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Clicking noise in fork

Old 07-26-20, 07:40 PM
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Sealth
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Clicking noise in fork

I just performed my first fork lowers cleaning on a Rockhopper I bought recently (2017 Rockhopper Sport). The fork is a Suntour XCM. After doing the servicing, I've noticed a clicking noise when depressing the fork suspension. I need to depress the suspension quite far to get the click (60-70mm of 100mm of travel). It seems like the click is coming from left stanchion (the side with the spring in it).

For the servicing, I mostly followed
. I found no oil in the fork. The left stanchion, the one with the spring in it, had a large plastic piece on the end that sits at the bottom of the lowers. The right stanchion had the hydraulic lock out which was enclosed. I wiped everything off with some citrus-based degreaser and some rags, and I applied Slickoleum liberally (I think?) on the stanchions and in the lowers. The suspension actually glides quite nicely now and there's no black grease coming out of the lowers. I did not open the fork uppers during the servicing. I'm worried that maybe the uppers are not seated in the lowers correctly leading to this clicking noise.

I also cleaned and re-greased the headset during this. I used Slickoleum for this too. It's a simple ball and cage headset from FSA. I wasn't paying close attention when I took it apart, and I had some trouble putting it back together in the correct order as I couldn't find a product number for it. I managed to find a video of someone servicing a nearly identical headset. I'm pretty confident it's seated correctly and properly tightened (the fork is tight with the frame).

Finally, I'm not 100% sure the clicking is new or not. It could just be that I'm paying more attention. I also just removed a kickstand from the bike that it came with. The kickstand was really loud when riding and it could've masked the clicking of the fork.
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Old 07-27-20, 05:51 PM
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Sealth
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If anyone is interested, I think the sound is just the coil suspension in the fork contacting the side of the stanchion during compression. Basically, springs in coil forks can bend/buckle as they're compressed and click against the inside of the stanchion. Nice coil forks have shrink-wrap around the spring in the stanchion that mitigates this, but my fork is far from nice. I don't think the clicking noise I'm getting is a problem.
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