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Found the source of my leak, not caliper...fork...help!

2K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  apa 
#1 ·
OK, I have discovered that the source of my leak is not the caliper, but from the bottom of the fork. You can see after pushing hard down on the forks that some oil will come up from where the base of the fork enters the hub (or whatever that is called, I don't know). Is there something that could be tightened to close that seal up a bit, or is this a remove the forks and rebuild them thing?

Crap.

Mike
 
#11 ·
Motorcycle2 just went through the same thing with his Marazocchi forks on his SMR450. We took them to Ohlins because there's no Marazocchi repair place around, in fact no one we contacted would even attempt a guess. Ohlins even said the manufacturer had failed to properly bond the stanction tube to the axle boot. Finally Joe had to take it to a local machinest to have the two re-threaded and then Ohlins re-assembled them. Took weeks but now they're done, major pain I'm affraid.
 
#12 ·
Well, I took it out this morning to go for a ride. I went back in the house to gear up and when I came out the entire left fork had drained onto my driveway. I guess when I tightened the footer bolt yesterday I did more damage than good. Like I said, when I turned that nut, I could hear something turning inside the fork. Also, it never seemed to fully tighten. I just stopped when I felt it was relatively snug. Obviously, I didn't ride it. Put it away in the shed. I guess I am about to learn how to remove and repair forks. Where can I get a manual for this bike? I have never done anything with forks in my life.

Mike
 
#15 ·
Well, I just went over to the Marzocchi website. They have a manual for the Shivers. This shit is beyond me. Since it is my life that is in the hands of these forks, I am going to remove them and send them out. I am going to call Marzocchi USA tomorrow and see if they can fix them, or send me somewhere that can. This sucks, big time.

Mike
 
#16 ·
I wouldn't waste my time with marzocchi. I called them (ca location) looking for parts and they kinda had an attitude like "sucks to be you"

If you want to do it yourself, it's not really all that bad. I just went through it a few weeks ago. All you need to do is remove your forks. Loosen the 3 clamps and you can slowly slide them out of the triples. Then take them to any local shop that will disassemble them for you. You need to tell them that they are 50mm. They may need to get special tools as they are probably not used to operating on forks of this caliber. Most jap stuff goes to about 48mm.
Then, once you have the lug (the gold part that the axle secures to) separated from the fork tube (the silver part that inserts into the golden lug), take them both to a machinist and have him chase the threads. My machinist put my lug in a lathe and was able to fix it with only loosing a few threads. Once you have it apart, you will see why it failed. If it was like mine, the tube was never threaded into the bottom of the lug. You can tell this cause the bottom threads are still gold in color and not silver like the others that have been used. Mine was shy of bottoming into the lug by approx. half an inch. :hmmm: WTF marzocchi? Anyway, There is a rubber seal on the bottom of the tube that sits neatly in a relief in the bottom of the lug...if it is threaded all the way down.

Once your threads are fixed, take it all back to your local shop for re-assembly. If you think you may ever need to take it apart again, upon re-assembly, and before setting the set screw, you can drill into the tube so the threads don't get damaged.
Just to let you know, marz. quoted me $575 ea per lower fork leg, and that is just parts, I dont know what their labor is. I paid my machinist $50 and Ohlins another $200 and they work better than they ever did.
Good luck with all of it. And call me if you need specifics. Seriously, I just went through this about 3 weeks ago so its all fresh in my brain.
 
#19 ·
Yeah, I caught that post when doing a search. There are something like 5 guys, including myself, who have had this problem. Obviously Marzocchi made some mistakes when assembling the 50mm Shivers for the '06 Huskies. I hope mine is as easy to repair as yours was and does not require the use of a machine shop. We will see.

Mike
 
#20 ·
Fancy finding this thread......I am going to look at an 06 450 that the owner says needs fork seals, is it realistically possible to misdiagnose this concern as a fork seal? Upon visual inspection is this leak obviously from the foot of the fork as opposed to the leg/stanchion seal?
 
#21 ·
Yes, you can see it oozing out of the bottom of the fork where the stanchion enters the lug.

I think it is quite obvious that Marzocchi had some QQ or design issues with the Shiver 50mm in '06. I am going to rename mine the "Shitter 50mm". :rant:

Mike
 
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