Fox shocks need oil

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I

Ifster

Loves Light Bars
Dec 26, 2023
11
White Rock, NM.
Hi,
I just got a buggy. The PO had mentioned that he ran the shocks at about 550 PSI. They were maxed out and had no compression. While trying to lower the pressure, I managed to dump all the pressure out of one of the shocks and lost a lot of oil.
I have no experience with these shocks. So the questions are:

1: Can I refill the shock with oil by removing it, and drain and fill the oil through the Schrader valve port?
2: I understand the shocks have to be unmounted in order to fill with nitrogen, is this the case?

Thanks.
 
You can refill without removing through the schrader valve port. However, the problem is how much oil did you lose and was the oil level right? 550 psi sounds high but you didn't supply enough info.

Shock diameter and stroke?
Brand of shock.
How much weight on each corner?
Maybe pics of buggy?

The trick to filling with oil and nitrogen while on the rig is to get the shock at full extension. But that's really a trail ride repair. Not something I would recommend for long term. Even then, without more info and knowledge you will struggle.

The proper way is to pull the shock and put it in a vise and slowly disassemble it. They really aren't that hard to pull apart. I would start with the shock that you didn't lose oil out of to determine how much oil was in it to start with.

We can walk you through it but it will take some time.
 
whiterhino said:
You can refill without removing through the schrader valve port. However, the problem is how much oil did you lose and was the oil level right? 550 psi sounds high but you didn't supply enough info.

Shock diameter and stroke?
Brand of shock.
How much weight on each corner?
Maybe pics of buggy?

The trick to filling with oil and nitrogen while on the rig is to get the shock at full extension. But that's really a trail ride repair. Not something I would recommend for long term. Even then, without more info and knowledge you will struggle.

The proper way is to pull the shock and put it in a vise and slowly disassemble it. They really aren't that hard to pull apart. I would start with the shock that you didn't lose oil out of to determine how much oil was in it to start with.

We can walk you through it but it will take some time.
Click to expand...
I was thinking to remove the shock, drain the oil from the Schrader, refill with oil, install without the limiting strap, lift the buggy to full height, then refill with gas. The problem of how much oil still remains, as you said.
Taking it apart isn't a problem, I just wanted to do a quick fix so I can take it out for the fist drive.
The socks are Fox 2.0's 18" body, so I assume 18" stroke. 1.25" shaft. I was thinking to use this chart, so 435 CC's.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.kartek.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/how-much-oil-do-you-put-in-a-fox-20-shock.pdf

Buggy weighs about 2600 to 2800 lbs, just a guess, I haven't weight it yet. Just got it.
Thanks.

20240105_172245.jpg
 
After several tries of contacting Fox, I could not get ahold of anyone. I took off the other side shock, drained the oil and measured it. It held 300CC's. Maybe a hair more.
This is exactly what the above chart says I should have for Fox 2.0, air shock, 1.25" shaft and 12" of travel.
So both will get an oil change and should be good to go.
 
It took a while to get back to it, but both shocks now have oil and refilled with gas.
The problem I've run into is the shocks are about 3" longer than the max droop of the front A arms, so with the shocks installed, I loose that much travel from max extension for filling. With the shocks at about 220 psi and loaded, I get only about 3" of lift. I can not fill them any more because my regulator is already maxed out at that psi.
So before I go and drop a couple of hundred on a name brand regulator, I wanted to check to make sure that more pressure will work. I assume that if I fill to say 300 psi without having the shock at max droop, then when loaded I will have more lift?
I'm trying to save myself the work of having to compress them after filling. Or is this the only way? Or, if necessary disconnect the steering linkage and probably get more droop that way.
Also, this giant syringe worked great for measuring and filling oil.
Thanks again.

 
The buggy is IFS and IRS. No other way to get any extra space, other than fighting the shock after filling, or disconnecting components to allow for more droop, and then fighting to reconnect those. Which is what I was trying to avoid.

But the higher pressure did it. The shocks now all sit at 5.5" on all 4 coroners. This is out of a 12" stroke. Apparently you can make up the difference in volume with higher pressure.

Thanks all for the help.
 

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