How to lower a 2007 Marzocchi DJ2 07?

PB Forum :: Dirt Jumping & Street
How to lower a 2007 Marzocchi DJ2 07?
  • Previous Page
  • Next Page
Author Message
flag iddo
Posted: Sep 15, 2008 at 15:04 Quote
Hey I was wondering if anyone knows how to lower a marzocchi DJ2 07?
flag carlh654
Posted: Sep 16, 2008 at 2:20 Quote
from "RIDESTREET"
Dan’s fantastic Guide on how to lower forks (Dirt Jumper series)

Ok before I go on to explain at all here is the disclaimer: I am not responsible for you breaking your forks. I carried out the following procedure and it worked so in theory so should it for you.

I carried out the procedure on a set of 2004 Dirt Jumper 1’s, as far as I am aware, the internals are pretty much identical for the whole dirt jumper series up till the present models. Therefore this should work on most, if not all Dirt jumper Forks 2004 onwards…..

What you will need

21mm socket (or spanner), 12mm socket (thin walled but more on that in a moment), an oil pan (or similar container), Old Handlebars (or similar diameter tubing), Hacksaw, approx. 15wt fork oil (motocross fork oil works perfectly and is cheaper) Long screwdriver or thin pole must be longer than 50cm), Lots and Lots of paper towel or Kitchen roll, a fair space to complete the work.

12mm Socket INFO>>>

When you come to undo the foot nuts of the forks you may encounter a problem. This is that most 12mm sockets do not fit down into the hole in which the bolt is placed; therefore the specific Marzocchi tool is needed. However you can get an old 12mm socket and grind or file the wall away until it fits (this is what I did, and to be honest is the most cost efficient)

The Method

1. Taking the 21mm spanner or socket, undo the left hand cap of the forks. Remove the cap and place on kitchen roll to allow oil to drip off. Prepare the oil pan or container, and remove the left hand spring, now place it in the oil pan and allow oil to drip off of it.
2. Now tip the fork upside down so that all oil from the left hand leg runs into the pan, along with a small plastic cap (leave upside down for a while so the majority of oil is removed)
3. Put the left hand spring and small plastic cap aside (I zip-tied them together). Clean them off any excesses oil and place in a clean rag or cloth. The left hand side of your forks should now be completely empty. Put the top cap back on so when you turn the forks upside down (at a later stage) no excess oil runs out.
4. Repeat stages 1-3 for the right hand leg, however this time no plastic cap will come out.
5. Undo the footnuts at the base of the fork (with the modified 12mm socket) for both sides, position over oil pan as some oil should spill out. Now you should be able to pull the lowers away from the uppers.
6. Put the lowers aside, the uppers should have the damping rods hanging out of them.
7. Near the bottom of the damping rod should be a small round plate which you need to unscrew. Now push the damping rod, up and inside the stanchion. You need to push it all the way through and out of the top of the stanchion; however you will have to use a rod or very long screw driver to do so.
8. Once you have pulled the damping rod out you should notice that it came out with a small spring (this is the top out spring)

Spacer Info>>>

In order to lower the forks you need to make a spacer. Handlebars are the right diameter for this tubing. So with a hacksaw, cut a length of tubing (the length of this tubing will be the amount that the fork is lowered by). You then need to cut an identical piece of tubing for the other leg. Make sure the spacers have a flat surface, so if you’ve cut them a bit dodgily, file them so they are flat.

9. Position the spacer underneath the Top-out spring, like so….http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b152/dansweet123/dampingrods.jpg
10. Now insert the damping rod back down the stanchion, making sure the top-out spring and the spacer remain in the right place. When you see the damping rod emerge from the bottom of the stanchion pull it out until it stops. Screw the small plate back onto the damping rod.
11. Now repeat stages 7-10 for the other side of the forks.
12. Once both sides of the forks have been lowered with the spacers inserted, slide the uppers back into the lowers. Now screw back on the footnuts on both fork legs.
13. Next you need to refill the fork legs with oil. The oil level for a 110mm fork is 185mm; however you must subtract an amount because you have just reduced the amount of travel. To find out how much oil should be in each fork leg, visit the Marzocchi website and look for the oil level table. Measure out the right amount and pour it into one leg at time.
14. Now you have two options:
-You can either place the springs back in each side, just compress them as much as you can and screw the topcaps back on. This takes loads of effort, because you are effectively putting the spring into a space too small for what it was made for. This method will increase the rebound rate?? of the fork slightly
-The other method is to cut your springs down by the amount you have lowered the forks. However to me this seems a bit sketchy, so I just used the first method.
15. Remember to put the small plastic piece back into the bottom of the left leg, underneath the spring (you will know which part I mean)
16. Make sure both top caps are screwed in tightly with the 21mm socket.


You now have lowered Marzocchi Dirt Jumpers

[Thropey edit] THIS WILL VOID ANY WARRENTY YOUR FORKS HAVE [/Thropey edit]


Just some things to add to this to make things work better. Some of you seem pretty sketchy when it comes to bike work, but when it comes to suspension you cannot **** about. What I suggest when you dismantle the fork is you lay out every part in the order it came out of the fork so you can put it back together correctly. Next I also reccomend that you clean all the components, just rinse everything with clean cold water, if something is pretty grimey just give it a wipe down. All this does is prevents oil contamination meaning the oil can flow through the system better. Next with regards to fitting the spacer, please make sure you have flat edges on either end of the spacer and that any cuttings are filled off and edges smoothed before you put them back in the fork. Putting oil back in the fork is pretty important as it does effect the way the fork works. I know most of you probably cant be bothered to go out and buy different weight oils as it will cost more, but do it. This means you will have enough oil to service your forks every six months. Fork oil is available in weights from 2.5wt to 20wt, 10wt is the absolute maximum for mountain bike forks as when it gets any thicker the fork just wont work and it will clog up your fork. I would suggest getting some 7.5wt and 2.5wt, this will allow you to get the right set-up. In your compression leg you want to put plain 7.5wt, in your rebound leg you want to put in 70% 2.5wt and 30% 7.5wt this will give a slightly faster rebound than stock but its much nicer than the stock rebound settings which are damn slow. Your compression is always using 7.5wt from the factory so no changes there unless you want to make it thinner for faster compression or thicker for slower compression.

With the springs, I highly reccomend you do cut them down, or everything I have just said about oil weights will go flying out the window as the spring rates will have gone tits up. Basically the more coils in the spring the faster and more linear the rate. You want to cut the spring to give yourself the usual progressive feel to keep your forks feeling the same as before you lowered them. How I suggest you do this is to get your springs in a vice one at a time and create a makeshift saw guide of some sort to cut straight, now I have a spring saw which cost me £20 from homebase so if you want to do this really properly then go get one. Just cut the spring down by the length of the spacer and this will be everything done, the fork will go back together properly, you wont be risking getting shot by a flying spring, and you will have a proper working shortened fork.

I have almost finished by big ass fork lowering guide which does now include pretty much every fork on the market, including downhill, fr and xc forks.

 


Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv42 0.012307
Mobile Version of Website