Judy FSX +22yrs old needs help or replacement

[Thias]

how do I check the stantions and for what?
...

If you look through Rockmtn's thread, you will see this picture of a stantion that is completely gone:

This is the result of not maintaining the fork. The grease is washed away and the stantions surface gets worn quite quickly.

The other thing to look for is play between the stantion tube and the lower legs. If the bushes are worn the stantion tubes will start to silghty tilt/wobble inside the lower legs. That would also result in scratched surfaces in the end. In that case, the bushes inside those lower legs should be replaced. To test for that tilt, you would engage the front brake standing beside your bike. Then push and pull the bike back and forth. If the fork flexes without any tilt induced klicks, its fine. But if you feel slight tolerances you might need new bushes (if that is not your headset giving in, that feels very similar)

To be able to look at the stantions surface you need to pull the fork apart. There are two allen bolts on the underside of the lower legs. Loosen those and screw them out. But not completely. Maybe so you can see 5mm of thread. Then hit them with a soft hammer (or use a piece of wood between the screw and a normal hammer). The screws should slide in all the way. If you then take them out, you should be able to slide the stations out of the lower legs.

the mistake I made was I hung it upside down by it's tires in the garage for a few years while I transitioned through a divorce. went in the garage one day and there was a puddle of oil on the floor and one of the plastic endcap's threads had about 1/4 of it's threads broken off. ...

This is no mistake you did there. Its a defective seal in the dampener cartridge. Those can be replaced and refilled. But you have the Eglund kit that replaces the cartridge anyhow. So no worries here.

The end caps are replaced, too. By the air kit.

carefully screwed the endcap back in and went for a ride, where I now experience the "thud" whenever I first pull-up the front wheel to go over something like a log.
...

That is quite dangerous, what you did there. Those broken caps have the tendency to pop out and hurt you eye!

Best advice that anyone can give you, is that these forks are built with some fairly delicate and detailed bits ... so don't manhandle them as you dismantle or re-assemble them, or you'll end up breaking something difficult to replace. A careful hand and a gentle twist of any tools gets the job done ....

Thou the Judys are rather forgiving to "manhandling" - compared to some modern air/oil dampening systems - this still is a very good advice. In Germany we have a saying. "Nach fest kommt ab" - would translate to "At first it is tight, then it comes off" - talking about screws.

 

[RockiMtn]

Re: Re:

Best advice that anyone can give you, is that these forks are built with some fairly delicate and detailed bits ... so don't manhandle them as you dismantle or re-assemble them, or you'll end up breaking something difficult to replace. A careful hand and a gentle twist of any tools gets the job done ....

Please can you tell me which these "fairly delicate" bits are? I'm not sure I've ever seen these when stripping down Judy forks for maintenance?

I would have to agreed. I don't recall anything too delicate when I tore down the FSX and Judy SL I have. :?

 

[atjurhs]

Re: Re:

Taking apart and servicing rockshox Judy's is easy - you'll be fine.

I'll take pics and ask questions if/when I need help, thanks guys!

 

[atjurhs]

how do I check the stantions and for what?
...

If you look through Rockmtn's thread, you will see this picture of a stantion that is completely gone:

This is the result of not maintaining the fork. The grease is washed away and the stantions surface gets worn quite quickly.

The other thing to look for is play between the stantion tube and the lower legs. If the bushes are worn the stantion tubes will start to silghty tilt/wobble inside the lower legs. That would also result in scratched surfaces in the end. In that case, the bushes inside those lower legs should be replaced. To test for that tilt, you would engage the front brake standing beside your bike. Then push and pull the bike back and forth. If the fork flexes without any tilt induced klicks, its fine. But if you feel slight tolerances you might need new bushes (if that is not your headset giving in, that feels very similar)

To be able to look at the stantions surface you need to pull the fork apart. There are two allen bolts on the underside of the lower legs. Loosen those and screw them out. But not completely. Maybe so you can see 5mm of thread. Then hit them with a soft hammer (or use a piece of wood between the screw and a normal hammer). The screws should slide in all the way. If you then take them out, you should be able to slide the stations out of the lower legs.

the mistake I made was I hung it upside down by it's tires in the garage for a few years while I transitioned through a divorce. went in the garage one day and there was a puddle of oil on the floor and one of the plastic endcap's threads had about 1/4 of it's threads broken off. ...

This is no mistake you did there. Its a defective seal in the dampener cartridge. Those can be replaced and refilled. But you have the Eglund kit that replaces the cartridge anyhow. So no worries here.

The end caps are replaced, too. By the air kit.

carefully screwed the endcap back in and went for a ride, where I now experience the "thud" whenever I first pull-up the front wheel to go over something like a log.
...

That is quite dangerous, what you did there. Those broken caps have the tendency to pop out and hurt you eye!

Best advice that anyone can give you, is that these forks are built with some fairly delicate and detailed bits ... so don't manhandle them as you dismantle or re-assemble them, or you'll end up breaking something difficult to replace. A careful hand and a gentle twist of any tools gets the job done ....

Thou the Judys are rather forgiving to "manhandling" - compared to some modern air/oil dampening systems - this still is a very good advice. In Germany we have a saying. "Nach fest kommt ab" - would translate to "At first it is tight, then it comes off" - talking about screws.

wow! excellent help here, I really appreciate it. I'm not sure if I will be able to take it apart till next week (to busy of a life as a single dad), but this thread is bookmarked, and if/when I have troubles you'll here back from me....

thanks again!

Todd

 

[atjurhs]

Re:

so the guy on eBay tried to rip me off. he sent me a used Englund Air Kit, it had lots of scracthes and signs of wear. I didn't even bother to try and see if it's cartridges would hold air or not.

so I'm back in the market of finding someone and/or someway to rebuild the FSX that I have

can someone help me out?

 

[Fudd]

The guy you bought them from sells a lot of rare and desirable items and I thought he'd be better than that. Make sure you leave negative feedback in case he tries to resell them again as nos.

You can still buy springs, damper cartridges and dummy rods from Risse - http://risseracing.com/store/index.php/cPath/24. They only list the one weight of spring but you can find other springs on ebay, and the whole lot will be a good bit cheaper than what you paid for the Englund cartridges.

 

[RockiMtn]

have you taken your forks apart and assess what the issue is? your looking for a solution to your problem without even knowing what that is. it could be as simple as servicing/replacing the damper cartridge in the one leg and you're done. that would be a quick and relatively cheap thing to do.

 

[jonboy]

Re:

have you taken your forks apart and assess what the issue is? your looking for a solution to your problem without even knowing what that is. it could be as simple as servicing/replacing the damper cartridge in the one leg and you're done. that would be a quick and relatively cheap thing to do.

Agree with this. If you have elastomers replace with springs, if you already have springs then just clean and reuse. I suspect you can service the damper cartridges. I have successfully refilled cartridges on several occasions.

If the stanchions are in good condition and you already have springs then, potentially, all you might need is a replacement top cap for the one i think you said is missing some threads.

Come on, the suspense is killing me - get those bolts removed from the bottom of the legs and get the sliders off the stanchions so we can what we are looking at. Let the dog see the rabbit so to speak!

(technical bit for you now - the sliders might not just pull off the stanchions as the bottom of the damper rod is likely to be tight in the hole it sits in at the bottom ofthe slider. Easy fix - don't completely remove the bolts. Undo them until 5mm of thread is showing, then gently tap them in with a rubber mallet or similar, This pushes the end of the damper rod out of the hole it's lightly stuck in. Then completely remove the bolts and pull the lower legs off. That's all you need to do right now. More advice once we can see inside them.)

 

[stingray230sx]

it's really not too hard, once you dig in, as long as bushes are not needed....then the need for special tools and the luck of finding replacement bushes will be more difficult .....

but if you have the aluminum cartridge this manual will show you how to rebuild it, or replace with the risse GEM[ beware, I ordered one several years ago, I have it, it's very nice, but it took a couple months to get from them]

http://www.mtb-kataloge.de/Bikekataloge ... judyxc.pdf

 

[stingray230sx]

keeping on this topic, what weight oil is everyone refilling their cartridges with, I searched and only see references to rock shox oil in the manual, no weight specified? so I am wondering 5w or 7w maybe? all I have is some 15w at the moment, used it on a modern rock shox reba