I'm doing some work on the rear shock for my Santa Cruz Hightower 3 C. Santa Cruz recommends putting blue loctite on the threads of the bolt labelled B in the diagram. When I took it off to work on the shock, there was only grease on both the bolt and the threads that my LBS would have applied when servicing it last.
Is loctite actually necessary or is it okay to grease the bolt and threads and call it good?
by Kapai72
20 Comments
When it comes to suspension linkage, that’s an area to definitely follow manufacturer’s recommendations, even if the LBS didn’t.
Definitely use some loctite if you have access. Ideally cleaning the grease off beforehand
Depends on whether you want those bolts to get loose while you ride and potentially fall out.
Engineers spec that sort of thing for a reason. Blue thread locker (loctite) is cheap insurance against those screws backing out as the pivots rotate.
I think suspension linkage is basically the one place on the bike where you always follow manufacturer specs wrt thread locker and torque settings.
Eh, if grease worked before it will work again. The only thing to keep in mind is that grease will increase the amount of clamping force that you get from a given torque so don’t go crazy tightening that bolt. I have thousand of miles on my shock pivot bolts that are greased.
it is 100% needed especially if the manufacturer recommends it.
Grease is important as it prevents rust, corrosion and allows easier removal
Anti seize is used with mating differing types of metal. Aluminum into steel anti seize. Titanium into steel, in theory, will not react but I use anti seize just cuz
Carbon/aluminum frame bottle cage, rack, threadserts are aluminum. The M5 bolt going in will be steel, stainless or titanium. Grease is better than nothing but anti seize is really what is needed.
All suspension bushings need to be greased unless specifically stated not to do so.
Suspension bolts need to be correctly torqued and either greased or blue Lok tite.
An $9 tube of blue Lok tite will last the rest of your life! Suspension bolts take very different stresses than other bolts.
If you have threadlocker on hand, use it. If not regularly check torque until you have threadlocker.
I bought a little container of blue threadlocker from Harbor Freight for 3 bucks. I have used it quite a bit in 2 years of bike maintenance and still haven’t run out.
Sweet, thanks for the replies. Thread locker it is!
I use blue thread locker almost everywhere on the bike, *especially* my pivot bolts.
It doesn’t hurt but can totally help.
I’m not religious about it on my Santa Cruz bikes and I’ve never had a bolt come loose. Other bikes seem to work themselves loose even with loctite
Man, I just did air can service last night and was wondering the exact same thing! What are the chances
Yes if you want your bike to be reliable then use blue thread lock and torque
And then there is purple lock tite, low strength, it’s great for low torque stuff that you want to nor rattle loose and is arguably usable everywhere…everyone knows about blue and red, but purple was new to me couple years ago…,
Nope, not needed. Until it is…
Yes. It is needed.
Idk, do you like the taste of tree?
Beware, your rear shock should be empty of air and you should take it off your bike stand. I sheared my linkage bolts today trying to check the torque spec after having not known the latter
Every fastener on your bike should be secured with Blue Loctite
You don’t NEED to loctite it, but the bolts might back out. Keep an eye on them if you don’t. If I run out when servicing my own bike I just grease em and put it together, but I have had my shock bolt back off a few threads before
I do on suspension linkages. Be very careful not to get thread locker on the shaft of the bolt, only the threads, otherwise you may have a hell of a time getting the bolt out.