Marzocchi 48 Cartridge Problem

F

fixmare

New member
Hello Guys!

Please Watch my Fotos! After Riding with my 2013 GasGas 300 Racing, i noticed that the right cartridge-adjustment comes about 1cm out. Now you can see the O-Ring. I can?t see oil leak. The Fork has never been serviced, and has 16 handy hours. I dismounted my handlebar and tryed to pull it back down, but i can?t. What is the reason for this Problem, and what can i do?
I Need my Bike fully functional in one week:mad: Please help me!
 
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Has it always been like that or has it been adjusted? I'm not going to be much help to you but someone who's had these apart and knows how the PFP adjuster connects will be able to point you in the right direction.
 
I've had mine apart but have not had the PFP knob out. I'm going to give you my best guess. I suspect there is an internal snap ring missing or broken, that would limit the upward travel of the PFP adjuster. I can feel this "hard top out" when I turn mine CCW. With no stop, it would just unscrew like your pic. To get back to functionality, try threading it back in to the same dimension as the other leg. This will take some pressure to engage the threads as your working against the PFP springs 7mm minimum preload. It would be easier if you loosened the compression assy a couple turns to reduce preload, but this requires a special tool. Considering there could possibly be loose snap ring parts on top of the PFP piston, I'd have this serviced ASAP.

What really sucks, at least here, is parts/documentation/support for this fork is nonexistent.
 
Jakobi said:
Has it always been like that or has it been adjusted? I'm not going to be much help to you but someone who's had these apart and knows how the PFP adjuster connects will be able to point you in the right direction.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jakobi. A few weeks befor i tried to screw the pfp until its maximum and minimum preload...but after 3 times out from maximal in, i stopped, so i think i didn't move it to mouch way out. I marked the pfp piston with red colour befor moving, and it sets about 2,75 out, and this is the position when it cames again out... i dont understand and can't see a holding ring or something broken
 
fixmare said:
Thanks Jakobi. A few weeks befor i tried to screw the pfp until its maximum and minimum preload...but after 3 times out from maximal in, i stopped, so i think i didn't move it to mouch way out. I marked the pfp piston with red colour befor moving, and it sets about 2,75 out, and this is the position when it cames again out... i dont understand and can't see a holding ring or something broken
Click to expand...

Its what you can't see thats the issue here. I'd definitely follow Glenns advise and put them in for a service. I know its not what you want to be dropping coin on at the moment, but maybe take the opporunity to work with a tuner and have them set up to meet your needs a bit more at the same time. Forcing it back in is a bit of a recipe for disaster and as above, they shouldn't back right out like that so something has either been broken/left out internally.

Alternatively you could try and push it through as a warranty job with your dealer. Depending on who they are and how you feel about their work you might have them cover parts and labour on the pull down.
 
fixmare,

I have had everything apart BUT THAT, and held the cartridge cap in my hand while turning the PFP out to the stop. I have since seen a drawing that shows what looks like a ring as well as the oring seen in your photo, but no part #s. Something MUST be there to limit and retain the PFP adjuster, and no you will not see it unless you disassemble the compression assembly. I suspect its a retaining ring on the PFP adjuster itself that seats on a narrow shoulder withen the cap, very much like the spring preload collar and retaining ring on the outside of the catridge. This would be exposed when the PFP adjuster is turned in CW far enough.

I hope I'm making sense to you here. I realize you need to be somewhat familiar with how most forks are designed but there is not much else it can be. If you don't have the skills/tools to tear it down take it to someone who can. Likely its a standard metric retaining ring thats missing or bad, but if you wreck something Marzocchi specific, your screwed.
 
I did not dismantle the compression assembly either , I'll have to do it the next time as I can barely sense the clickers turning.
Take a look at this pic, might be the ring that is missing on yours ? Not sure if this is the one:

CIMG1100-1_zps578906dd.jpg
 
I don't think thats it. Look at the bottom of the cartridge cap, you can see the natural aluminum colored body of the bottom of the PFP adjuster, easily contrasting the gold anodized cap. It is threaded into the cap and sits just about flush with the cap bottom edge when the PFP is full CCW. Now picture a groove machined around the circumferance of this part where you can't see it, and a retaining ring installed. Above that, in the cartridge cap itself, should be a shoulder for this ring to stop on. Just like the preload collar setup I mentioned. I suspect, and its an educated guess, that if you remove the compression and PFP pistons, spring, etc. from the assembly, you should be able to easily thread the PFP adjuster down far enough to expose this ring. It would then be removed and the PFP adjuster unthreaded and removed from the top. This would be neccessary to replace the o-ring on the PFP adjuster.

Too bad you didn't post this a week ago, mine were apart and it would have been easy to go one step more and see for sure whats going on.
 
GMP said:
I don't think thats it. Look at the bottom of the cartridge cap, you can see the natural aluminum colored body of the bottom of the PFP adjuster, easily contrasting the gold anodized cap. It is threaded into the cap and sits just about flush with the cap bottom edge when the PFP is full CCW. Now picture a groove machined around the circumferance of this part where you can't see it, and a retaining ring installed. Above that, in the cartridge cap itself, should be a shoulder for this ring to stop on. Just like the preload collar setup I mentioned. I suspect, and its an educated guess, that if you remove the compression and PFP pistons, spring, etc. from the assembly, you should be able to easily thread the PFP adjuster down far enough to expose this ring. It would then be removed and the PFP adjuster unthreaded and removed from the top. This would be neccessary to replace the o-ring on the PFP adjuster.

Too bad you didn't post this a week ago, mine were apart and it would have been easy to go one step more and see for sure whats going on.
Click to expand...

GMP i think your educatet guess is right, but i don?t have the right tool to pull the cartridge out, so i hope the importer will informate me what was wrong about it
 
fixmare said:
GMP i think your educatet guess is right, but i don?t have the right tool to pull the cartridge out, so i hope the importer will informate me what was wrong about it
Click to expand...

Sry my previus message was lost,

Today i tried to pull and screw it again back. It works with pressure to get it back, but now i detectet, that the compression clicker don?t click anymore. And now when i try to screw it back out, to PFP comes again out, and that doesn?t make the left fork,... so i think GMP is right, that inside the Gold Cap a Clip is lost or broken. I phoned to the Austrian importer today and they can solve my problem for now, i get a new cartrige, and they check the problem. I hope i get the information whats wrong with my fork. so thanks guys for help me, hope i get the new cartridge soon enough:confused:
 
Be sure to post back, i have a new bike coming in a few weeks and it would be good to know what sort of issues i am going to have...
 
This is not a common thing. All experiences with the 48mm fork so far have been positive, its very well made. Only issue is parts.
 
Springs, main seals, main bushings can be replaced with KYB stuff. I'm in the process of IDing all the oring sizes. Its the damper rod seal, PFP seal, PFP bushing that does not look obvious. I hate the thought of being sidelined by a simple seal.
 
Sinphoto said:
Hi,
What was the fix for the problem as I have the same issue.

Many thanks.
Click to expand...


CIMG1100-1_zps578906dd.jpg


Likely this circlip has either been forced off, or is missing.

Will need to pull them down to confirm. There are threads with the process for pulling the PFP down inc the ICS spring. Very fine threads though so do use some caution.
 
running zero turns on the PFP preload

so, do you suggest I DONT run with zero turns preload? I'm worried that there mightnt be enought threads on the adjuster ( with it backed out) that mine might do the same as the OP....
ta
Jonathan
 
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