[how to] RockShox Domain oil change and regular maintenence.

PB Forum :: Mechanics' Lounge
[how to] RockShox Domain oil change and regular maintenence.
Author Message
flag carloscorreia
Posted: Sep 18, 2010 at 16:46 Quote
Hi everyone.
I made this tutorial for a Portuguese forum/community and now I translate it to share and help someone here in Pinkbike.
Sorry for my poor English Redface



RockShox Domains have decent performance with a good relation price / weight.
More and more we see them in economic freeride and DH bikes. So I made this guide in order to help the people to keep Their domains like butter Cool
However, if you do not even know how to remove the suspension of the bike or if You Have no idea of what a piston rod May be, it's better to make more questions to Who Knows / Asking for help.

I also would like to encourage you to understand your suspension (as like any other bike component) as it will be a big improvement to refine, maintain and even tune it to your personal taste.



Stuff You Will need:
photo

1-Eat, drink, take your time - no hurries, especially if it is your first time doing this.
2-Grease for general use - use in main spring, negative spring and springs detent.
3 Suspension thin grease - using in bushings, oil seals etc..
4-Suspension oil 5W - 5W for the damping and any other (15W 10W 7,5W or 5W) for lubrication (the RockShox manual recommends 15W)
5-Recipient - Plastic bottles or any other containers are always useful to pour used oil. Reuse first, then recycle.
6- Paper - Use and abuse...the more clean the better. Clear constantly all pieces before reassemble.
7-Hex No. 2 and No. 5 - No. 2 for removing the compression cover (model 318, the 302 does not have) and No. 5 to unscrew the piston rods (bottom of the jars).
8 - 24mm ratchet - for screws / caps at the crown, top of the legs.
9-Syringes and / or liquid meter - to measure the oil volume (200ml for damping and 15ml for lub each jar -RockShox Manual ).

Something obvious but very important: a clean table! Reuse a cardboard as a base to protect the table and avoid damage to the suspension parts.

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Remove the front wheel, the brake caliper and remove the suspension from the bike.


Step 1
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Open the rebound and compression to the fullest position and don’t forget: count the number of clicks to reset in the end.
Remove the red knob (rebound) - just pull with your hand.

Step 2
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With a hex nº5 relieve both bolts from the bottom of the jars and unscrew only about 3 or 4 turns.

Step 3
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Give some hits in the bolts, with something that does not damage, until you feel the bolts and their piston rods loosen.
Loosen the screws completely.

Step 4
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Pull the crown to separate the stations from the jars. Usually you don´t need to apply to much effort to do this. If not, repeat the previous step: tighten the bolts a bit and hit them one more time to release the piston rods.


Now we have the suspension separated into two parts.
Lets look to the upper part/damping and later the jars/lubrication.


Step 5 (only for domain 318, the domain 302 don’t have adjustable compression)
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Unscrew the small bolt that holds the compression/blue knob. Remove both.

Step 6
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Put the legs in a vertical position.
With 24mm ratchet loosen the top leg cap/bolt in the damping (compression and rebound side or right side view from the rider perspective).

Step 7
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Maintaining an upright position, pull and remove the cartridge compression. Pull hard because of the oil inside the cartridge. If your domain is the 302 version, it have a cap in the place of the compression cartridge.
Pour and drain all the oil to a container to send it later to a disposal center or something like that. Here in Portugal, hydraulic oils and lubrication oils of engines should be delivered to a disposal center. You guys probably have the same thing.

Step 8
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Repeat step 6 but this time for the spring side (left side view from the rider perspective mounted on the bike).
Remove the screw cap, spring "detent" and finally the main spring.

Step 9
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Push the piston rods out through the crown. If necessary, use a long screwdriver or something to help push. Be careful, do not hit or scratch the inside walls of the stanchions.

By this time you should have something like this:
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1-Top right stanchion
2-Top Left stanchion
3-Piston rod with rebound stack/valve(right)
4-Piston rod (left)
5-Negative travel spring
6-Main spring
7-Spring spacer


Step 10
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Grease the main and negative springs.
Insert the piston rod with the negative spring in the left stanchion followed by the mainspring.

Step 11
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Use a key to align the piston rod to the bottom. Pull the piston rod to the full length by pushing the mainspring.

Step 12
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Put the mainspring cover and then top cap/screw with the 24mm ratchet.

Passo13
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Pour some oil to clean inside the stanchions. Cover both ends with your hands and rattle to clean the inside.
Drain the oil.

Step 14
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Insert the rebound piston in the stanchion and pull it down. Use the bolt to help pushing them.

Step Pre-15
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Measure 200ml or 200cc of water in the volume-meter, pour into a empty water bottle and mark the level with a pen. So, there you have a 200ml meter.
Let it dry well (the "new" volumeter) before measuring the new oil. We do not want the oil mixed with other things.

Step 15
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Measure 200ml of 5W Oil. Compare the new oil with the used one just to make you feel happy (it works to me Big Grin ).
Drop the new oil over the right stanchion.

Step 16
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Insert the compression cartridge on the right side and tighten it with the 24mm ratchet wrench.


So far the upper part is completely revised.
Now lets look to the bottom (jars).


Step 17
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Drain all the oil from the jars.
Clean the best you can the bushings, seals, oil retainers and all inside jars.
If the jars seams too dirty, use a little amount of new oil to clean like in step 13.

Step 18
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Spread thin suspension grease in the bushings, seals and leave some grease between the oil seals (black rubber rings) and outer retainers (gray rings).

Step 19
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Clean the stanchions and piston rods.
Insert the stanchions in the jars carefully to avoid hurt the outer seals “lips”.
Insert the stanchions just a few millimetres in the jars.

Step 20
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Measure 15ml of 15W suspension oil (10W, 7,5W or even 5W will work too) for each jar (thin oil like 5W or 7,5W should be changed more often).
Place the suspension upside down.
Insert 15ml of oil in each jar.

Step 21
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Keep the jars up so the lubricating oil falls to the bushings and retainers/seals. Wait a few seconds and push the stanchions to its normal position.
Tighten the piston rod bolts (black bolt in the right side and chrome bolt in the left).

Step 22
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Put the rebound knob.
Place the compression knob on the top right and tighten the screw that holds it.
Reset your rebound and compression.

Finally:
Mount the suspension back to the bike, mount the front brake, front wheel, etc..
Give it a “parking lot test” Attention and check if everything is ok. Ride a rock-garden to see if it worth the work (microwave rocks, like my local track carreco - Horse trail sounds good:Cool : )



Supplementary Info: Rockshox


Thanks to the user edueiras to help me translate this from my Portuguese tutorial.

Any questions, I’m here to help. Wink

Thanks to everyone who read this.
flag Infiltrator
Posted: Sep 18, 2010 at 17:02 Quote
Very good! Easy to understand and follow!
flag Chornbeak
O+
Posted: Sep 18, 2010 at 17:54 Quote
Thanks for this! I've been meaning to do this for the past month or so. We should get a mod to sticky this
flag jimferno
Posted: Oct 25, 2010 at 9:11 Quote
Fantastic guide, thank you very much!

Just used this guide to change the spring and oil in my Domain 302.
flag riggadon
Posted: Oct 25, 2010 at 9:57 Quote
nice guide, thanks for posting it here on pinkbike. i know this will help a lot of people, and will especially lower domain thread counts quite a bit.
flag Bjammin
O+
Posted: Dec 26, 2010 at 10:05 Quote
Which steps would you follow if you just want to change out hte spring and raise the Domain from 160mm to 180mm?
flag MTB-STIG
Posted: Mar 3, 2011 at 5:02 Quote
so no oil in left leg then?
flag sheephills
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 4:21 Quote
Lowering a domain 302 -

thinking of lowering and (preloading) my DOMAIN 302 from 180 to 160mm, is it just the left shaft (pos.13) i need to modify, or should i mod. the right shaft (pos.10) as well???


photo
flag Jonnysnow
FL
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 4:25 Quote
Thanks! just used this the other day, nice simple and easy to follow instructions, even for a rookie like me haha
flag MTB-STIG
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 4:37 Quote
sheephills wrote:
Lowering a domain 302 -

thinking of lowering and (preloading) my DOMAIN 302 from 180 to 160mm, is it just the left shaft (pos.13) i need to modify, or should i mod. the right shaft (pos.10) as well???


photo
i just add a large (60m)nylon pipe on left shaft and lowered from 180 to 120mmand work fine
flag sheephills
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 5:00 Quote
MTB-STIG wrote:
sheephills wrote:
Lowering a domain 302 -

thinking of lowering and (preloading) my DOMAIN 302 from 180 to 160mm, is it just the left shaft (pos.13) i need to modify, or should i mod. the right shaft (pos.10) as well???


photo
i just add a large (60m)nylon pipe on left shaft and lowered from 180 to 120mmand work fine

ok - where did you put the pipe?? between pos. 13 and 14???
flag MTB-STIG
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 6:03 Quote
sheephills wrote:
MTB-STIG wrote:
sheephills wrote:
Lowering a domain 302 -

thinking of lowering and (preloading) my DOMAIN 302 from 180 to 160mm, is it just the left shaft (pos.13) i need to modify, or should i mod. the right shaft (pos.10) as well???


photo
i just add a large (60m)nylon pipe on left shaft and lowered from 180 to 120mmand work fine

ok - where did you put the pipe?? between pos. 13 and 14???
yeah but i ahd to chop spring down as it didn't want to go back in Frown but u can run then as short as u want as i also ran them at 80mm for a while.
flag D-MAN666
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 6:31 Quote
great post, very helpfull! but my question is can you drop the travel of a 318 (180mm) to the 160mm of travel by swaping springs and adding spacers? now if thats possable do any of you have a extra firm 160mm spring for a domain for sale? thanks Damon
flag MTB-STIG
Posted: Mar 21, 2011 at 6:36 Quote
D-MAN666 wrote:
great post, very helpfull! but my question is can you drop the travel of a 318 (180mm) to the 160mm of travel by swaping springs and adding spacers? now if thats possable do any of you have a extra firm 160mm spring for a domain for sale? thanks Damon
yes

 


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