uniuniunium

I was giving my '03 Hardrock a good cleaning (had it upside down for the purpose) and figured I ought to lube the front fork (RST Capa TL) while I was at it. After throwing some grease on them, I pumped the shocks a few times, and then to my great dismay rusty water began to seep from the left adjustment knob . Sure enough, the fork had been basically flooded with water without my knowlege for some period of time. I've pulled the slider off, and am now trying to figure out what to do to clean/fix the fork. Anyone have an idea of the best way to go about this?

I guess that explains the stiffness......

Joefireline

I think my forks has flooded with water as well... At first they were really bouncy, then for some reason, the went really stiff... Then one day, I had to ride in tipping down rain, and then the forks were really bouncy again. When I was doing some general maintance on it, when it was upside down, I noticed water was dripping out of it... I think the gel in it has been replaced with water, my forks are RST gelta plus, on a saracen awol.

uniuniunium

Alright, a bit of an update....

I went ahead and pulled the entire front fork and the spring assembly from the affected shock. The bottom 3/4s of an inch of the stanchion tube has some heavy rust, but the rest is basically clean. I cleaned the spring off and I can't find any corrosion on it (lots of grease). I'm not sure if I should try to sand down the existing rust (e.g. a Dremel wire brush on the extension cable) or just regrease and reassemble the thing or just chuck the fork entirely. I think it's still safe to ride, but I'd appreciate some advice.

古強者死神

If its just for the time being, maybe let it be. If you really want to try to revive it, I would get rid of that rust so it doesnt spread, also see how deep it goes.