FOX DPS Shock Repair + Full Service Guide for Beginners. Broke your knob? Then this video is for you
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- This video goes over how to repair and fully service a Fox DPS shock. The Shock in the video is a 2021 FOX DPS Performance series, but the video applies to all DPS shocks in general
I received the shock with a broken and leaky compression knob. When I opened it up, I realized the problem was major and that the shock would need replacement hardware parts.
DON'T be intimidated by trying to repair your shock if it has an issue. FOX sells all parts, most parts are reasonably priced, and repairing a shock is no different from performing a 200-hour service, aside from replacing broken parts with new ones.
As always, if you have any questions, let me know
These videos are great. Keep up the great work. Watching this gave me flashbacks to having the shim stack scatter all over my workbench and an 8-foot tall foamy oil geyser from the bleed port.
I so know your pain with this. It happened to me a few years back. One morning, when I couldn't sleep, I got out of bed at around 4am, figured I'd work on a buddies shock and get it out of the way. I put the piston assembly on the zip tie, thought I locked the zip tie, and BOING! Just about the entire assembly flew all around the dining room, kitchen and living room. It literally took me hours combing the rooms with a small magnet to find all the parts. And when I finally did, I had no reference to the shim stack order as it was a 2015 and rockshox didn't publicly post custom shim stack info back then. Even when I called them, they weren't sure of the actual order for that particular bike. I literally found a suspension guru in Washington State who had the proper order. To say the least I paid him well, as I was about to buy my buddy a new shock. A big lesson was learned that day. If you can't sleep at night, just stay in bed! 😁
Regarding getting that ball out, I don't have a handy tip on how to actually pop it out, BUT for making sure you don't lose it/shoot across the room while picking it out, rather than the magnet, use a snack-sized ziploc bag (or whatever works best for your hands), and hold the assembly in the ziploc "pushing" into the back of the ziploc so if/when the ball pops out, it lands safely contained in the ziploc. (A tip for any bearing or spring-loaded parts removals that require "uncontrolled" disassembly, do it in a bag that catches anything shooting loose.
Here's a little tip how to get that white ball easy. Just heat the pick with a heatgun, and you will get it in a secong just by melting it.
Saw it once in a random instagram service video.
Yup, I've tried this as well in the past. It needs a SURPRISING amount of heat to melt though. I might do this in a future video to show the option. Thanks for sharing 👍
Couldn't be any better timing than that! Literally planning on doing small maintenance on mine. It's overdue and I should do the full one (over 3000km of riding), but don't have all tools required yet.
At 3000 KM, I'd say a full one for sure, especially if that's over multiple years. If your knobs are working fine, then you don't have to work on them, so this will save you some time. You will need two fox tools at a minimum: the 5/8 piston socket and the 3 nipple spanner socket. The rest can be done with tools that can be bought at the average hardware store.
The hardest part of this job is filling the ifp chamber. You will need a high pressure shock pump and needles. I plan on doing a dedicated video for this very soon, I highly recommend buying extra needles as they will eventually break, and it is very unpredictable when they do. I have at least two other DPS videos out there that might better match your DPS in case that helps. They also show how to fill the IFP chamber with a hand pump.
If you don't have ANY of the tools needed to complete this job, then I say send it in for service if possible.
Let me know if there are any questions
@@zoubtube the bike is bought 01.2023, so its slightly over 1 year old. The biggest fear I've got is exactly that: the needle part (already bought 600 PSI capable pump) and those two special tools you mentioned. I cannot find them without paying over 100 EUR.
Can you cover in your video one question: can IFP be pumped with a compressor or it's a no go? I am OK doing it by hand, it will just take a long time and that's a lot of movement while pumping with a short hose and a needle at the back...
- As soon as you showed what was happening with the selector I knew the damper shaft had snapped. I work as a professional suspension mechanic and have recently gotten a couple of the exact same float dps performance shock with the selector issue and both had the damper shaft snapped in the exact same spot. Both shocks were well past their service interval, one was a 2018 that had never been serviced and another was a 2020, but that one was on a polygon with a heavy rider so it was under a lot of stress. I keep these broken shocks as a display to show riders who are hesitant to spend the money on service for their suspension. I get it’s expensive but so are the medical bills that the worst case scenario can incur, and a new shock is even more expensive. The symptoms are always the same, oil leaks from the top rebound/selector and the knob won’t move. The system relies entirely on the ifp pressure so if anyone reading this has a fox float dps shock and you haven’t done the damper service within the recommended time frame and your selector has gone from firm and snapping into the three positions with a distinct click and it doesn’t move, to having the selector be floppy and it easily moves and doesn’t have that positive engagement you should get the shock serviced. Even if the bike has been sitting for awhile the ifp charge (nitrogen or nitrogen/air combo) will leak into the damper fluid over time because as the video shows the ifp has only an o-ring to separate the chambers.
- That question about removing the selector without opening the shock, I would say no absolutely don’t do this. If you remove the air from the ifp you will move the depth of the ifp. Obviously the shock needs to be empty and it is really difficult to ensure the shock is fully extended without at least removing the air can. Moving the ifp depth can compromise the function of the shock. Plus you then need to recharge the ifp chamber, which is the only difficult part of working on this shock! It’s extremely dangerous to even perform this fill, let alone have someone with hobby level suspension repair experience to attempt it. If something is wrong with the selector please encourage people to bring it to a professional. You can change the tightness of the grub screw in the shock head to change how easy or hard it is to move the selectors but that is all I would recommend a home mechanic attempt. And only like a half turn max.
- Some questions about this shock just for me to learn, what is the service history of it, do you know what year it is and if it had ever been fully rebuilt? We as customers demand a lot from these components and they are high performance products that need to be maintained. Just look at how small these parts are and think about the forces present when you hit even small drops and jumps. They are over engineered to reduce failure rate given most people will not take care of the shock but nothing is full proof.
- I’ve found that rotating and tapping the shock before closing the bleed port up can get the last little bit of air out, every time I’ve serviced one of these shocks I’ve done the tapping and rotating and have gotten more bubbles out. Just a small thing I’ve found helpful! Super agree with your recommendations for extra needles and pellets, lots of needles are too long and bend while trying to insert it. And then while pumping 500psi is a lot and it takes a lot of strength to physically pump the shock. Keep the hose supported and really tighten the fox pellet tool down to hold the needle.
- You can adjust how hard the selector and rebound is to engage with the grub screw at the top, obviously don’t back it out too much but small 1/8th turns can make the selectors a bit easier to move while not compromising the shock function. Your blue selector does seem to be at an angle that is too extreme. The selector assembly may have been damaged, it should match the picture on the front of the air can really closely. I could see during your test the blue selector was not snapping into place as positively as it could be. I’m not 100% sure what’s causing it but sometimes it takes cycling through the positions to get the system to equalize itself and settle into the positions. I’m sure you know but for anyone reading you can insert the lockout plate into the damper shaft after reassembly as seen at 1:10, to test the engagement of the blue selector. Insert the lockout assembly into the shaft and GENTLY push down until you feel it pop it place. Make sure the blue selector is in the open position while you are inserting the assembly. While keeping gentle pressure on the top of the lockout assembly move through the three positions. You will see and feel the assembly move corresponding to what position you are in. You can also test the rebound when the lockout assembly isn’t in the shaft by pushing gently on the rebound rod with a soft pick or something that can put pressure on it. While keeping the pressure applied click thru the rebound positions and you will feel the rod moving up or down depending on which position you are in. This is a sanity check to ensure you have inserted the shaft in the correct orientation. So you don’t get all done with the job only to see the selectors aren’t working.
- Lastly in my essay (I love this stuff hence why it’s my job), I’m surprised you have a lockout gauge but not a piston band sizer. That glide ring needs to be sized with it. It really makes a noticeable difference after using the piston band size in how little friction there is between the glide ring and the damper shaft itself. Plus it’s just a fun tool to use lol. It’s one of my favorite tools to use just because of how it feels to press the glide ring through the sizer with the vice. I think you misspoke are the end on the dyno. At 1:34:42 you said rebound fully closed while what I assume you meant to say was rebound fully open. Closed rebound slows the shocks movement while open does not.
Quick question regarding rebound and compression under IFP pressure vs not, newer DPS models no longer have the spring that props up the rebound shaft. Mine is a newer model DPS that does not have this spring, and I'm assuming that the IFP/oil pressure will be enough to be pushing everything up. What I mean by this is that when the lockout plate is allowed sink into the cams in the eyelet assembly, (my shock is remote version) the IFP pressure is enough to push the lockout plate up. And same would go for the rebound, when the shock is unpressurised the clockwise rebound clicks push the rebound shaft down but it will not return (give clicks for counter-clockwise/open) unless I apply upwards pressure to the rebound shaft with a small tool, I have looked through the docs of older DPS models when they had the spring and they also used a much lower IFP pressure (150) at that time, would I be correct in saying that that is the reason that the spring became redundant?
So my question is, will that all be sorted by the IFP pressure when I re-assemble the shock? As far as I can tell, it will but would like to know if I'm missing something before I re-assemble it all!
Cheers.
Apologies for the delayed response, Bob, but keeping up with comments and questions is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I'm glad to hear you're still at it, and I hope all is going well with you. You hit the nail on the head! The shock is a 2021, it came new with the bike, he is the original owner, and it was never serviced. One thing I noticed was that the piston bolt was WAAAAY tighter than it should have been. No way that thing was set to 6.8. My guess is that, just by feel, it was clean over 12nm. It took a surprising amount of force to separate it from the broken shaft bit.
"That question about removing the selector without opening the shock, I would say no absolutely don’t do this"
Agreed, and I hope my message came across as it's not worth attempting this. For some reason this question comes up ALOT! Though it's physically possible to do it (and I believe I mentioned, a couple of times, that the IFP chamber needs to be emptied), It's just not worth the effort to do this as so many things can go wrong. What I will do is add an "READ ME" at the top of the description section just to make sure people are clear on this
"I’ve found that rotating and tapping the shock before closing the bleed port up can get the last little bit of air out"
I've never considered this and will try it on the next one I work on. I know that some pros out there cycle the shock a few times after closing it, and then open the bleed port slightly to release and air that might have been missed by the bleed, but it seems to me that one wrong move the IFP and change its position. Your idea sounds much better, so thanks for the tip
"I’m surprised you have a lockout gauge but not a piston band size"
Funny you mention the piston band sizer. I actually have the tool, SOMEWHERE! I haven't been able to find the freaking thing since the start of covid. I'm, sure it's in a box, that's sitting in a larger box with a bunch of small boxes in it, that have a bunch of other small stuff I can't find. I tried to buy another one back then, but it was literally IMPOSSIBLE to find one in stock at the time. I pretty much improvised, and got used to using the damper body as a guide, which I wanted to show in this video because I technically stretched the glide ring more than I liked while installing it, I reminded my self to record the process, only to end up giving myself the big forehead SMACK in post when I realized that I totally forgot to record it.
"you said rebound fully closed while what I assume you meant to say was rebound fully open"
I just looked at the clip, and It looks like I misspoke when testing the rebound dial, stating fully "locked" instead of fully "closed". But then I opened it to see how fast it'd come back up again. Terminology with me when making these videos is an area I'm really trying to improve. I've never had to worry about it before. My whole life, it's been pretty much just me and my thoughts when working on projects. To this day, I'm still amazed at how challenging it is to try to explain everything in as much detail as you can while you're actually working on it, while recording and while constantly thinking that you can't make it too long. MANY times I find myself staring at the screen with a tilted head, confused dog look on my face during post. I'd love to script this stuff, but honestly, I just don't have the time.
Bob, I truly appreciate your input, and I feel fortunate whenever you share your thoughts. This isn't a job for me, and though I have been working on cars, motorcycles, bikes, and just about anything else mechanical my whole life, I've always considered myself an enthusiast AT MOST! Having grown up with a meticulous old time mechanic for a dad, I truly understand the value of experience through repetition. That's what makes a true professional. So please feel free to keep sharing your thoughts, knowing that I'm thick-skinned and hard to offend. If you see something off, please let me know. Though it might seem like there might be some kind of conflict of interest, trust me when I say there isn't. Most people neglect their stuff, the vast majority, who do occasionally maintain their stuff, will send it in for service. This is for those who grew up like me, and from what it sounds like, you as well, people who love this stuff and are looking for that extra bit of confidence. Though one thing I've learned from the channel is that there is a WORLD of people out there who don't have the same accessibility as we do to get this work done without spending a ridiculous amount of money to ship it to another country and waiting a super long time to get it back.
On a side note, did you ever get the vacuum bleeder?
Thanks again, and I hope all is well
Hey there! is the dial measurement tool necessary if you do not touch the dials and just do the damper oil/bleed and seals?
Hi Zoub, watching your last vid on this shock gave me the courage to change the oil and service the air spring, after this one I decided to go right down to the controls as the blue lever could go past the open position, turns out the grub screw/pin is bent which I managed to get out luckily and the cam shaft is slightly damaged where its meant to stop on the pin. any chance you could post links where to get those parts please?
sure, but so I am sure of which version shock you have, can you give the the tune ID or serial number. Different version has different cams. thanks
@@zoubtube no worries at all, custom tune is DNLL. I ended up machining a new grub screw in the lathe and made the 5/8 socket while I was at it just to get it going for the weekend as its my sons bike and no way could I go with out him as I'm sure you can imagine, Sad thing is after I had the damper apart (using zip tie method so nothing moved) it feels as if there is no difference between open or firm and lock out is very stiff but I can slowly compress it sitting on the bike, I'm using shockcrafts ifp valve so confident I'm getting the 500psi in there but I actually set the ifp to 54.61mm and had a thought at work today that its actually a 185x55 tm so reset it tonight to 63.5mm but still have the same problem, from open to firm I'm getting 1.14mm on the dial indicator so I'm thinking along the lines of there is crap in the shims somewhere? its now ill admit I haven't replaced any seals because I'm tight like that and after the first oil change everything was working as its meant to.
also designed a dial indicator mount and the 1/4" drive 3 pin socket for 3d printing which ill leave here incase others would like to use it too. www.thingiverse.com/thing:6751957 hard to get tools like that here in new Zealand, really appreciate your videos and help man cant afford new stuff but like to try to service my old stuff and keep it going.
update, stripped and cleaned the entire damper today did each shim by itself and still cant tell any difference between open or firm (I can by hand just not in the bike) and lock out has a slow compression although it is very stiff, one thing I noticed when I put the pump on the ifp valve was it only showed around 350 psi, what I think is happening is when I pump it up to 500psi and take the pump off some air is escaping before the valve has fully seated, I'm going to get a new pallet and try using the needle method, not sure if this lack of psi would make the shock behave this way but its worth a shot.
Search up shock craft fox ifp valve it's from a company here in New Zealand
YUP! I've known about them for years. The only issue I have with them is they have to be removed when performing a 50 hour service. Ironically, if fox was to sell valve based damper body replacement upgrade, I'd be willing to bet just about everyone who services their own shocks would buy one. Thanks for sharing this with people though. it super appreciated. 👍
@@zoubtube yeah true like you say not having to remove the valve to do the 50 hour would be great and the shock craft valve cost me $60 including postage so might not be far off a new body. also bled the ifp height on my shock we where talking about on your original video and it feels great its a older rp2 but has pro pedal and replaced the basic suntour on my stance, just need to sort my sons shock and well be happy as. cheers Brent
Did the shock come off a Specialized?
IT came new with a 2021 yet SB 115