Help with old school Manitou FS-TI fork
 

I was commissioned to tune up my friend's mountain bike recently (1997 Barracuda A2E). I fixed up the drive train and the shifters, which were his main issues. I found the manual for his fork online and asked him if he wanted me to scope it out, even though it would be my first fork service. I thought, at least, that I'd change the oil and lube the seals.

Everything looked good on the inside, and I put it back together. The compression and dampening seem fine, but the springs are making a "ping" sound under load. I don't remember the fork being noisy, but I can't figure out a way that I could have caused it. The pinging happens equally at minimum and maximum preload. Any ideas on what it might be?

I stripped it back down and had a look at all the seals and bushings, nothing seems to be out of order. I can't tell if it's the spring making a creaking noise, or if it is coming from the damper but it doesn't take a lot of pressure to produce the first creak.

For posterity's sake, I will share the solution to my problem, which could easily occur on another brand of fork. It was so simple that I feel a little foolish for not figuring it out sooner.

The noise was coming from the upper spring end rubbing against the inside of the inner leg. I thought that the seepage of oil from the damper would sufficiently lubricate the spring, but when I spread some polylube all over the inner leg (get your mind out of the gutter), the noise went away. The fork is quiet and I finished the tuneup without a hitch.

:thumb: