I thought I would update this thread as my shock started to seep a bit of oil and I thought it would be a good time to give it a refresh. I have added a few pics of my own, just to show some of my tools and some of the work arounds I used.
The shock needed seals, a new bump stop, new oil and the bottom heim joint replaced. The shock doesn't take a ton of oil, so I had a good part of a QT left from when I first replaced the oil back when I got the shock in late 2012. I am pretty sure I have enough oil to rebuild it again in the future, so around 3 oil changes out of a QT. My bump stop was just about completely disintegrated, probably not doing much good.
The manual I posted the link to above has really everything you could need to complete the rebuild, but there were a few "sticky" points along the way. When I refreshed it back in '12, I didn't tear into the shaft assembly, this time I did it to be thorough. There is a small o-ring in the bottom of the shaft that seals the dampening rod (this guy has a tiny little snap ring holding it in, I had to use small hemostats on it, as it was too small for my snap ring pliers). So you have to remove the shaft from the bottom shock eye. The bottom shock eye proved to be the most difficult part of the tear down, as the shaft is secured into the eye with red lock-tite. It took a bunch of heat to break it loose. It finally let go with a whistle sound and the shock eye came off. If you can clamp the shaft down near the shock eye, you won't ruin the shaft if it turns in the shaft holder. *One hint here is to really crank down on the vise holding the shaft clamp. I resorted to using a BFH on the vise handle to get it tight enough, like to the point where you think things may start to break.
I originally repainted the spring, but had a bit of an issue when I was trying to cure it in my old toaster oven. So I ended up parkerizing the spring, I will be interested in how it holds up. I had already parkerized the large washer under the preload adjuster and the shock eye. So there is some uniformity. And lets face it black is dead sexy.
The Fox bullet tool is really expensive, this is the tool that covers the top end of the shaft when you are installing the body cover and the seal head. It is tapered and helps the seals go over the shaft edge without getting torn on the sharp edge. I kind of racked my brain on how to work without having to buy their tool. I happened to have a scrap piece of 1/2" pvc pipe that has an exterior diameter of 5/8". A bit of easy lathe work later I had a working bullet tool, for about $0.15
I also made the shaft clamp that I used, just a scrap piece of 6061 aluminum with a 5/8" hole, cut in half.
In my above posts I showed my "on the cheap" dust cover (old bike inner tube). My home brew seal had failed. I only found one place that even lists the dust seals and they are like $20 each x2. I hate spending what seam like high prices for little pieces of rubber, granted they would have completed the rebuild, but the new and improved dust cover I came up with is superior (I hope). I kind of based it on the lizard skin fork protectors you can get. Take a can coozy (one of the thinner ones with foam and bonded outer fabric-used for advertizing everything-my supply comes from many golf outings). Turn it inside out and re-sew it so it is smaller, ideally so it just fits over the rebound adjuster. Trim the edges turn it back out, and trim for length. Then install. It looks a heck of a lot better than an old inner tube. It should also be fairly water/dust proof.
Semi-final product (Iwas still waiting for the new lower heim joint.
