Fork service

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, after 5 years of doing nothing, I've decided I may as well have a go
at servicing my Marzocchi Bomber Z4 forks. I believe these are oil and
coil, but know nothing about servicing forks.

ANy hints and tips? Basically the forks still work, but are very
non-responsive. Would this be a case of swapping the oil, or do the
springs need changing sometimes? Is it super-complicated in there? How
much oil do I need to buy & what type?

Any advice appreciated.

I recently received a free workshop manual sent through the post from the
manufacturer of my forks after a few emails to them. Mine are a different
brand to yours but I suggest you contact the maker to see if they will send
you a manual.

Paul

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, after 5 years of doing nothing, I've decided I may as well have a go
at servicing my Marzocchi Bomber Z4 forks. I believe these are oil and
coil, but know nothing about servicing forks.

ANy hints and tips? Basically the forks still work, but are very
non-responsive. Would this be a case of swapping the oil, or do the
springs need changing sometimes? Is it super-complicated in there? How
much oil do I need to buy & what type?

Any advice appreciated.

Marzocchi manuals are available as PDFs.

The rough gist is this:

Undo the top caps. If they're air forks, let the air out first. If they're
spring forks, remember that there are springs inside. 21mm socket,
preferably walldrive or similar as they're easy to round. Drain oil.

Undo the bottom nuts or allen bolts. 16mm on my 01 Z3s. You tend to get deep
21 and 16mm sockets in most sets as they're spark plug sizes. This lets you
pull the stanchions out the lowers. More oil will come out of the bottom of
the lowers and onto your trousers.

Grease the seals with some grease (mine have dust seals and proper seals.
grease between the two).

Replace the oil with 7.5wt fork oil (chain reaction, motorbike shops if you
like to get stung), or 10wt oil if you're particularly lardy and the damping
isn't good enough, or 5wt if you're very skinny.

Bolt it all back together. Should work smoother.

Bushings sometimes need replacing, but I've not done it so I won't explain
now 😄.

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, after 5 years of doing nothing, I've decided I may as well have a go
at servicing my Marzocchi Bomber Z4 forks. I believe these are oil and
coil, but know nothing about servicing forks.

ANy hints and tips? Basically the forks still work, but are very
non-responsive. Would this be a case of swapping the oil, or do the
springs need changing sometimes? Is it super-complicated in there? How
much oil do I need to buy & what type?

Any advice appreciated.

And in answer to your other questions:

Springs will be fine. Most likely just need an oil swap and grease. If
they're air forks, there will be schraeder valves in the top caps. You need
a fork pump to get air back in there. Oil heights are measured from the top
of the stanctions to the oil with the fork fully compressed. Total oil is
probably about 200ml tops.

They're very simple inside. Damping is just oil being forced through small
holes. Normally you wouldn't need to swap any parts.

"Doki" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, after 5 years of doing nothing, I've decided I may as well have a
go at servicing my Marzocchi Bomber Z4 forks. I believe these are oil and
coil, but know nothing about servicing forks.

ANy hints and tips? Basically the forks still work, but are very
non-responsive. Would this be a case of swapping the oil, or do the
springs need changing sometimes? Is it super-complicated in there? How
much oil do I need to buy & what type?

Any advice appreciated.

And in answer to your other questions:

Springs will be fine. Most likely just need an oil swap and grease. If
they're air forks, there will be schraeder valves in the top caps. You
need a fork pump to get air back in there. Oil heights are measured from
the top of the stanctions to the oil with the fork fully compressed. Total
oil is probably about 200ml tops.

They're very simple inside. Damping is just oil being forced through small
holes. Normally you wouldn't need to swap any parts.

Thanks Doki, will be doing this in the next few days so will report back!
Need to get myself a socket set and some oil .. 🙂

in message <[email hidden]>, elyob

(') said:

Well, after 5 years of doing nothing, I've decided I may as well have a
go at servicing my Marzocchi Bomber Z4 forks. I believe these are oil
and coil, but know nothing about servicing forks.

ANy hints and tips? Basically the forks still work, but are very
non-responsive. Would this be a case of swapping the oil, or do the
springs need changing sometimes? Is it super-complicated in there? How
much oil do I need to buy & what type?

It isn't super complicated; the internals of an oil damped fork are
pretty simple, and with no pressurised air chamber to deal with there's
nothing very exciting that can happen. The exact weight and amount of
oil is specific to the fork.

You'll also need to replace the seals, you can get spares from here:
<URL:http://www.tftunedshox.com/marzocchi/marparts.htm> (and they'll also
know what oil you need).

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
"This young man has not the faintest idea how socialists think and does
not begin to understand the mentality of the party he has been elected
to lead. He is quite simply a liberal"
-- Ken Coates MEP (Lab) of Tony Blair

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Doki" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, after 5 years of doing nothing, I've decided I may as well have a
go at servicing my Marzocchi Bomber Z4 forks. I believe these are oil
and coil, but know nothing about servicing forks.

ANy hints and tips? Basically the forks still work, but are very
non-responsive. Would this be a case of swapping the oil, or do the
springs need changing sometimes? Is it super-complicated in there? How
much oil do I need to buy & what type?

Any advice appreciated.

And in answer to your other questions:

Springs will be fine. Most likely just need an oil swap and grease. If
they're air forks, there will be schraeder valves in the top caps. You
need a fork pump to get air back in there. Oil heights are measured from
the top of the stanctions to the oil with the fork fully compressed.
Total oil is probably about 200ml tops.

They're very simple inside. Damping is just oil being forced through
small holes. Normally you wouldn't need to swap any parts.

Thanks Doki, will be doing this in the next few days so will report back!
Need to get myself a socket set and some oil .. 🙂

Get a 6 point (hex set at the least). Not a 12 point. I can't emphasise how
stupidly easy it would be to round the top caps on marzocchis - they've got
rounded corners for a start. If you can get a look at the sockets, the ideal
is a 6 point socket with rounded out corners, like this:

http://www.toolsnstuff.co.uk/images/res/S1230-400x400.jpg

Sometimes called Walldrive or Surface drive, sometimes not mentioned at all.

"Doki" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Get a 6 point (hex set at the least). Not a 12 point. I can't emphasise
how stupidly easy it would be to round the top caps on marzocchis -
they've got rounded corners for a start.

I use an adjustable spanner for mine - notorious for being the tool most
likely to round bolts. No problems here - the caps aren't done up that
tightly at all.

cheers,
clive

"Clive George" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Doki" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Get a 6 point (hex set at the least). Not a 12 point. I can't emphasise
how stupidly easy it would be to round the top caps on marzocchis -
they've got rounded corners for a start.

I use an adjustable spanner for mine - notorious for being the tool most
likely to round bolts. No problems here - the caps aren't done up that

Depends who last did up the caps.