Elastomer forks : HELP !

[MADJEZ]

Hope someone can help, lots of questions as I know next to
nothing about suspension forks.

Bought these Ballistics on ebay (blinded by the words carbon & cheap).

They seem to have been hardly used but I can’t work out how they
work or adjust.

Each side has a stack of elastomers (in good nick), 1 red/3 yellow.
no washers in between like Rock Shox (should they have ?).
They are covered in white greasy stuff, dunno if it’s special fork stuff or
Emulsified oil.

End of the skewer has a sort of rubber band on it (one is missing –
does this matter or does it just hold stack ?).

They appear to go into the fork leg but don’t have any way of securing them.
The end cap has a thread and tightens the leg.

If you do them up tight there is no give at all.
If you leave them looser you can pull the forks upwards
but there is nothing holding them up (they sag as soon as
any weight goes on them).

Finally, I forgot to check before buying about the steerer.
It’s 1”1/8 but is too short and threaded. It comes out, but not sure if
I can get a replacement (are they standard fit? & Why put a steel steerer on a carbon fork ?)

If anyone has any ideas on any of these I would appreciate. Otherwise I will have to
Hang em on the wall and get some Judys like I had planned.

 

[JeRkY]

Steel steerer in a carbon fork for 2 reasons.

1- Its strong (Pace use steel steerers as standard excepts on the proclass model forks which were alu and much thicker wall sections)
2- They are cheap carbon forks.

As for a replacement, it looks as though a pace steerer may fit, the fork seems to have taken quite a few design queues from a Pace RC35 fork, including the shimmed straight bore steerer, so you may be lucky.

 

[orange71]

I might have a steerer that fits from some old Zokes that I have.

 

[MADJEZ]

Thanks for all the help so far.

Someone suggested they are similar makeup to early Rock Shox but
I can't fathom the manual.

Any other tips greatly appreciated. Particularly on the setting up.

 

[lewis1641]

in the fourth pic the threaded part is a pre load adjuster. is that the only way the stack is secured in the fork. if so it looks like that acts as the adjuster as well.

if fully tight locks them solid can you not just back them off a very small amount?

 

[velomaniac]

I have balistic 450's which although more primitive are similar in appearance. The elastomer is not secured in the leg other than by the threaded top cap as is yours. The steerers are just 1&1/8th " steel tubes with no tapering outward or thickening for the bearing race to fit snuggly to so Marzocchi or RST steerers dont work. An old steerer tube cut from a long enough old rigid fork may do perfectly well.

They are not plush forks doing only the basics that are required of them but they do this adequately.