Marzocchi Shiver reassembly help needed.

[mcnut]

I'm attempting to reassemble a friend's forks on his '08 EC300. I found the Marzocchi manual on line. While trying to figure out how to cinch everything up, I read that a special tool is required to tighten the "foot screw" on the bottom of the fork.

Is there a way to tighten things back up correctly without the tool? I haven't been able to figure it out.

Pictures may help if you have them.

[GMP]

You mean the base valve or compression adjuster correct?

Lightly grease the threads and o-ring, with the cartridge seated in the bottom of the fork, start the threads in the cartridge base by hand a few turns. Tighten with a 3/8" drive pneumatic or a 1/2" on low VERY carefully. It just needs to be snugged up, a short burp after it seats is good. If you can't find a thin wall socket that fits, I'm sure you have a six point spark plug socket in your toolbox. It fits snug on the hex which is good as its soft.

[mcnut]

Thanks for the speedy response. I'll give it a shot.

I hate not knowing what I'm doing, although I should be used to that by now.

[GMP]

Zokes are the eaisest open cartridge fork to service besides a WP.

What did the oil look like? If real mucky check the anodizing on the uppers. Go real easy on the lower clamp torque.

[mcnut]

The oil was hardly dirty. This bike obviously hasn't been ridden enough!

[eff]

Originally Posted by mcnut

The oil was hardly dirty. This bike obviously hasn't been ridden enough!

You sound like my riding buddy. I just had my suspension lowered and the tuner said my internals look terrific so i guess it must be true.

[mcnut]

Fork #1 done. So I'm draining the oil out of #2 when I hear a metallic sound in my drain bucket. The bottom valve came apart. I have no idea what order the stack was in. I don't really want to disect #1 to see what's up. Suggestions?

I'll go tap a suds in the barn and comtemplate the situation for a while.

[GMP]

If you took the base valve out with a pneumatic, its possible that the nut became undone then and it fell apart. If not, then you might have bigger problems if the valving was floating around in the cartridge. Look for damage in the cartridge tube. Stack is anyones guess if it has been revalved. Stock stack should be listed somewhere, if not I can try and dig it up tonight.

[mcnut]

It is true that I used air to remove it. I didn't do that on #1. Guess I got cocky. I'll try to search for the stock stack. These forks hadn't been apart before I got my hands on them.

[elemetal]

With WP' sand when I just did my Zokes I like to use the pressure of the spring to help hold the cartridge while screwing in the BV, like GMP said it doesn't take much torque and since I'm usually using .46 springs or so it keeps them from spinning. Unscrew the cap and let the springs rise up but leave the cap attached to the cartidge rod (spring still loaded). If there isn't enough pressure you can put in a temporary pre-poad spacer to add more.

BTW the top nut and spindle of the BV should be peened/staked in four spots to keep that nut (and the shim stack) from getting loose (I left mine alone until I ride the thing but they were staked). Not sure if you could break these with an air hammer on the BV body, look closely for issues in that #2 leg, seems like it should have come out like the 1st one....