Bad scratch on a stanchion (air fork)

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Bad scratch on a stanchion (air fork)
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flag eldrummer
O+
Posted: Apr 20, 2009 at 12:31 Quote
Hi,

I have an 05 Marzocchi All Mountain 1 (the ugly yellow one). I was riding this weekend and must have rubbed on a rock. Anyway, there's a scratch on my right stanchion (air side). Now, air and oil leak. I know I've damaged the seals because the leg won't hold air for more than 10-20 minutes (that's when I'm not using it).

The question is: can I fix it? I've seen other threads in which people suggest to sand it and use nail polish, but no one mentionned if it was an air or coil fork. Can this work for an air fork or will it just keep losing air? Has anyone tried it before?

photo

3300408


Thanks
flag xwave123
Posted: Apr 20, 2009 at 12:39 Quote
I've buffed a scratch or two on a coil fork to avoid tearing the seals and just ran it with a bit of an oil leak due to the scratch. When I went to my LBS and spoke with my mechanic buddy about it at the time he said they were not bad enough to warrant filling as it's best to avoid if possible so we never really got into the 'how' of filling (which it looks like you might have to in this case) since buffing it was fine.

Given our converstaion at the LBS I'm assuming filling is a viable option, so it looks like your best bet is to replace the seal and have your LBS fill it in as best then can.

On a side note your scratch looks as bad as the ones I buffed so you might get away with a buff and a new seal and a slow leak over time. It could be leaking air and oil like crazy because the seal is torn due to the scratch, not becuase of the channel created by the scratch.

Hope that helps.
flag eldrummer
O+
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:03 Quote
It does help. Thanks!

I'm in France for a bit, so I don't have my usual lbs, which would have helped me, I'm sure. I found a bike shop yesterday and the guy said he can't do anything for me except change the seals and oil... 100€. That's around 170$CAD (without fixing the scratch and no garanty that it'll work for more than 10 minutes).

So I'll just get a new seal, buff down the scratch and see what happens. If it still leaks air a lot, I'll try to fill it with nail polish.

If that still doesn't work, I'll have to figure something else out... Anyway, I'll post again later to say how it's going.
flag neon-freerider
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:06 Quote
if thats a bad scratch, my fork is FACKED lol
flag danitoba
O+
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:28 Quote
If you're in France for awhile and the only thing they can do is change the seals I'd suggest waiting until you're home to fix it. If you go to your regular shop they could fix it with a special epoxy, that's how mine does it anyway. It's held up pretty well, and once you get it put on, and sanded down it'll work like brand new. I doubt new seals will do much since it's not fixing the scratch.
flag dh-parkour-guy-003
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:31 Quote
i had a blemish that was no where near as bad as that on my 40, it f*cked it over good, unless you can get it absolutely smooth so it doesn't wreck seals or internals then you better buy a new stanchion before it wrecks anything else
flag dh-pete
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:58 Quote
With Fox fork's it's a bigger deal ^^^

They tend to hold the stanchions a little tighter, and if any grit gets under the seals it gets stuck in a compartment, constantly being ground at the stanchions.
flag connorridesbmx
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 11:13 Quote
b8urban wrote:
if thats a bad scratch, my fork is FACKED lol
You own that sherman jumper from steve right ? if so. it is. i owned it for about a day and it was just wrecked
flag neon-freerider
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 11:16 Quote
connorridesbmx wrote:
b8urban wrote:
if thats a bad scratch, my fork is FACKED lol
You own that sherman jumper from steve right ? if so. it is. i owned it for about a day and it was just wrecked

you and i need to chat then. send me a message. No BS
flag recklessness
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 11:22 Quote
b8urban wrote:
connorridesbmx wrote:
b8urban wrote:
if thats a bad scratch, my fork is FACKED lol
You own that sherman jumper from steve right ? if so. it is. i owned it for about a day and it was just wrecked

you and i need to chat then. send me a message. No BS
Uh oh. LOL.
flag eldrummer
O+
Posted: Apr 25, 2009 at 3:12 Quote
Thanks for your help everyone!

I'll try to fix it myself and hope it won't make things worse. If I can manage not to mess up the new seal and end up with only a slow leak, I'll be happy.

I'll post again later to say how it went...
flag mojoloz
Posted: Apr 25, 2009 at 3:54 Quote
if you buff down the rough bits slightly lower than the rest of the sanction then with a good black perminant marker colour over the silver. then with a chip resistant nail polish (more robust and also is slippy like the rest of the sanction) paint over the area when the marker is dry and let it dry in a dust free area.
flag eldrummer
O+
Posted: May 8, 2009 at 8:43 Quote
It turns out that the seal holds air when I'm not using the fork, so I buffed the scratch, and tried it as is: minor oil leak and air pressure lasted 5-10 minutes.

Then I tried nail polish: it didn't hold very long... neither did the air pressure.

Last, I tried with epoxy: the epoxy held longer and so did the air pressure, but for only about 30 minutes.

I think I'll just end up buying a cheap fork for France and try to get mine fixed when I come back to Montreal...

I don't feel like paying 50€ for seals and tools and not being able to ride in the end or messing up my fork even more.

Thanks for the help anyway!
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