manageable because of the fit of the Enduro seals – it actually seals the fork! I figured I would ride this fork to its death anyway. I would hope that I will have enough $ to buy a new fork by 2014, and by then it will be a “vintage” and I can sell to VRC folks for $200. With grooves and all:thumbsup:

Despite this issue, I love Vanilla, hands down. Easily serviceable and works as expected every time. Fox customer service has been very good too, although they sound like they are quick to put the blame down on other things I just wished that they used a better (more fit) bushings. But then no one buys new forks...

Stolen from www.enduroforkseals.com:

Jerk_Chicken said:

That was a good design, no doubt.

Now bushings are easily available, but how does one improvise a tool to remove them? I was thinking of making something out of two allen keys with extensions to pull them out, but I don't know if it would work. I could also try to make something to fit into a locking extension bar.

Click to expand...

Take a washer which is the same diameter as the bushings. Grind flats into the side of the washer on opposite sides so it looks like this:



Put a washer on a long threaded rod, and keep it from falling off the end with nylock nut.

Take the fork's lower and angle the washer so it can slide past the bushing (the reason for the flat sides) and then get the washer flat and pull it up against the bushing's underside. Once there you can either use a slide hammer to pop the bushing out, or put another washer and nut on the threaded rod and tighten it down on the top of the lower and pull the bushing out like that.

GrantB said:

Cool. Now how about the DIY bushing insertion.

You guys are too smart.

Click to expand...

This is a little more involved.

There are a couple ways to do it. The route I went was taking the old stanchion and JB Welding several old bushing onto it, one bushing's height from the bottom. I used fine sandpaper to knock off the slick coating on the inside of the bushing and the outside of the stanchion, and then used hose clamps on the bushings for 24 hours while the JB Weld set. I then drilled holes through right through all bushings, and glued metal rods in place, and ground their ends flat with the bushings. It's probably overkill, but it works. I then used sandpaper to slightly reduce the diameter of the bushings.



Before extracting the top bushing, I'll place my installation tool in the lower and mark the top edge of the lower with a Sharpie on my installation tool. I then remove the top bushing. Then I repeat the above procedure with the lower bushing. Then to install, I put the new bushing on the installation tool and set it at the correct height using the Sharpie mark on the tool, and then the same for the top bushing.

This talk forced me to do my periodic seal cleaning and relubing. The fork still has oil, so that's good. I added a slick teflon-containing grease, this time to the stanchions under the oil seal, as well as between the dust and oil seal (as normal). I feel adding a slick grease (not a sticky one like Prep M) helps a lot with any stiction one might have and helps preserve the stanchions, but I'll only know in time.

I added the grease some months ago to the seals, and it was still lubing the stanchion surfaces to this point, so it's not terrible, but I'm still worried about wearing through the bushings and knowing when it's too late.

I have a bottle of Liqui-Moly's MoS2 Moly containing motor oil. Makes me wonder if I can use that for the bath. Probably plain motor oil would work better than suspension oil to begin with. I haven't done it yet only because I was worried about more friction and accelerated wear because I don't know the size and characteristics of the MOS2