Possible to swap these two very different Judy's lowers?

[SackofHammers]

I'm wondering if I can swap these two lowers. I'm trying to avoid repainting the Judy SL's to black. I could never handle the SL and now they they will be used on a Bontrager restoration I like them even less. I need to get a 1" threadless crown on the FSX fork to get it on my Bontrager frame.

Here's an example of the Judy SL I have. I think it's a 1997 Judy SL from what I can google.

The lowers I'd like to use are the Specialized FSX Carbon lowers. I'm hoping it's possible to swap them but with my karma, I doubt it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52967840@N04/4885741782/

Any idea if this is possible?

 

[unit3]

Re:

Sure you can, only thing I "think" is different is the size of the Allen bolt in the lower legs that hold them together. Earliers are smaller than laters, think all you need to do is open up the hole slightly.

Might want to wait for a second opinion on it though

Niall.

 

[spacehopper]

it should work fine if you are ONLY swapping the crown and stanchions..

keep the dampers / dummy legs and springs etc the same and the fork stays the same travel it should all go back together fine.

as unit3 says... the bottom bolts increased in size in 1996/7 so they may be different between the forks.. but if you keep the same internals and just swap the stanchions / crown it will be fine.

 

[ishaw]

Might be worth adding that the specialised FSX forks are different to Judy FSX and were based on the mag 21 so will not swap at all. If you have Judy FSX, then as above really, swap csu but keep the internals as they are on each fork as the leg/damper bolts aren't the same diameter and I doubt you want to drill the FSX but lowers. All you need to swap the internals is a set of circlip pliers.

 

[dyna-ti]

Ive a Xc sitting beside me and the only real differences that strike me are the cnc work on the brace and lower legs at the dropouts looks deeper cut :? look more pronounced on yours :? Mine say 97.

I think maybe now there would be big differences but then i reckon most would be the same with the internals changing :? maybe better bolts or a few grams shaved off and the like.

 

[SackofHammers]

Re:

Thanks for the great replys, I really appreciate it.

Sound like I'm good to go with moving the crown and stanchion tubes between the lowers and leave the internals alone.

One question though, if the fixing bolts in the bottom are different sizes in the lowers are the threads that they use in the crown larger as well? Meaning will the two different size fixing bolts thread into the other different sized crown?

Maybe I'm not understanding which bolt is the different size, but that seems like it would be an issue, right?

 

[unit3]

Re:

There's a single Allen bolt in the bottom of each fork leg, early and late (pre/post 97) are 2 different sizes

Crown bolts should be the same I think?
There's some easy to follow guides to stripping judys down on here, takes about 10 mins to do

If you find it all a faf, and ate UK based, stick them all in a box,send them to me and I will overhaul, rebuild and swap all the relevent parts around and send it all back, the later Judy lowers would be payment applenty for my next build ;-)
Niall.

 

[SackofHammers]

Re: Re:

There's a single Allen bolt in the bottom of each fork leg, early and late (pre/post 97) are 2 different sizes

Crown bolts should be the same I think?
There's some easy to follow guides to stripping judys down on here, takes about 10 mins to do

If you find it all a faf, and ate UK based, stick them all in a box,send them to me and I will overhaul, rebuild and swap all the relevent parts around and send it all back, the later Judy lowers would be payment applenty for my next build ;-)
Niall.

haha tempting!

No seriously, you touched on what I'm bringing up. The allen bolts between the two forks would be different sizes so the legs wouldn't be interchangeable right?

I can't use the crown bolt swap method because the newer Judy SL has pressed in stanchion tubes and I can't pull them out readily.

 

[unit3]

I have just re-read your first post, would it not just be easier to get a 1" threadless crown/steerer? I may even have one spare? can have a look if you like?

Otherwise the only way to do what you want is to strip stanchions (inner legs) off the 2 sets of forks, keeping all the internals together and swap them around, to do this you will need to open the hole in the bottom of the FSX out from 5mm to I think 6/8mm.

Its no great drama, but once it is done,its done. You will have to stick to later internals (no bad thing I guess)

If you want further info on how to go about it all, drop me a pm

Seriously though, if you go ahead and you have no use for those SL lowers, let me know, I need a set for my Manitou HT.

 

[ishaw]

Like I mentioned before, you can do this, you just can swap the uppers over and leave the internals in situ due to the differences in the lower leg/damper bolts and bolt holes.

All you need to do is remove the lowers, then swap the internals over. This is simple and used circlip pliers and nothing more. I've found that on the forks with the bolts on the crown, you'll need to loosen these bolts before removing the adjusters.

I've done this a few times, including exactly what you are planning so if you need any help, just ask. It shouldn't take 30 mins to do from start to finish, as long as you don't encounter any issues along the way.

If you really don't want to swap the internals, I saw a thread on here where they managed to somehow fit a bolt into the damper threads (the larger one) that reduced it so it could be used on legs with the smaller holes/bolts.