So I noticed my 2021 Fox 36 has some slight play near the seals and lowers. I did a full wiper seal and lower leg service and still, You can feel a slight vibration. While holding down the front brake and rocking the bike forward, I hear a soft clicking sound reminiscent of a loose headset. Holding my hands on the lowers I feel a slight clicking/vibration and a little bit of movement on the right damper side. After doing some research, I found that probably the bushings are worn, or “opened up”.
Looking online, the bushings itself are available pretty well, yet the bushing extractor tool is like €350 ish euro’s…
Does anyone have experience extracting bushings, maybe without the expensive tool?
by SBbikes
3 Comments
It’s just like any other tool. If you buy the manufacturer specific tool it’ll cost a lot. But there are generic alternatives that are cheaper.
You can get new lowers for less than that and make the whole process just a simple regular full service.
I’ve never changed bushings but I’ve looked into when I went down the rabbit hole that is suspension tuning. It’s probably not just the extraction tool that you will need but also a resizing/burnishing tool too to get them running smooth.
The problem is even if you buy cheaper none fox tools they are still expensive for tools you are likely to only use once in a blue moon. Saying that though €350 is a bargain because last time I looked (round Covid time) the fox bushing tool was a bit over £1000.
Unless you are planning on doing this a lot then it’s probably better to phone round some suspension service centres to ask them if they will change the bushings for you. You never know they might do it without forcing you to get them to service the whole fork which will likely end up cheaper than buying all the tools.