Identifying year of sid sl and service kits needed

[ishaw]

I've a set of black sid sl forks that I'm looking to service but I'm not sure what year they hail from. Anyone got any pointers on identifying them so I can hunt down the service manual and service kit?

Not got any pics at present but they are black, the sl decals are on the inside leg. Dual air, Judy style lowers with disc mount (not modern, and not the bulgy bridged version, more like the yellow Judy sl). They have a red adjuster on one side of the Crown, an air valve on the other. Lower adjuster is black and extended from the lower via a silver alloy tube, the other lower has the negative air valve. 28mm stantions.

I know they aren't the 98 sids that were blue as I've a set of these.

Any ideas/clues?

 

[Osella]

Re: Identifying year of sid sl

Sounds like... 00-03 SID's. Like these?:

(these have the Blackbox crown tho, rather than the Alu version)

 

[ishaw]

Re: Identifying year of sid sl

Hey are the ones, also have a set in the classic sid blue which I think are the same year. Looking to give them both a good service, any ideas on where to get the parts needed?

 

[Osella]

Unusually some of the bigger places (CRC, Evans, etc) often have older parts knocking about for older forks, but it's over 10 years now & I think the SIDs after the '03 model used larger stanchions.
It may be the case that the part no's are the same for deals etc as the older SID/Judy models too - best way to check that is SRAM's 'Rabbit Hole' on their own website. I always check there first for manuals etc as it contains a shedload of owner and service manuals going back decades - right back to Boxxer/DHO days of 98/99 for forks. That should give part numbers, and then you might be able to check part codes are correct.

I've got two SID blues of the same era too (Race & World Cup Race Titanium) - one with a busted lockout. Tinkering is fairly intuitive to the manual but I haven't found the root cause of the probs with mine - it's a winter's day weekend job I think..!

 

[Lukem9962]

sometimes if lucky there will be a two digit number in the lower castings that ususaly translates to the year

 

[ishaw]

The lockout wasn't working on mine. I gave them a service and found that essentially there was not enough oil previously which was causing the lockout to fail. You can actually top up the oul without taking them apart to prove this is or is not the cause.

Take the compression dial off and unscrew the rod it was attached to. Fill the hole with oil, pop rod back in, the oil will get displaced so prepare a cloth or something to catch this. Cycle the rod up and down a few times to get the oil into all the nooks and crannies then remove the rod and top up. Put the rod back in and hand tighten. Pop the cap back on and see if the lockout works.

 

[Osella]

Yup, know mine is low on oil; so hopefully that's the problem! When (if) I can afford some oil I'll try the topup route & hopefully that'll fix it.. Lost more oil when I was checking the seals & cleaning out the caps etc so it needs the rest of the oil replacing anyway - so thanks for the tip!

Do you usually use the recommended oil weight or go slightly higher? I don't know if the oil in them was factory original or not (buying 2nd hand forks, not always the easiest way round!..) so probably just go with factory spec 15wt.

I also found this: http://www.enduroforkseals.com/id8.html which hopefully should assist!
I also realised it's autumn; which means checking/topping up shock pressures on my other bikes too..

 

[ishaw]

I went with 10wt as I thought the manual specified 5wt and that was the closest I had.

 

[ishaw]

Now to race the blue sids, not holding air for too long. Not done any air seal jobs on sids before......