Replacement springs for Manitou 2 Forks

[Huntso]

Morning all (or afternoon for the lucky lay a beds)

Does anyone know if the replacement springs for the Manitou 2 Forks are available in the UK and secondly are they any good? must be better than the elastomers
If they are available, hopefully they come with instructions. Can't recall ever taking this type of fork apart and really hoping there are no specific tools required, bet there are though

Thanks
Rich

 

[GoldenEraMTB]

I'm in the process of experimenting on one my manitou 2 forks...I'll see if I can update later on the results.

 

[elite504]

bear in mind the elastomers provide the DAMPING too! Pop in springs and you have a pogo stick. Speed springs worked ok in a Judy as they had a separate oil damped cartridge to smooth things out. WOuld be ok on a garage queen or a botique cruiser, but practically unusable on a race bike, especially with any preload wound on. . . and the 'thunk-thunk' of top-out will drive you nuts. . .

 

[Huntso]

Was wondering myself about the pogo stick effect.
An update would be great please GoldenEra and some info on availability too would be appreciated.

I do remember reading somewhere about using Auto Transmission Fluid as an oil bath for coil sprung forks by syringing it in via the leg bottom bolt. Could help a bit, sort of like these problems really.

 

[elite504]

Could work, particularly if you used tight fitting bushed washers, with little holes in. And then used slighly thinner washers above and below the washer with the hole in it. Hang on, thats a hydraulic damper innit. . . I guess the fluid would do csomething very cride, but with no way of contolling the oil, I imagine it would just slosh, foam and cavitate. You need some prcise control. . If you were genius, and could work a judy cartrige into the indide of the stanchion, so the long bolt pushed on the end of it, that could work. The o-ring fitting top caps would blow out, but if you threaded the bore and used manitou 3 top caps, you could have the ultimate fork. . . Weight starts coming up though. Basis of a goodproject for someone!

Alternatively, I've got some NOS elastomers up for grabs here
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/elite_504
but these are 4mm bore for 3/4, so you'd need to make the hole 6mm for manitou 1/2