I show the process of how to rebuild an Answer Manitou 3 suspension fork. I bought this Diamondback Axis TR mountain bike a few years ago at an auction. The forks were dead. The elastomers were toast, and the forks easily bottomed out. I finally got around to overhauling it, and rebuilding it with new elastomers. I believe the process of rebuilding an Answer Manitou 4 fork is very similar.
Answer Manitou 1 Rebuild:
Slickoleum 15oz:
Slickoleum 4oz:
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Hey viewers I recently made a video Where I rebuilt a Manito Answer 1 4 Where the last owners had degraded and Turned into a goo the fork with Siege Was a complete mess I rebuilt that and I’ll post a link to that video in the Description here well today I have a Manito answer Three Forks so it’s a Similar uh newer version of that board Different design but this has a similar Issue here uh to where it’s like Bottomed out here but this one is not Seized it’s just kind of moving freely There I’m guessing there’s a problem With the elastomers in there either They’ve like uh just degraded and turned Into dust mush goo or something somebody Took them out I have no idea what’s Going on in there anyway so I’m gonna do Is I’m gonna take these things apart and Rebuild them and show you the whole Process of that Start off by removing the front wheel And I get these breaks out of the way so I got like a five millimeter Allen Wrench here Get that out of the way Okay so let’s go ahead and remove these Compression rods there’s these little Parts here unscrew like the little blue One here just unscrew these It’ll pull it out and see what it looks Like Uh hey there’s a last Omer still in
There and there’s still some down there I think but they’re like not turned to Goo anyway so that’s nice Foreign That’s interesting the rod unscrewed From here is the rod is still in there And the elastomers are still in there no Okay we’ll figure that out Now on the bottom of the lowers here There’s some like little tiny screws Here and they’re a three millimeter hex So I’m going to go ahead and remove These Okay Now I want to try to get those Elastomers and the rod out of this part Here I’m going to use some long uh like 12 inch forceps Got a washer out And I got the rest of the rod out Now there’s a retainer clip that holds The lowers on and so I need to remove That so I’m going to do it is this uh Little cover here I’m gonna lift this up Here Foreign Pull this up out of the way And down here there’s a retainer clip That fits in under a lip around there so I need to pry that out So Very carefully I’m using like an awl Here and Kind of
There lift this up And work it around And so there’s the retainer clip there And I need to remove it on both sides Get this little Seal out of the way And you gotta find the end of the little Uh clip in there There’s like a little Gap And then work on prying it out from Under the lip [Applause] [Music] Getting the clip out will take a little Bit of patience and persistence but you Can do it Now I want to pry out the dust seal here So I’m going to use a small flat tip Screwdriver here get Along the outside edge of the desk seal Here kind of try to get underneath of it And pry it up There we go And kind of slowly pry this thing out And lift it up I do the same thing on the other side And got that one out So now at this point I should be able to Remove the lower so lift them up here And take them down Foreign And I got the lowers off Yeah so these are lower elastomers don’t Look too good kind of melty but uh I’ll
Get them all off So now we’ll remove these little Clips Here they just slide into some slots on These little uh rods there so I should Be able to just push them out there and Slide this off And slide this little thing off so There’s like these little clips that Slide into these little notches like Right like that Well these plungers here Are basically seized in place my guess Is that uh the elastomer is kind of Melted up in here and are holding in Place so what I’m going to do is need to Heat them up and soften the elastomer Goo in there then hopefully I push them Up so first I’m going to go ahead and Pull these bushings out of the way Foreign [Laughter] [Music] Get those off of there So what I’m going to do now is I’m going To use a hair dryer to go ahead and heat The upper here to hopefully soften the Elastomer goo in there and hopefully That’ll allow me to push this plunger up And out through the top Thank you Okay so this came out through the top There and so got that one out And got this one out as well I mean you Can see like the washer in there I think
There might be another washer down in Here and it’s just a gooey mess but I’ll Get these cleaned up Yeah so now I want to get the elastomers Off of the this here these I think I Should be able to slide off They’re sticky Yeah it looks like those are actually Doubled up here and let me see if I can Just pop that off of there like that And There’s some washers Trapped in these so I need to break These up because the washer there looks Like there’s a washer in the middle so I Need to break these up so I can get Those washers out because I need those So what I’m going to do is I’m going to Use a hair dryer to kind of soften these Things and see if I can get those Washers out of there Foreign Looks like [Music] There’s one There’s a couple there And I think that’s it so I need to clean These up I’m going to take all these little Plastic washers here Put them in this little Uh tray here and I’m gonna soak them uh With a little bit of acetone and see and Clean them up but I don’t want to do too
Much because I don’t want to like Dissolve the plastic pieces but enough To clean them all the elastomer goo off Of there and look at here’s like a Little metal washer or something in here Foreign Get these washers out too [Music] And put a little bit of a acetone in Here Because that does a good job of Dissolving the elastomer goo SE And then I want to clean these things up Get all because they’re kind of sticky From all the elastomer goo A little bit on here Scrape this off [Music] So now I want to clean the inside of the Uppers here there’s a lot of elastomer Goo coating the inside of these and so What I’m going to do is I’m going to Take a piece of rag soaked in acetone on My long forceps here and I’m going to go Ahead and stick this down inside there And work on trying to clean out That last Omer goo And I have some cardboard on the floor Here to kind of catch any of the Drippage Well I finished cleaning up all these Parts I wiped everything down with Acetone and then also scrubbed it down
With soap and water uh there was a bit Of a last Dome or stuck at the bottom One of the lower tubes there I managed To get that out I cleaned up these Little uh retainer Clips here they were A little bit Rusty so I soaked them in a Vapor rust for a little bit and then it Just scrubbed them out with a little bit Of grit and they cleaned up pretty Nicely uh obviously there’s no Elastomers here they’re all missing so I Have a rebuild kit which has all brand New elastomers designed for this fork And so I’m ready to start putting this Thing back together So now the first thing I need to do is Reattach this Rod into the adjuster cap There it just threads in but to keep it From coming unscrewed again is what I’m Going to do is I’m going to use a little Bit of a thread Locker blue just put a Drop of this on the threads there and Then screw this in Nice and tight and hopefully that won’t Come unthreaded again Okay I’m gonna start off by Reinstalling the dust seal wiper Parts Here so this one goes on first Slide that up and then I want to install One of the little uh retainer Rings There and then install one of the little Uh dust seals and you want the cone side Facing up And that should hold everything in place
Here and slide it up towards the top And do the same thing on the other side The little wiper part The little uh snap ring ring retainer Thingy thing and then the little dust Seal Part there and slide this up and get out Of the way Next I want to install the bushings so The larger diameter bushing goes on First you slide that up and then take One of the smaller diameter bushings and It’s going to go down in this little Slot down here Just put that in there and then slide The the bigger bushing up And then the smaller bushing just goes Down there let me sort of and it Just goes down that slot like right like That So now I’m ready to install these uh Compression rods or as I like to call Them plungers uh the kit came with a Bunch of elastomers uh two different Sizes there’s a smaller diameter uh kind There’s a dozen of those and then There’s four of these larger diameter Ones they have a larger diameter hole These are the ones we’re gonna be using For the plungers here now the kit came With some grease I’m going to be using The grease that came with the kit Um if your kit didn’t come with the Grease or if you’re just working on your
Your suspension forks use a grease that Is uh made for suspension Force I like Slicolium or slick honey if you use a Grease that’s not made for suspension Forks it can damage the elastomers You’re not getting the performance that You uh should be getting out of the fork But anyway so I’m going to use the Grease that came with the kit I’m gonna Start off by putting a little bit of Grease on the rod here Where the elastomers will sit and I’ll Do this one too [Laughter] Like this and then I’m going to take One of these larger uh elastomers and I’m going to slide it onto The compression rod like this And do another one here Like that and I’m also going to put Maybe a little bit just a light coating Here on the the top of there where the Other last homers are going to sit like That And Like that next we’re going to drop these Rods down into the uppers like this And if they don’t drop through the Bottoms go ahead and just tap on the Forks till they drop through the bottom Like that So now the second set of elastomers here I’m gonna slide these on the bottom here And I’ll slide them up just past this
Little notch in there and Just up there And then remember these two little Clips Here they’re going to slide in to this Little Notch like that to slide them all The way in Like that and then just push these Elastomers down on there like that and So these are the the uh bottom out uh Last over so that when the fork comes All the way down it has something to hit And not gonna bang down into anything Solid And I’m gonna put like a little bit of Uh the grease just around these here as Well Like this So now I want to get ready to put the Lowers on what I’m going to do is I’m Going to take a little bit of the grease It’s very light coating and put it in Around where the seals are going to sit In the bushing Just a very light coating And then I want to put just a little bit Down in where the the lower bushing is Going to slide so just around down in The tube there And it’ll get pushed down When we put the uppers down in there [Music] And then I want to rub a little bit of Grease around these lower bushings here And there rub a little bit of grease on
These upper tubes here All the way around Now just put it like a little bit a Little bit of thicker coating on these Bushings here And so now I can slide these lowers into Place I want to make sure that the fork Bridge is facing forward Just slide them up here And Just kind of wiggle it into place So now I want to go ahead and push the Bushing down into place and I can use a Flat tip screwdriver to kind of push it Down [Music] Make sure it’s fully seated I’m going to take the Little dust seal here and we’ll push it Down into place And then I can take this little retainer Ring slide it uh one end is kind of flat And the other one’s kind of tapered here Take the flat end try to get it seated Under the lip of the the edge of the Fork there and then kind of push it Around And try to get it all seated down into Place all the way around [Laughter] And then I can take the top part here And push it down into place like this Same thing on this side I’m going to Slide the bushing down and just use a
Flat tip screwdriver to kind of push it Down into place Be careful not to scratch the fork When that’s fully seated Take the little dust seal here and push It down into place Then again with the little retainer clip Here I’m going to start with the the Flat end try to get it sit under the lip There in the slot And then work a work out the uh thing Around Until I get it fully seated into place And then I can push this dust seal down And it’ll kind of snap down into place Like that Next we need to install the little Screws in the bottom of the fork so what I’m going to do is I’m going to take These lowers and push them all the way Up there to the top so what I’m going to Do is I’m going to take this little Screw it’s going to go in here it’s Going to screw into the bottom of the Plunger inside there one of the issues Here is that the plunger tends to Spin sometimes and so as you’re trying To screw it in it will just sit there And rotate in there but I got that one In there pretty well And we’ll try this one here [Laughter] And that was screwed in Now if you’re trying to screw this in
And it’s just spinning and spinning Spinning and you can’t get it to uh go In what you can do is you can take like A dowel and stick it down into the top Of the fork and push down against the Top of the plunger to kind of give it a Little bit of pressure and kind of keep It from turning while you’re going ahead And screwing the screws that will Generally work And so now I want to tighten these Screws down a little bit more Uh be careful do not over tighten them You don’t want to strip the thing out in There Like that I think that’ll be good Okay so now we’ll go ahead and put Together these Stacks so I’m gonna start Off by taking a little bit of the grease And greasing up these rods here that the Elastomers will fit on That way allow the elastomers to slide Up and down a little bit freely on Theirs and so then I’m gonna start off With one I’m going to put and last Omron And then put a little washer on Another last Homer And another washer And there should be Six elastomers on Each Rod here ’s one Foreign ER Washer
So I got these all built and so then I’m Going to take More of the Grease And I’m going to go ahead and kind of Just do uh coating over the elastomers On the outside Same one with this one Okay got those set So I’ll take one of the last number Stacks slide it in here And get the Rod seated down into the plunger down There and I’m gonna need to push this Down and start screwing this in careful Not to cross thread it And it should screw in smoothly Got that side done and then we’ll do This side And you gotta wiggle it around get the Rod down into the plunger there then Push it down to get the threads engaged And then start screwing it in It’s great till it bottoms out And got that done And then I want to reattach the brakes Here We attach the front wheel And done and so now this bike has some Suspension which it didn’t have before Uh so that is how to rebuild a Manito Answer three four it was quite a bit Different than any of the other last Homer type Forks that I’ve worked on in The past just on the construction of it
I liked it it was kind of cool uh what Do you guys think let me know in the Comments hopefully you found this video Useful or interesting if you did please Give my video a thumbs up if you’re not Subscribed to my channel click that Subscribe button down there be sure to Click the Bell so you get notified when New videos come out I’m over on Facebook RJ the bike guy go over there like that Page I posted a lot of stuff over there It’s a lot of fun anyway thank you guys Very much for watching
