Mountain Biking - Disasemble Rst Gila fork

I need help, I took out the little nuts at the bottom with an allen wrench. Took out both sides at the top of the fork, spring fell out on the left side. No idea how to get the stanchions out. I'm coming here as a last resort after trying to get this apart for hours. Tried taking off the seals at the bottom of the stanchions. Help please?

I'm doing this to test my painting skills on the fork before I go and do it to the bike frame. I'm taking it apart just to sort of first hand see what the inside of a fork looks like before I trash this fork.

You know before you tore it up, you could have let your sister use it......

You know before you tore it up, you could have let your sister use it......
The rst gila? its a piece of crap. All of your forks pwn it 10 fold.

For the rigid.

For the rigid.
Well.. If I get this right it should still work. I want to rebuild the fork aswell. Thats of course if I can figure out how to take it apart.

Some pics
heres the fork, and here the inside where I took out the spring, any ideas would be appreciated.

sanded the crap outta the steerer tube it was all dark and rusted.
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8792/picture036qa7.jpg

http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/90/picture037ws4.jpg

If that fork is off the trek 4300 you list in your signature it is probably an Insync. They are now made by spinner and the pics look similar to the one on the spinner page. You can find a manual with an exploded parts view here http://www.spinner-usa.com/sf_sport.html Don't know if it will help on disassembly, but it may.

Fun In The Fog!

Yea, I see the diagram, but not sure if thats going to help in taking it apart.

Heres one I prepared earlier, way, way earlier.

03-18-05, 11:39 AM #19
harov3
In zee plastic moto bar




Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: at zee edge of zee dezzert Hi there Velvet! Here's what you actually asked for, how to service your RST T5 Gila. Bear in mind that after an exhaustive search of shanethewundermechs files (we stood around, abused customers, discussed some of his more interesting piercings and *****ed about computers and bike abuse) we couldn't find any service material for RST product There was some stuff on their Euro site a few years back but it was for Euro only models and its long gone anyway. So we pulled mine apart You will need a 4mm allen key, great big rippling forearms or a pair of multi-grips set to squeeze ever-so-gentle-like and a rather special RST tool available only by special order and if they really, really like you Or you do as we did and get a stick. Not just any stick mind you, but a pointy one, after youve finished the service you might like to apply it vigourously to your least favourite mech . Grease.

Got all that? then OK!

1) Make sure your preload is set to its minimum setting.

2) Use those forearms of yours or the multi-grips and gently unscrew the caps surrounding the preload adjusters anti-clockwise. These will offer very little resistance and care should be taken not to crush them with the multi-grips.

3) As the caps reach the top of their thread and are free of the sliders, gently withdraw them and the spring unit they are attatched to.

4) Now place the stick inside the slider (have a good look down there first so you know what your getting into- always good advice) and use the pointy end as a wedge between the screw holder and the inner leg wall, and hey-presto! now you can undo the allen key!

5) to re-assemble just reverse the process. Note however that it may be easier to remove the stick when you are starting the allen screw in it's thread and then re-inserting the stick once the thread has caught.

Well velvet I hope this helps, some of these guys were almost there but not quite. Anyway someone said RST didn't use damping and that was correct. They also said it was a lower end fork and that was correct too, but all fork manufacturers make cheap forks for entry level stuff the difference is that RST specialises in it and dosn't make high end stuff, that and label-itis.


Poodletit!



That was a long time ago, at about step four the staunchions should slide out but its been a while since I took those or any other forks apart.

I actually found that exact post in a search from google last night^^

so it seems I need something to unlock the allen key at the bottom of the tube. what can I use?

Thought I'd give an update. Just started painting without taking the stanchions out. White primer 4 coats, 4 coats of orange, 5 coats of clear coat. Still gotta do the crowns. I did stenchil pheard in on the left of the fork, its smudged and I tried to wipe it off messing it up worse. I sanded it off and repainted over it in orange.

http://img445.imageshack.us/img445/5416/picture038jl5.jpg

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/7892/picture039us3.jpg

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/937/picture040bk7.jpg

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/1954/picture041lb9.jpg

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/852/picture042tv8.jpg

Nice job. Thanks for the update. Wish I hadn't been on vacation around the time of your disassembly attempt. I probably could have helped.

I'm a bit stumped. If you actually got the allen bolts out of the bottom of the lowers, it should have pulled apart. The hex-key heads you see down inside are the ends of the compression rods that sometimes need to be held from turning in order to get the bottom screws out. At any rate, you may need to hold them to get the bottom screws to tighten when you put it back together. What you'll need to do it is a verrrry long T-handle allen wrench (many Manitous use a similar tool). If you weld (or know someone who does), you can make the T out of 1/2" rod; then drill a hole in the end and weld in a short chunk of the right size allen wrench (6 or 8 mm?)

Here's a picture of what the tool looks like:
http://www.rst-europe.com/manuals/m-d-p1.htm
Figure 1-1

Good luck.

yea lmao, after completely painting it, the bottom screws started coming out as I tried to put the allen nuts back on. Oops. Too late now.

Looks good, is this your first spray job? The pointy stick in post 10 does much the same thing as the special tool in post 13.

sometimes there is "press" fit between the dampener rod and lower fork leg on the inside bottom of leg. you can screw hex bolt a significant amount in so as not to cause thread damage and tap on bolt with a soft mallet to break free the inner rod.