Hi guys, I decided to replace a spring in my rock shox xc 32 tk fork, since I am really light weight and the medium was not doing it for me. I am new into biking, I tried to open the fork, unscrewed the "preload cap", used 24mm key to unscrew the "top cover of the fork", I pressed bike down, to make the spring pop out, which it did. But I just cannot pull it out. I tried to unscrew also the screw at the bottom of the leg, but I do not think it is related. I applied my max force, did not make the spring move.

this is how the fork looks
Gabelprofi.de - Online Ersatzteilkatalog für RockShox und Avid

this is how the situation looks
https://s.bkfrm.cz/static/images/disc...8dd9b2aqph.jpg

I may be doing some very simple mistakes, I am new to this. Any advice would be appreciated.

Typically Sus forks have a bolt that you find the head on the Bottom end..

what did you do down below?

if you look at the scheme of the fork, the screw at the bottom of the outer pre-load leg "", marked with numbers 5,21 is the one I removed, but did not seem to help.

Maybe try searching for that model name, year and .pdf in the search, chances are you will come across the service manual.

I would think that top cap assembly would come apart and you could pull the spring out the top. If you have to pull the whole fork apart it's probably not super hard. To pull the lowers with a Rockshox you generally unthread the bottom bolts about half way and hit them hard with a mallet. They will pop the damper rod things loose from the inside on the lowers and you can then unthread them all the way and pull the lowers.

You would need snap/retaining ring pliers to pull the internals out of the upper/stanchions at that point. I could be totally wrong about that, but that's how they have been held together forever.

Service manual: https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign....recon_xc32.pdf

https://www.sram.com/service/include...d/rockshox/455

thanks for the manual, The spring is out. Now I need to remove the pre-load thingy from the top of the spring,and the metal shaft from the bottom. at this point I will probably pay visit to a bike store, if they dont have time, at least to give me a in person advice. It all started with an advice of "just unscrew the top, pull out spring and push back the new one" , but now its kinda getting more complicated.

https://s.bkfrm.cz/static/images/disc...hsi7gfkl2i.jpg
https://s.bkfrm.cz/static/images/disc...qlr4lrpv88.jpg


..actually it seems that I only need to go and but the properly sized key and twist those pieces out from the spring. I am into rc hobbies, so I am lacking bigger equipment for bike related stuff

great, so the springs is replaced, feels better immediately, I am using almost all the travel, finally getting some sag and on bigger bumps it is a lot more comfy. but still does not react to smaller bumps, like a field road, roots in forest etc. I am getting quite a violent hit from the front and by looks I do not see the fork doing any dampening. Now I do not know, if this is some kind of a problem, or actually an expected behaviour for a fork of this price range and I should get used to it.

There are a couple of things. Are you sure the fork isn't accidentally locked out? RockShox forks don't have a hard lock-out, the lock-out will open in response to a hard impact.

The other posibility is that there some excess stiction somewhere that prevent the fork from moving slowly.

Try standing next to the bike, lock the front brake and then slowly lean on the handlebars until you have almost all your weight on it. The front fork should smoothly compress. If it doesn't compress at all, that would indicate that the fork is locked-out. If it takes a modest amount to get started, then moves slowly, that's probably something sticking.

its not locked out for sure, also because I can additionally lock it and then I feel a difference, when I do the lean over "test" as you suggest (and it does not move at all). But >when unlocked<, it goes down, however in my opinion its not exactly smooth, feels like some extra initial force has to be placed to see movement. Be the judge - I made this test while standing on a scale, I weight 64kg, the spring is rated <63kg, to make an initial movement in the suspension, I need to put 25-30kgs of my weight right over the handlebars. Sounds like this could be an indication of some stickiness in there?

Before, I had a Merida with very basic Suntour fork XCT 26 100mm and I recall using the lock out option frequently, because even on smaller bumps, I could take advantage of unlocking the fork and feeling the dampening. Some people are suggesting to me, that I simply expect too much from XC fork, but it just seems weird to me that a 3x cheaper suntour could do it better.



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ok, so I googled how to test the sensitivity " " of the fork properly, removed the front wheel, put it on a scale with the legs of the fork, pressed on the handle bars. The first compression occurred at around 10.5kg, which should not be so bad. When I have time, I will have the fork professionally services and then see, if it leads to any improvement.