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official xfusion rl2 fork service and tuning thread

266K views 755 replies 149 participants last post by  Chungales 
#1 ·
Hi, i am starting a thread to consolidate service and tuning info from this thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/x-fusion-slant-anyone-903382.html Almost everything you need to know for home service and a starting point for tuning, if you are so inclined. Should be good for all current xfusion rl2 forks. Mine is a 160 mm Sweep.

What you will need besides basic sockets/wrenches/hammer (i assune everyone has those)

park spa-2 pin spanner

28 mm socket, must be 6 point and ground flat like so for max engagement on top cap: Finger Skin Asphalt Road surface Black


Piece of plastic pipe or long socket for reinstalling damper shaft

soft blow hammer

buzzys slick honey grease, its the best. or rock n roll super slick

torco rsf lite

torco rsf medium

Oil measuring device

New oil seals (if necessary)

new o-ring and quad-ring kit from xfusion (if necessary)

Oil bucket

Disassembly:

1. Remove fork from bike and place in stand at 45 degrees with lowers pinting up. Remove air cap and depressurize. Remove rebound knob Finger Bicycle accessory Bicycle part Metal Iron


2. remove footnuts with sockets. Exposed end of damper shaft: Glass Bottle Home fencing Lock Fence


3. Use a 4 mm socket placed on the end of the rebound shaft where tehre are hex flats. carefully pound on this with a hammer to unseat the shaft from the lowers. Nice and straight so that rod doesnt bend.
Glass Drinkware Drink Transparent material Cylinder
DO NOt use the footnuts to drive out the shafts like on other forks, the nuts are too soft teh threads will strip.

4. Heres the spring shaft end. You can pound on this directly with teh hammer to disengage it. Bicycle accessory Photograph Bicycle part Black Metal

then carefully pull the lowers off the uppers and drain all the oil.

5. If its time for air spring service, unthread the air spring baseplate from the left leg using the pin spanner. Then carefully pull out the air piston assembly while holding the air valve open.
Bicycle part Bicycle accessory Bicycle Bicycle frame Picket fence

Brown Line Metal Iron Grey
Product Musical instrument accessory Metal Still life photography Silver


6.If its time to change the damping oil or you want to revalve it; Rotate fork so upright. Remove the lockout switch with allen key. Unthread the damper side top cap and pull it up just half an inch or so until you can see the oil level. Turn fork upside down and drain the oil, while cycling teh rebound shaft to get it all out. Then carefully pull the damper up out of the leg. drain any excess oil, again while cycling teh shaft.
Product Blue Brown Line Electric blue
Brown Metal Steel Cylinder Pipe
Bicycle accessory Grey Composite material Cylinder Metal
Brown Yellow Product Bicycle accessory Infrastructure


My next post: Tuning and reassembly
 
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12
#2 · (Edited)
rl2 service, continued

7. Pic of damper: Musical instrument accessory Iron Metal Steel Still life photography

some people including myself fell that the rl2 forks are a little too firm on small/stutter bumps. Someone on the slant thread mentioned taht removing the mid-valve would alleviate that. Or rearranging its shims. To get to it:

8. See the wrench flats on this pic on teh end of the oil tube below the upper part? Using a wrench on those, unthread the oil tube from the upper part. Youll need to hold onto teh upper end with teh 28 mm socket.
Product Metal Cylinder Steel Pipe

Metal Beige Tan Khaki Cylinder


9. Now the mid-valve is exposed. Its the cup on the lower end of the base valve with thr ing of holes. Unthread this from the valve, its tough it has no wrench flats try sticky rubebr gloves or pliers with rubber in between.
Metal Beige Tan Khaki Cylinder
Finger Product World Nail Thumb


If you look inside teh back of this cup, you can see the low/mid speed shim stack held in by an allen screw,
Yellow Khaki Photography Beige Button
Black Black-and-white Circle Household hardware Button


the dimensions of the stock shims in the sweep are as follows, starting with the face shim closest to the piston:

10 mm x .15 mm
8 mm x .1 mm
(4) 5 mm x .2 mm

All have 3m ID.

I dunno if other rl2 forks have the same, or differing, shim stacks.

Ive run teh fork for the last few weeks with the entire piston removed. feels reaaly good, super plush almost coil-like. It is a tad divey on teh steeps. Today i put the assembly back in, but put one of the small pivot shims between the 10 and 8 mm shims to maybe increase low-speed sensitivity but still have some support a tad deeper in. I may also try switching out the face shim to one thats .1mm thick to soften it more. that is, if I can find one it seems like 3mm ID shims are not commonplace.
I wont make any recommendations as I am not experienced with shim valving, I am going off some suggestions by a helpful fellow on that other thread. If any experienced shim tuners want to chime in here, including that gentleman, feel free!

here is a pic of the high-speed shim stack, which i didnt feel the need to mess with. It also is the blow-off for when the fork is locked out
Product Metal Steel Household hardware Circle


At the otehr end of teh damper is the wrench flats to unscrew the rebound seal head so you can get to teh rebound piston. I diddnt take that apart beacuse wasnt necessary but it seems like if any orings or seals down tehre need replacing it seems pretty straightforward. Probly wont have to worry about that for a long time.

next post: reassembly
 
#83 ·
here is a pic of the high-speed shim stack, which i didnt feel the need to mess with. It also is the blow-off for when the fork is locked out
View attachment 889757
Can you highlight which one is the blow-off for when the fork is locked out? I'm thinking that's what XF changed on my fork. I'd like it to be a little softer, so I'm curious if it's a reconfigured shim or orifice?
 
#4 · (Edited)
10. reassemble the damper: grease (and replace if necessary) the oring that seals the oil tube to the upper part, and screw it back together. I guess try to get it as tight as it was before.

11. Grease (and replace if necessary) the large oring that seals the damper to the stanchion wall. Carefully push the damper back down into the stanchion, but not all the way yet leave some room to add oil.

12. slowly add 70 ml of torco rsf light a bit at a time, while cycling the rebound shaft up and down to suck the oil in (make sure lockout is off and rebound adjustment is full open) when full, make sure the shaft is fully extended, then thread on the top cap and tighten to 60 in pounds. Reinstall the lockout lever.
Rotate the uppers so 45 degrees and lower end points up.

13. Pour 5 cc's of rsf medium into teh air chamber. this is not in xfusions rl2 service video, however my fork had it in tehre from the factory. Also the vengeance video showed it. so i assume its supposed to go in this fork too? You can also do this at the end instead by unscrewing the top cap.

14.Grease (and replace if necessary) the quad ring on the air piston. While holding the air valve open, carefully push the air piston assembly back in. and tighten the cap with the spanner till you hear a click. Infrastructure Pipe Iron Home fencing Metal
Bicycle accessory Home fencing Picket fence Pipe Composite material


15. Clean out the lowers with a bottlebrush or thin dowel and rag. make sure the bottom-out bumpers are in tehre proper place. clean the stanchions.Pour a bit of oil on the foam rings and liberally grease the oil seals and bushings with slick honey. Slide the lowers back on the uppers halfway.

16. Pour 15 cc's of torco rsf medium into the bottom of each leg, through the shaft holes. then while holding the air valve open, completely compress the fork. Push on the shaft ends a bit to release any air pressure in the lowers. switch on the lockout.

17. Now the tricky part, reseating the damper shaft. Xfusion for some reason wont sell the special tool that threads into it to pull it back on. Its a wierd size you cant find at the hardware store. Xfusion says an "older" sram chainring nut will work to thread on and pull it through, but good luck finding one. However, i found a workaround. Find a piece of plastic pipe (or a long socket if you dont mind scratching the paint) of the right size and shape that fits around the end of the shaft without touching it and contacts the bottom of the lowers around teh shaft nice and evenly. i found this at a hardware store:
Finger Nail Thumb Bottle Shadow

Now you can pound on that with a hammer, basically driving the lowers back onto around the shaft, until enough threads show that you can pull it the rest of the way through with the foot nut. Again, remember to have the lockout switched on while doing this.

18. Reseat the spring shaft, if not enough threads show to grab with the nut pump a few psi into teh air chamber to push the shaft end through (but dont let the fork extend yet) then thread on the foot nut and tighten it to pull the shaft completely through. if the shaft spins you can hold it still with a hex key in the bottom.

19.Torque the foot nuts to 60 in pounds. Reinstall the rebound knob, reset the adjustment, pump the fork back up and youre done!
 
#6 ·
#17. Per advice in the Slant thread, get a second damper nut and cut it in half. The short nut has threads all the way to the bottom, so you can use it to pull the damper out. It will botton out on the top of the nut, but enough threads will show allowing you to put the uncut nut on it. This method has worked great for me.

Ps, nice write-up.
 
#8 ·
Awesome thread! Thanks for doing it. One recommendation for an edit would be to add "annotate current settings, open rebound all the way, and lockout the fork". I know you mention this in later steps but its probsbly more helpful in step 1. When I get around to it ill upload some pics of servicing the DLA version as the air valve is on the lower right leg.
 
#11 ·
Its cut in half lengthwise, not crosswise. Its because the threads dont go all the way to the end, cutting or grinding off that end down to where the threads are means it can engage the shaft thread easily even if only a small amount of teh shaft sticks out.
 
#16 ·
Good thing some-one finally disassembled the RL2 damper, but actually, I'm pretty sure that the 3mm shims aren't the mid-valve, but a additional linear tune for the basevalve.

Traditionally you need to look for a midvalve on back-end of the rebound piston.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Good thing some-one finally disassembled the RL2 damper, but actually, I'm pretty sure that the 3mm shims aren't the mid-valve, but a additional linear tune for the basevalve.

Traditionally you need to look for a midvalve on back-end of the rebound piston.
I know what a traditional mid-valve is, but in the "xfusion slant anyone" thread, it was posted by someone who does suspension service that this piston is what xfusion calls their "mid-valve", and there is not a traditional midvalve on the rebound piston. But youre right, in effect this valve is an additional tune for the basevalve.
I didnt look at my rebound piston, but from a pic someone else posted it doesnt look like theres a midvalve on tehre... but i could be wrong.

Underscores the reason i started this thread. dont get me wrong i am a big fan of xfusions products; however compared to rockshox, which has complete service instructions and detailed parts diagrams, xfusions site is sorely lacking in this department
 
#21 ·
Well ive ridden it a few times with the midvalve reinstalled but teh shimstack altered (i put one of the small pivot shims between the 10 mm face shim and the 8 mm support shim). It feels just about what mullen thought, about 25% of teh way between stock and midvalve removed. I think replacing teh face shim with a .1 mm shim will be the way to go. unfortunately I have to have that size custom made, I have requests out to a few machine shops for pricing, heard back from one but they have a $150 minimum order. Im waiting to hear from a local guy to see what he can do. Does anyone else wnat any? Illreport back.
 
#24 ·
I think the mid-valve is the only adjust for teh base valve; after I took off teh mid-valve and looked down the circuit it looked like a straight shot to teh port that can be closed by the lockout switch.. tehre is also a high-speed circuit with some bigger shims, I didnt tear it apart that far. You can see it in my pic #20. Those look like standard msizes I think thats what xfusion cutom-tunes if you want them to. But i could be wrong as to the exact names/functions of these stacks.
 
#25 ·
If anyones ineterested I talked to a guy who can make me .1mm 3 mm ID 10 mm OD shims to replace the .15 mm stock face shim. Basically cost is about $50 for 1 shim, but like $6o or so for 10, the cost is mostly in the setup. So let me know ASAP if you want one and ill have them made and well split the total cost. id like to order them tomorrow because im going to be out of town camping next week. caveat: the stock shim measurements posted here are from my sweep, and I suspect its the same for the slant and the trace but dont know for sure. the 32 mm forks may have a different sized shimstack.
 
#30 ·
Might try that down the road, looks like i would have to get some very flat wrenches to get at some of the wrench flats, but shouldnt bee too difficult. that stack looks like a straight stack of 4 -6 shims, might be interesting to change that to a taperd stack. And since those are likely standard sizes would be cheap to mes with. If anyone has any advice on specific mods to that stack that would be great. But IMO the fork feels really good on rougher terrain with bigger chunk/hits, its the small-bump sensitivity i need to open up. However softening up the big stack might help with fast sharp stutter bumps.
 
#28 ·
I took out the damper and the "midvalve" "cap" thing and noticed that there were only 3 shims of 3 different sizes arranged in a conical stack. I wonder why in the pics there were 5. I rearranged the shims so that the smallest shim sat in between the two larger shims - hopefully to achieve better small bump compliance while not completely losing the mid-valve effect.
Anyway, testing around the block, I felt as if the fork were slightly more plush. Real trail testing tomorrow.

Anyway, some tips:
1. Use the right tools - I tried a socket and it almost mangled the top cap (those things are on TIGHT). Got these from lunar bikes and they're perfect.


2. You can do the tuning mod without taking the fork completely apart. Just remove all air, unscrew the damper top cap, compress fork and lift the damper until you can access the wrench flats on the main tube. Some oil spillage is possible though. Then you can unscrew the top half of the damper assembly.
 
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#29 ·
Cobym, which fork do you have? Mine is a sweep it would be interesting to know how the shim configurations differ for the various rl2 forks. If your big shim is 10 mm and the middle one is 8 it should have the same effects as my stack. i also put one of teh small pivot shims between the 10 and 8 mm shims but would like it a tad softer so want to try the thinner face shim too.

1.Was your socket end ground flat? Mine was and it worked fine. The lunar tools are also a great way to go.

2. Great idea!
 
#37 ·
Cobym, which fork do you have? Mine is a sweep it would be interesting to know how the shim configurations differ for the various rl2 forks. If your big shim is 10 mm and the middle one is 8 it should have the same effects as my stack. i also put one of teh small pivot shims between the 10 and 8 mm shims but would like it a tad softer so want to try the thinner face shim too.
1.Was your socket end ground flat? Mine was and it worked fine. The lunar tools are also a great way to go.

2. Great idea!
I have the sweep.
Socket was a bad 12pt unground one, but which worked on my fox 34. The xfusion caps are thin and soft. Good thing I stopped after one try.

Anyway, I tried the small shim sandwich which you mention on a real trail today. It feels plusher with better small bump sensitivity, but only very slightly. The mid valve is still very much present, which is good (one of the reasons I bought the fork and sold the divey fox 34). I'll probably try it with the cap removed just to see how it is without.
FYI, I refilled the cart with golden Spectro 5wt which should be same or close to stock. Should I go with a lighter oil?
The sweep fork doesn't feel bad, but it's just that my other bike has a coil marz 55 rc3ti. Hard to beat a coil in terms of plushness and it's maybe the reason I'm unconsciously looking for that coil feel. Attainable? Or am I just fooling myself.
 
#35 ·
Well so far there are 5 takers for the shims. I called the guy back today and left a message, im sure ill talk to him in the near future and order a small batch, maybe ten or a dozen in case anyone else chimes or i want to keep a few spares. Ill update on this thread with price and ETA.
 
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