Manitou Mars 1 Front Shocks (1999) - Strip down Help?

[NGR]

Background
I picked up a '99 Marin Rift Zone from a cousin earlier this year. It was "okay", but needed some new parts and a lot of TLC. I got it sorted reasonably well, but I took it out recently and it had a bit of fluid leaking through the right-hand wiper seal. I reached out to a number of local Surrey mountain bike outlets requesting a fork service, but as they are so old, the majority declined to assist.

I am just trying to keep the bike "alive". It will never see any heavy duty work, but I'd like to slightly improve the front forks a bit.

Home Repair
So, I have managed to source what I believe are the correct wiper seals and have all the o-rings I need. I'll have to workout any other seals when I get inside the forks.

Issue
The "best" documentation I can find for strip down of my '99 Mars 1 forks is a Mars 2001 document. The 2001 schematic looks a good match to the main parts of my '99 Mars 1 forks, but the fork strip down instructions is my challenge. I'm reasonably okay with retro' road bike rebuilds, but mountain bike front shocks are a completely new challenge.

Current status
De-gassed the air from the left leg. Removed the 4mm allen key and 8mm allan key bolts from the lower legs. Lost all the fork fluid and damper fluid, but I have replacement bottles of these already.

The outer legs then slide, but they won't slide off the inner legs. They appear to hit an internal stop, which I am not going to force.

Request
Does anyone have an Mars 1 shocks strip down experience they can share? (Even if I were to give up and re-secure the lower leg bolts, I am not even sure where you put the fork and damper oils back in!!!)

Thanks for any steer here.

 

[DavidF]

Hi
I have a manitou sx-r fork which requires service after the damping adjustment knob popped off somewhere on the Bracknell forest Red trail a few days ago. All the damping fluid/oil has gone.
You mentioned in your post that you reached out to a number of cycle shops in Surrey for a fork service but most refused the job. Could you tell me which shops said they would try to fix them? I don't have any rebuilding experience so would rather take it to a pro.
Regards
DavidF

 

[NGR]

Hi
I have a manitou sx-r fork which requires service after the damping adjustment knob popped off somewhere on the Bracknell forest Red trail a few days ago. All the damping fluid/oil has gone.
You mentioned in your post that you reached out to a number of cycle shops in Surrey for a fork service but most refused the job. Could you tell me which shops said they would try to fix them? I don't have any rebuilding experience so would rather take it to a pro.
Regards
DavidF

Hi David.

Perhaps when I used the term "refused", I might be putting too strong an emphasis on that position. Given their age, the MTB shops, "would prefer not to", would be more appropriate.

Anyhow, quickly trawling through my mails, these are an initial set who I got responses from:

Nirvana Cycles - nirvanacycles@googlemail.com
MB Cyclery - sales@mbcyclery.co.uk
TF Tuned - ruth@tftuned.com
Dave at Retroshox – service@retroshox.co.uk

I also reached out to Hayes, who I believe took over the Manitou brand(?), but they could not help, again owing to the age of the forks:
support@hayesbicycle.zendesk.com

I managed to source some seals, but have not stripped the forks to replace them yet, but I did get them sufficiently apart to refill with Maxima fork oil in the damper leg and c. 30cc 40wt oil in the air spring leg. Once re-pressured, they have been behaving themselves very well.

Hope this helps.

 

[trailstar82]

Did you look here for reference?

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/Manufacturer+Archive/Manitou/Technical+Manuals/

 

[ishaw]

With most forks I've worked on (mostly rockshox or fox old and new), there is a taper inside the leg that the damping rod sits in. You need to break the hold the taper has. On rockshox and fox, it is a case of using the bolts that you've probably removed from yours, scree them back in a fair bit, leaving some room so that when you hit with a rubber mallet, the damper rod will be forced out if the taper. I tend to be using a long Allen key (t handle) so use the mallet on this rather than directly on the bolt. Repeat on both sides.

Hope this makes sense. May not apply to manitou, I've not worked on anything newer than a manitou 4.