** edit, this is a 1994 F2, so it has the rebound adjustments **

Hey guys, I'm currently replacing a busted oil seal in my fork and while taking out all of the internals of one fork, I notice that the little spring loop that goes around a little ball bearing near the rebound dampening adjuster is busted. (the spring that wraps around right under the o-ring)

I believe this spring holds the ball bearing in place, and it provides that "click" feeling you get when you adjust the rebound dampening adjuster.

So after I put the busted spring away, i continue cleaning the dampening rod and i completely forget to store the ball bearing away in a safe place first! So i'm now missing both spring and ball bearing!

Does anyone know of a way to replace these two parts? It seems like it would be hard to get ahold of these small parts... I attached a photo of what the good part should look like, with an arrow pointing to the spring in particular.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

the ball bearing you may be able to find at a hardware store, you would have to measure it with a mic or something to ensure its the right size. as for the spring, I'm at a loss. May sound strange, seeing as how I can't remember mine when I had mine apart, but you may be able to use a spring from an automotive a/c system or something. really alot of trial and error. Of course if its not a budget constraint and is more of locating, you could try a reputable company like racetech or such, I'm sure they would have had to run across this issue before. But that may be cost inhibitive.

 

Try a dealer first. If the individual parts aren't available you may have to buy a fork leg on ebay or craigslist to get the parts. You could try to find a ball bearing that will fit the hole. The hard part would be the circular spring. You might find a spring the right length and diameter, but hooking the ends together might be problematic. Look in your area for salvage yards or breakers.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

I actually found the steel ball sitting in the oil pan i used to collect the fork oil. So at least that's one problem solved!

As for the spring... yeah it looks like one of those things that will be very hard to locate. I've been looking online for used forks and they can go for $80-$100 easy for one. So I guess I will have to keep looking.

My other thought is... maybe I can run the forks without the ball/spring combo? I noticed that F3's don't have this in the rebound damping rod, so I wonder if it's okay to go without it on a F2. Do you guys think the rebound adjuster will just spin around too freely if the ball/spring was not there?

 

You probably need the click locations to align the damping holes in the rod. You might be able to use an o-ring to hold the ball in place. Use one that is resistant to oil or gas. I don't know how much clearance is inside the fork tube, but you don't want the ball to fall down into the fork leg.

 

What size is the spring? If you have a micrometer measure the diameter and thickness. I think I may have a couple