Leaking / servicing Rock Shox - In need of some advice!
Discussion
Folks, first time poster but hoping somebody may be able to shed some light here!
I have a Revolution Triad with Rock Shox Tora 302's fitted... it's had relatively little use (hence the gut!) but a month or so back, oil started seeping from the left lower 'upright' though it wasn't excessive so I wiped it and carried on as normal.
Yesterday I decided to have a look and whilst checking them over, discovered the lock out function no longer works either. I've had a look online, found that the Toras had a known fault with the right hand damper rod so stripped the shocks down completely and mine appear to be ok.
On the left is a good damper rod, on the right is a defective one. Mine is the same as the one on the left so I assume all is well there. Also, all the o-rings are present and correct however I'll replace them as a matter of course and the oil that came out the right hand upright was clean.
I've now decided that there isn't an issue 'topside' as it were and given how much oil was in the damper, the leak must have been the small amount of oil that's in the lower legs to provide lubrication and I suspect it's seeped out through the bottom vertical allen bolt or through the rebound control knob so I shall replace the crush washers and o-rings bottom side too and hope it cures it.
My main question is what oil grade to use. Sram specify a 5W for the damper (150ml) and a 15W for the lower legs (15ml) however it's rather dear stuff so having had a read online, seems buying 500ml from a motorcycle shop is more cost effective. However, again I only need a tiny ammount so forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is normal motor-oil not suitbale? For instance, 5W-30 synthetic for the damper and 15W-40 for the lower legs. The second number is irrelevant as that's the viscosity when hot and the shocks will never generate enough heat in the oil to worry about that.
again, seesm to be lots of conflicting advice online regarding oil weights with people claiming X brand of 5W oil is thicker than Y brand of 7.5W oil and so on, so hence ratehr confused as to what I should be using and similarly, I don't want to be spending a relatively large sum of cash on a tiny little bottle of Rock Shox oil when something off the shelf as it were would be suitable?
Any thoughts on this one?
Cheers
I have a Revolution Triad with Rock Shox Tora 302's fitted... it's had relatively little use (hence the gut!) but a month or so back, oil started seeping from the left lower 'upright' though it wasn't excessive so I wiped it and carried on as normal.
Yesterday I decided to have a look and whilst checking them over, discovered the lock out function no longer works either. I've had a look online, found that the Toras had a known fault with the right hand damper rod so stripped the shocks down completely and mine appear to be ok.
On the left is a good damper rod, on the right is a defective one. Mine is the same as the one on the left so I assume all is well there. Also, all the o-rings are present and correct however I'll replace them as a matter of course and the oil that came out the right hand upright was clean.
I've now decided that there isn't an issue 'topside' as it were and given how much oil was in the damper, the leak must have been the small amount of oil that's in the lower legs to provide lubrication and I suspect it's seeped out through the bottom vertical allen bolt or through the rebound control knob so I shall replace the crush washers and o-rings bottom side too and hope it cures it.
My main question is what oil grade to use. Sram specify a 5W for the damper (150ml) and a 15W for the lower legs (15ml) however it's rather dear stuff so having had a read online, seems buying 500ml from a motorcycle shop is more cost effective. However, again I only need a tiny ammount so forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is normal motor-oil not suitbale? For instance, 5W-30 synthetic for the damper and 15W-40 for the lower legs. The second number is irrelevant as that's the viscosity when hot and the shocks will never generate enough heat in the oil to worry about that.
again, seesm to be lots of conflicting advice online regarding oil weights with people claiming X brand of 5W oil is thicker than Y brand of 7.5W oil and so on, so hence ratehr confused as to what I should be using and similarly, I don't want to be spending a relatively large sum of cash on a tiny little bottle of Rock Shox oil when something off the shelf as it were would be suitable?
Any thoughts on this one?
Cheers
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