[ChrisRobin]

Has anyone ever taken a rear shock apart just to see if they could put it back together?? I have an extra romic shock sitting around that's acting funny. I figure it can't be THAT HARD...for nitrogen recharge you could just use air (unless you needed some sort of special fitting for the recharge).

I'm not set on doing it just yet...just playing with the idea.

 

[Acadian]

no - no desire to do so either! Especially the nitro charged ones!!!

 

[Jm_]

Has anyone ever taken a rear shock apart just to see if they could put it back together?? I have an extra romic shock sitting around that's acting funny. I figure it can't be THAT HARD...for nitrogen recharge you could just use air (unless you needed some sort of special fitting for the recharge).

I'm not set on doing it just yet...just playing with the idea.

the problems are setting the internal floating piston, this has to be done correctly, and I for one have no idea how to do it, but it is critical to putting it back together correctly. For the romic, there is the "ring" thing in the 2nd (outer) tube. You have to know what the oil volume is of course as well.

 

[snutty]

i dont know about replacing the nitrogen with air...i know on my trucks coil overs...you cannot use air in place of nitrogen orelse you can mess up the shock

 

[ssaddict]

Only older air/coil shocks, none of the SPV/ProPedal/IFP shocks. Don't bother unless you know what your doing, cause you'll probably just mess it up and end up covered in oil.

 

[Kornphlake]

I know a guy who dissasembled and reassembled a rockshox rear shock, he nearly beaned his wife with a metal part that shot off like a pellet in an air rifle and then covered her and the cross stitch she was working on with oil. Normally a wife covered in oil is a good thing, but that cross stitch thrown in the mix was bad news. He got the shock put back together but couldn't get it to work right.

As I understand you have to use pure nitrogen because shock oil will foam in regular air or something to that effect.

 

[Acadian]

I know a guy who dissasembled and reassembled a rockshox rear shock, he nearly beaned his wife with a metal part that shot off like a pellet in an air rifle and then covered her and the cross stitch she was working on with oil. Normally a wife covered in oil is a good thing, but that cross stitch thrown in the mix was bad news. He got the shock put back together but couldn't get it to work right.

WTF....was he working on his shock in the living room or does his wife just like to hang and cross stitch in the garage while he's tinkering on bike stuff?

 

[Kornphlake]

Poor students living in a two room apartment, he was in the "kitchen/shop" she was in the "living/sewing/craft/bed/dining room. There wasn't a doorway separating the two rooms.

 

[s1ngletrack]

I took apart the Rocksh*t rear shock from my 4Banger a long time ago - the good news is that it worked the same when I put it back together as it did when i took it apart, the bad news is that it still wasn't right. I wouldn't take apart any shock that I hoped to use again (unless I planned to pay the factory to reassemble it)

 

[Transcend]

Has anyone ever taken a rear shock apart just to see if they could put it back together?? I have an extra romic shock sitting around that's acting funny. I figure it can't be THAT HARD...for nitrogen recharge you could just use air (unless you needed some sort of special fitting for the recharge).

I'm not set on doing it just yet...just playing with the idea.

I have! The non nitro ones (5th, manitou etc). I wanted to see how different they were from the nitro charged fox ones i worked on everyday when iw as doing the fox tech thing. There isn't much difference, except nitro chargiong freaks me out (i am always afraid it will explode).

 

[cali4niabiker]

To tell you the difference between nitrogen and regular air, nitrogen is a little more dense than regular air and there will be a difference in terms of sealing the gas in the shock. Less dense air = leaks out easier. This is from my chemistry experience.... *sigh*

 

[ssaddict]

I know a guy who dissasembled and reassembled a rockshox rear shock, he nearly beaned his wife with a metal part that shot off like a pellet in an air rifle and then covered her and the cross stitch she was working on with oil. Normally a wife covered in oil is a good thing, but that cross stitch thrown in the mix was bad news. He got the shock put back together but couldn't get it to work right.

As I understand you have to use pure nitrogen because shock oil will foam in regular air or something to that effect.

Dumb, very dumb.


Please, anyone attempting this, we've heard about enough explosions of bike parts lately. Purge or bleed ALL AIR or NITROGEN from any shock you plan on working on. If you don't know how to do that, DON'T mess with it. You could easily shoot parts of a shock through walls with the types of pressures we see inside almost every shock avalible.

Don't be the one to prove Darwin right.

 

[WestCoastHucker]

i took apart a Vanilla RC just to see what it looked like and then put it back together, no idea if it would have worked afterward............

i was returning it under warranty anyway, so i figured what the hell.......

 

[cali4niabiker]

Don't be the one to prove Darwin right.

Pure genius there! LOL

EDIT: I'm so glad that I had actually swallowed my water, otherwise I wouldn't be posting on here for a while...

 

[profro]

To tell you the difference between nitrogen and regular air, nitrogen is a little more dense than regular air and there will be a difference in terms of sealing the gas in the shock. Less dense air = leaks out easier. This is from my chemistry experience.... *sigh*

Air is approx. 70% nitrogen. I beleive the reason that N2 is used is because it is considered a dry gas and doesn't possibly contain water vapor. As the gas is being used under high pressure, the temperature can change and cause the water vapor to change the characteristics of the working fluid thus giving inconsistante preformance. N2 doesn't have these potential problems.

 

[Transcend]

profro nailed it on the head. It has nothing to do with the density. Shock companies use nitro because it does not contain ANY moisture.

 

[cali4niabiker]

Air is approx. 70% nitrogen. I beleive the reason that N2 is used is because it is considered a dry gas and doesn't possibly contain water vapor. As the gas is being used under high pressure, the temperature can change and cause the water vapor to change the characteristics of the working fluid thus giving inconsistante preformance. N2 doesn't have these potential problems.

Your right profro and I did not think of it that way. Air does have water vapor and can do squirrely stuff to the rear shock (pressure flunctuation due to temperature changes, corrosion of parts, etc)

 

[azonicbruce]

Dumb, very dumb.


Please, anyone attempting this, we've heard about enough explosions of bike parts lately. Purge or bleed ALL AIR or NITROGEN from any shock you plan on working on. If you don't know how to do that, DON'T mess with it. You could easily shoot parts of a shock through walls with the types of pressures we see inside almost every shock avalible.

Don't be the one to prove Darwin right.

Yes that dumb monkey would be me... Feel free to :nuts: me at will.

The ACTUAL story was that I was working in the kitchen/living room (the poor part was right) and yes because I was dumb I didn't know that shocks were nitrogen charged so I was taking it apart. As soon as jiggled the rebound rod it when shooting across the room and ricocheted off the cinder block wall about 12 feet away.

Yes my wife's cross-stitch got messed up but NO she was not working on it at the time. Yes, if she WERE sitting there I think she probably would have had a nice hole put in her head, so YES don't be stupid like me and DON'T work on a shock, ESPECIALLY if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[oly]

Anything nitro charged is best left up to those with the proper tools...but youve already learned that.... i hope......but....If your gonna do it at least write me into your will.......