Marzocchi 45 T3 hardcoat follow up
 

Well its been about year since I had the uppers and damper rods of my Zokes T3 hardcoated. Approx 100 hrs total, 25 hrs since last service. I'm happy to say that they are holding up nicely. Serviced last weekend, and the oil came out very clean, as clean as one could expect. I have been torquing the center lower T clamp bolt to 9Nm, and just snugging the top and bottom bolts up. No slippage problems.

I have seen a few references to tightening methods for the lower t clamps, what effect does it have? (ps I am running sachs forks if it makes any diff)

The issue we are addressing here is the very slight distortion of the upper fork tube from the clamping force of the lower triple clamp, and the subsequent dragging or binding of the upper bushing as it moves through the area. This hurts the action and over time, wears the anodizing off the inside of the upper tubes. With the triple bolt lower clamp, its hard to properly torque using all three bolts without putting excessive clamping force on the upper tube. If you just walk your torque wrench up and down until it clicks off at even 8 - 10Nm, it will be too tight. I've heard of other methods too like leaving the lower bolt out. The center bolt method has worked fine. Just make sure the fork and clamp surfaces are clean and dry and you should have no problems with slippage or tweaking at all, I never did even in some good crashes. Oddly enough, my friends KTM300 is constantly slipping after a crash even when torqued to what I think is excessive values.

Just got my damper rods back from getting them hardcoated as well. Seems as though Marzocchi cheaped out on this. I haven't ridden the bike since and won't be able to for a few months yet, but I'm glad to hear that the coating is holding up for yourself. Time will tell but it seemed quite affordable to do and money well spent.

I had Les at LTR tell me to only tighten the top and bottom bolts on the lower tree, just snug up the center bolt.

That works too, result is the same.