Changing fork oil, need a little help.

Sweet and I like taking pics with a digital camera as I take things apart as a reference to how things were set as it came apart ... If the shims were mis-matched, do you think this could have been your entire issue from jump street?

What are you gonna use for new shims are needed?

The mis-matched shims is/was a problem. Im a beginner in suspensions so I don't know how that makes the bike react so its hart to tell if that was or how much it was part of the problem. I do know when they go back in they'll go in matched, and I will be making a couple subtle changes from what I think stock was, which is an unknown to me. The one change Im going to make is to remove the "bleed" shims which seems to be universally suggested.

Im not going to buy any new shims yet, but probably remove one from the compression stack to try to soften that stroke. Later I will probably start messing with the mid valve, which might require getting more shims. No idea where id get them from yet, i'm just trying to concentrate on the base valve for now.

Sounds good! I can try this same change on my bike also .... I was riding today and I think I can still feel a harsh spot in the mid range of the fork ... I think first few inches of compression are OK ....

The basic reason is its a specialty. Also,entire businesses make a living doing this. Most good suspension shops that do revalving will revalve until your happy with it. If you don't have the coin....try it yourself. I personally believe when I can afford it.....send it out. What is your time worth to you is the question. I mean if your the type that "just has to know how it works"....knock your self out man. Me personally...I don't care how/where electricity comes from.....I just hit the on/off switch and enjoy.

20 years ago, I would have jumped into a fork rebuild project with gusto and played with it till I became an expert, just because it would be the cool thing to do. 20 years ago I washed all my cars every weekend if they needed it or not. 20 years ago I was regular without Metamucil...

Today, the thought of tearing into a shock for any reason gives me delirious tremors. Today, I make my kids was my cars in exchange for food and a warm bed. Today, I own Metamucil stock and buy it in bulk at Costco.

not aimed at you.just talking out loud about the fact of it is what it is. Nothing more.

20 years ago we all would do things differently same as 20 years n the future we will do things differently ... some more that others (I'm stuck in the 70s ) and some of us won't make it 20 years.... That leaves only 2 day as important (with some wisdom added from 20 yrs ago)

Jay, remember the posting below you made on the other site? The part in bold caught my attention as it is really impossible ...Forks have to move, right? But yours were not moving in the basic way a fork should move ...

But, after reading where you found the shims reversed, I think now this shim stack was the initial problem ... It was blocking the very basic action of your forks ... You almost need to put it back together correctly and see what action you get before making changes because you don't have a base line for default action of the forks when they are set up correctly ... But then, you are all broken down and have all this info ready to tested!

I bet that was one ruff ride with zero damping on the top of your forks ...Sort of like a hard-tail front end ?

You mean one rough 50 hrs worth of riding?? Yes I think you are correct. Im going to put them together how I think, and has been suggested to as a "stock" baseline. Ill never really know what stock is unless someone takes apart their 08 "TE" forks and tells me. The only modification I will make is to remove the bleed shims and maybe create the crossover after the first face shim. I havent really decided on doing the crossover yet or not though. Otherwise I have no intentions of actually CHANGING the shim stack at this point.

Hard tail front end. Yeah until I hit large whoops and then they zoom to the bottom.:cripple:

Hers the base valve shim stacks that came out of both forks. Their supposed to be dead even. Otherwise they would be like turning your RT fork leg to full hard and your LT leg to full soft.

[/IMG]

You're bike is gonna ride like a new one when U get it back together!!! ... and you now know some the internal working of your forks!!! Ain't that cool

That is really crazy ... How did the shims are reversed?

PS -- UR lucky you did not eat a big plate of $hit riding that bike set up like that ...

My manual say's: 775 cm or 4.72"(120mm) from the top tube to the oil level per fork. The problem is when I pour 775 into the fork, the oil level ends up to be less than 3" from the top. Which one do I use? Why are they so different?

BTW, I emptied the forks twice and refilled/let sit over night to make sure I didn't accidentally drop a tennis ball in their to displace the extra oil.

775 ML...?-
I'd go with the end result of 120mm- fully compressed, spring out- with all air bled out

What he said

I took an extra 20ML from each of my forks outer chambers and it really helped smooth out the trail hits ... I might even go with removing another 10ML and see if that will help even more ...

Nice Ray Ray. Well I left the full 775cm in their just to see how it would react with the rebound, cause ya just never know. It was bad.

Last week I removed oil until I was at 120mm and theirs nearly no difference. Thats more than 1 1/2" difference in oil in each leg. That should be night and day difference, but it just wasn't.

Ive been in the forks 3-4 times which I know isnt all that much but Im done. I was hoping to at least feel some sort of change, good or bad to just know that I was doing something. Sooo, I think I'll send them out now to a suspension guy to see what he can do. I'm VERY interested to see what he changes.

Really strange how you never got any real change from those forks ... U gonna open them back up after you get them back see the changes?

After dong some more reading on the valving, it all sounded fairly complex ...

I was thinking about buying some new pistons for mine for about $100 but I'm gonna hold off on that now ... I might open mine back up and remove a couple of shims as someone suggested ... Or just remove a little more oil from the outer tubes ...

I don't know jack about the different models of forks but the dual chambers might have an advantage over the open chambers ... I did see where all the Husky guys racing at Hangtown and GH GP all had Marazocchi forks so this is the brand to have but I'm not sure on the models they were running...

I did get changes, just subtle ones. To start with Im just going to talk with him to see what he thought of the set up before his changes then what his changes were. I probably won't go back into them to see whats what until my winter maint/tear down.

The valving in general is complex, especially yours compared to mine, and yes I inspected my mid valve piston carefully and was not really impressed. The machining just didn't seem as smooth as i would have expected. I guess thats how company's that just specialize in those specific parts excel. They probably machine and polish them ridiculously well to get a real smooth action out of them. That might be in my future as well. Where im at Husky's arent abundant and the resale of them is poor so, im going to get this bike set up for the long haul.

I would recommend for you to mess with the oil first and the valving only if absolutely necessary. Oil level changes are easy compared with working with what seems like a doctors profession.

I see your point on the oil vs shims ... When I first opened the compression valve and was looking at the shims sitting on the piston, I could see how they bend, but man, the shims were just packed there and it was a little intimidating (+impossible) to see how \ what change to make ...

I mean, the largest shim was small and then the last shim was about half the size of a penny ... There was probably 10 of them on the stack ... Figuring this out thu trail and error would take many many guesses and probably never be too successful on my own ....

The guy here on the link below, Ian, sells pistons and shims for Huskies .... I was going to replace my pistons but the dropping the oil amount helped so much, I think I can live with what I have today ... But I will continue to play with mine as I have the time

http://www.ridersedgesuspension.com/

PS -- I'm really glad U started this thread as it has helped me greatly!

Handy link. I find it interesting that the stacks they show look nearly exactly like what I have in mine right now. The 2 largest shims at the piston- crossover shim- then the rest getting progressively smaller. Ofcouse I don't know what the diameters are or the thickness, not to mention those shinny and finely polished pistons....

Your right, to actually make positive territory, like was suggested on out other threads- plan to be in and out of them many many times. If I only could support a family with no job and all the time in the world to mess with shims.......

Glad the thread has been helpful. Ive learned a lot. Haven't really made the progress I want, but learned a lot and have had fun doing it.

I wish now had taken pics of my stack but was afraid I would loose their order so I put them back ..

Mine was large shim, small crossover, large shim, small crossover, then all progressly smaller till the size of the crossover shim as the last...
Did you ever try splitting the top 2 shims with a crossover?

Yep, I now know where my valves are and actually looked at the stack n my hands and I can see in UR pics how one stack looks reversed