[Ottoreni]

Changing the oil as was suggested. Yes, it is black, especially the damper rod side.

Now the problem. I am unable to disaasemble the ETA side cartridge. I took off the knob, but the red nut that holds the spring in place will not come off. I am able to put a 10 or 11mm wrench around it, but I see no other place on the rod to place another wrench to give me leverage to unscrew the red nut.

Any help really appreciated!

 

[kendogg]

Try this

Changing the oil as was suggested. Yes, it is black, especially the damper rod side.

Now the problem. I am unable to disaasemble the ETA side cartridge. I took off the knob, but the red nut that holds the spring in place will not come off. I am able to put a 10 or 11mm wrench around it, but I see no other place on the rod to place another wrench to give me leverage to unscrew the red nut.

Any help really appreciated!

You really don't need to remove the spring. You can unbolt the rod at the bottom, and just cycle the cartridge into a rage to purge the old oil. If you want though, pull the spring back and put a wrench on the red nut, and put the same socket that you used to pull off the top cap back on. The whole cap comes off. Pay attention to how you re-assemble. I let a shop change my oil, and they put the shims on the rebound side on backwards and it caused the schraeder valve to jam open. The small white shim prevents the larger black shim from going up into the cap.
I would just go by oil volume. Height is a bit of a PITA. Start with 140cc's and go from there.
Also, if you haven't done it yet, grind the beveled edges off of the socket you use for the top cap so that it has a nice flat edge. This will help prevent rounding the nut on the eta side. It's pretty soft material.

Later.

 

[Call_me_Clyde]

For more info

Check this site:

http://myweb.cableone.net/rkindig/marz_marathon_s.html

Site was built by bikerx40 and is pretty comprehensive.

Bob

 

[Ottoreni]

130 ETA & 140

I was unable to disassemble the ETA side so I ended up only putting around 130ml on that side. The right side was 140ml. Hopefully I will get more travel than the 85-90mm I was getting before. I'll happy with close to 100mm.

Quick observations:
Yes, the oil was dirty, especially the dampening rod side. That side the oil was black. (I've been told the oil gets ditry because they lube all the o rings with a thick grease, kinda like that Rock-Roll grease). Still, it was black.

I was amazed how similar the top part of the dampening cartridge is to my old Z2 Atom. The bottom part of the cartridge/resevoir is just much larger and has more holes.

It was interesting that the air pressure side takes no catridge per say, the air is inside the fork leg.

Before I forget, I had the fork fully compressed. I decided to pull up the stanchions while I was cleaning the inside of the fork legs. When I pulled up, another 5ml or more came out from each fork leg. I was not expecting to see this amount of oil come out when I thought the legs were empty.

I love how Marz has what seems infinite rebound adjustment compared to my Vanilla's 12 clicks. Sad to see that now they are no longer making a Marathon S. I think 04 was the last year. Does anyone know what fork would be very similar to the Marathon S (Coil with low air pressure system)?

 

[Warp]

Marathon XC... same stuff but TST instead of HSCV.

Tigerdog and I couldn't calculate height on the ETA on TD's fork. Again, it looks like the spring is inserted when the cart is closed and that black spacer makes the spring removal... uh... ah... interesting. Maybe we will inspect it later on when the next oil change.

I guess the ETA has to be done by volume only, but we put like 140ml there. He's happy so far with the fork.

On the HSCV side we put an oil height of 50mm from top, being 55max and 45min. He's getting like 95mm of travel. I'm not sure if he wants to use the remaining 5... that would be kind of hard bottom out.

If anybody knows how to makethe height thing on a 04 MARATHON S, we are all ears. Next time we will take pics. We are either not seeing somehting or simply the height stuff can't be made on 04 ETA carts accurately.

 

[Ottoreni]

Yet to try mine

I have yet to try mine. I put both sides by volume. This weekend I will try the fork. Hopefully I will be able to get 95mm+ travel, with the full travel, close to 105mm, on big drops. If I find I am bottoming out frequently, I will probably add more oil. I have learned from my Z2, Z2 Atom 80, and Vanilla that it is always easier to add more oil than remove oil.

Makes me wonder if I need to add more oil, should I add more to the ETA side, Dampening rod side, or both? Any suggestions? The three other forks I mentioned all had a dummy left spring side. The Marathon S has an ETA cartridge on the left side.

The Marathon XC fork sure does look sweet. Reading some of the reviews and the prices I see for the '05 model make me want to go out and buy one, but I need a new frame first. Um, that will have to wait at least a year.