[DirtMcGirk]

So with a new season soon on top of me, I am sitting here staring at my forkless 303 sitting in my stand, wondering how far I need to take this down.

303 owners, I rode this all last season, got maybe 45 days on it, was anal in cleaning and regreasing the rails after each day, took better care of the bike than I took of myself.

Before the fun of the new season kicks into gear down in Vegas, would you take it all the way apart? Take off the rear triangle, disassemble the cars, go over it all with a tooth brush and fine toothed comb?

Or conversely, can I just clean as I always do, regrease, tighten everything up, tune the shifting and go do my thing?

Thanks

 

[Kanye West]

I think I would honestly rather do a motorcycle engine complete teardown than have to keep track of all the little crap on a 303 frame.

 

[Damo]

I take the cars apart, give them a good clean & regrease. Take the rail assembly apart and get in there.

I haven't taken the links off though, up to you. I have loosened and rotated the bearings however.

I find the work fun. Get into the sun or the garage, play some tunes, have a beer & enjoy...

In your case an orange juice...

 

[boogenman]

Take the shock off and cycle the rear end. If it is smooth and wiggle free you are good to go.

 

[demo 9]

Ive done it about 5 times to my 303(tryin to get it to work) and its definitely do-able. Yeti claims that you can NOT TAKE THE CARS OFF THE RAILS however ive done it many times(before i found out) and have no issues. i wouldnt take it apart because its a pain in the butt and unless u need it like i did its not going to get you anywhere.

 

[ridiculous]

I have been trying to convince myself to do this for about 8 weekends now.

When you say disassemble the cars do you mean just unscrew the arms from the car or literally take the car off of the rail and rails off of the frame?

 

[Brian HCM#1]

F it!!! Just ride the damn thing

 

[demo 9]

the cars will just slide off the rails if they arent attatched to the bike. taking rails off will enable it but they say not to do it

 

[Matchew]

I've pulled mine apart most of the way about once a month. For the rails I just slide the car a little bit off of the rail so that one end hangs off enough that I can clean away any excess junk. The bottom rail likes to get a lot of build up that I cant get at with a rag so I like to get in there and clean it out.

 

[jerseydirt]

Why not just sell the frame and get the new 303 with no PITA rails.

 

[Zman]

Why not just sell the frame and get the new 303 with no PITA rails.

The new on has a rail, just not two of them.

As for complete teardown...I recommend it. you cant get the rails perfectly clean with them on the bike. You can take the cars off the rails. just be very careful. I would not disassemble the cars, but slide them off, be very careful with them and clean out all the grease and dirt that gets in there (they are pretty well sealed but still can collect dirt. I like to use a metal prep or brake cleaner to make sure to get all of the grease out. BE VERY CAREFUL PUTTING THEM BACK ON THE RAIL!!!!!!!! do it slowly and watch the seals and bearings. it can easily be done, but you need to do it carefully!!! I will then cycle them on the rails to clean out more dirt (after i have cleaned the rails with the brake cleaner), yet again getting out more dirt. then put the car back on the rail and put a ton of grease in it, re cycle it on the rail to get some of that grease and dirt out, wipe it off the rail, some more grease to make sure and you should be good on rails.

The rear end is super easy to take off/bolt on. Yet again I recommend doing it. be very careful to not over torque the pinch bolts on the swing link, will cause the bearings to drag. i would recommend new bearings if they feel chunky when out of the links, it makes a difference. But you can always pull a seal and flush them out and add fresh grease. takes time but makes a difference. As someone said above, I enjoy doing it, and can do a full tear down and clean in under an hour, with fresh bearings instead of cleaning them. Not bad at all to do.

 

[LittleBIGjumP]

Do your best at the level you are happy at. I always will take mine to a trusted Yeti mechanic for a full tear down.

Thats just me.


LBJ

 

[DirtMcGirk]

Going to sit down if I have a free couple of hours any time soon.

Then I need to steam clean this hell hole of an apartment.

 

[ridiculous]

anyone know the size of the 6 bearings on the rear stiffener link?

 

[Cabdoctor]

You've probably already seen this but Yeti has a 2 part 303 "how to" series on their website

http://www.yeticycles.com/#/videovault/Tips/

 

[ridiculous]

...and a part 3.

 

[ridiculous]

In an effort to give back to ridemonkey here is what I did step by step in the off season. Alot is probably unnecessary but why not right tis an expensive toy.

The overall idea here is really just to make the biggest mess possible and push your self to your motivational limit as you will have to put all back together if you want to ride again.


Start with the dirty beast. Find some motivation, I recommend at least a 12 pack.

Take it apart, all of it. Organize in to zip loc bags. Mix up some simple green in a spray bottle and get an old toothbrush. Begin the scrubbing. This is a great way to inspect everything and see what loosened up and what not. Take the rails off and all. The only thing i left together was my handlebar setup and cranks.

vertical rail holes

let the scrubbing begin

clean up the rails and the screws

i didnt take pictures of this but i actually did take the cars off and the grease ports. I cleaned out the old white lithium grease i was using and started fresh with the yeti recommended shimano special grease. I took the zirk (sp) fittings off and re applied loc tite to them and made sure there was no debris stuck in them.

I stopped here and thought about all of the upgrades i wanted to make for the season before i began reassembling.

Again make a mess.

Check your bearings. The enduro bearings on mine felt great so I didnt bother to swap them out, though i did give them a good cleaning. Enduro has a kit for the 303 as does the cheap guy on ebay. Both places are very knowledgeable about it and know what you need. Ill update this post with the bearing sizes when i find the email. Yeti's bearing kit is balls expensive.
Again since my season wasn't very long, I didn't bother swapping mine out but they are all worth the look and a good cleaning.


I put a layer or of wax on the frame.
Anything aluminum and my cranks I cleaned up and buffed with Mothers aluminum polish.


Now to put it back together.
I added loc tite formula 246 (blue label). The non permanent kind to most of the bolts especially the ones that you are not supposed to torque down.

These include the rear stiffener link bolts (6)
the bolts on the swing arm that clamp to the bearings on the cars (4).
the bolts that attach the vert rail to the frame (4)
rotor bolts (12)
brake adapter bolts (4) frame + fork


This should help out

Put it all together.
New shifter lines, new wheels, tires, new brake pads
Ready for 2009!

Wasnt that bad.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

I think once I've got some of my family/personal business finished in the next couple of weeks I am going to spend some quality time with mine out in the garage tearing it down, getting a new rear wheel built (really, who builds a DH wheel without using spoke prep) and getting some new tires and some new Saint stoppers.

 

[stoney]

um... didn't you start with a grey fork?

 

[ridiculous]

um... didn't you start with a grey fork?

yeah I hate grey so i painted it black. Was going to spring for the 09 but im trying to save cash for the summer trips.

stock fox grey

roughed up lowers, 220 and 400 grit sanding

used high build primer and some gel filler to get back the smooth cyclinders that are supposed to be fork lowers. Then sanded the coats evenly with 400-800 grit sandpaper

High temp black spray paint. 5-6 light coats sanding as necessary

and some flat clear coat

finished product

close enough to an 09, 2 new stanchions, 08 internals, go ride top crown.

 

[Udi]

That's a real neat job, nice work!

 

[stumpjump]

Great post man. I've been debating doing that to my fork and now I think I might just get the motivation to do it.

 

[ridiculous]

Yeah I broke it up over the course of about 10 days so it wasnt a bad project. Gave plenty of curing time for the paint, primer and clear. Last step is to put a layer of wax on which I still havent gotten around to. Really and truly its about 4-5 hours worth of work spread out over 10 days. Its the sanding that kills it.

 

[ohio]

That is a ****load of time to spend on a bike, not actually ON the bike.

 

[worship_mud]

wow, impressive! i doubt if i would bring this thing together again... and also a good job on the fork. where did you get the fox stickers? do they have sticker kits for the general public?

 

[ridiculous]

That is a ****load of time to spend on a bike, not actually ON the bike.

yeah took awhile but taking any bike completely apart to clean like that takes time. Besides its still the off season for me.

 

[ridiculous]

wow, impressive! i doubt if i would bring this thing together again... and also a good job on the fork. where did you get the fox stickers? do they have sticker kits for the general public?

yeah i just called up fox $14 for stickers plus shipping, so order them when you have parts to get. I was going to get them from Rufus Designs but then I called fox to see how much they were. Just tell them you want the 08-09 stickers or youll get the old grey ones.