FS: Custom Valved Fox Shocks

Andrew Walcker

Mod Emeritus
what if a year or two down the road you want to rebuild the shocks to the exact specifications? then you're just doing guess work. as someone looking into FOX shocks for the rear of my DII right now, i find this retarded. i would've been inclined to look at their specific shocks, but not anymore.

I have not had to rebuild my FOXs yet, but I would start by contacting the original vendor for a re-build kit. If that didn't work than I'd contact FOX directly and have them send out the parts per the PN on the shock.
 

Andrew Walcker

Mod Emeritus
Andrew, I'm completely baffled by what you wrote: "with FOX shocks already set-up for a specific vehicle you can tweak the valving to your personal taste with less guess work." How do you tweak it if Inland Rovers won't give the valving that is in there?


Mike, my comment about saving time would apply to having a shock that is already set up closer to your desired ride characteristics than an off the shelf unit, that as Marc pointed out, can vary a lot from your target. I would think that working with whomever you purchased your shocks from, a desirable valving could be achieved without too much trial and error.
 

michaels

Explorer
I have not had to rebuild my FOXs yet, but I would start by contacting the original vendor for a re-build kit. If that didn't work than I'd contact FOX directly and have them send out the parts per the PN on the shock.

i was talking about the valving you'd have to redo, not the parts involved.
 

Mike_rupp

Adventurer
Andrew, it is one thing to deal with a vendor that has done the research and openly states what the valving is for those shocks. Assuming that you wanted to adjust it slightly with new valves, it would be easy to "tweak". That isn't the case with Inland Rovers. They state that their valving is proprietary, so tweaking would mean starting from scratch.

Like Marc stated earlier, there isn't one valving that will work in all cases. That is the beauty of the rebuildable shocks like the Fox and Bilstein. If you want to tweak you can. But if you order from Inland Rovers and it isn't dead on, what do you do? If I were thinking about buying these shocks, I'd probably take the valving that Marc wrote about and give it a shot and adjust later if needed.
 

marc olivares

Adventurer
I am sorry to disappoint you Marc, but unfortunately, I cannot disclose that information. Fox does not scribe our valving on the shocks; they have provided us with our own part number.

Sincerely,
Anita


LOL.. that's funny, cause the shocks that i installed on a friends rover, that he purchased from you guys, did indeed have the fox scribe exactly where i stated. they were 85/95 (front and rear) for those that want the sacred info. not the first set of NLDRVR fox shocks i've seen setup this way either... just saying. :wavey:
 

Andrew Walcker

Mod Emeritus
Alrighty, I guess I'm showing my lack of understanding Shock Rebuilding 101. I have the FOX shocks from SG which have a rebound adjustment on the reservoir, hence the lazy man’s way to adjust for rebound and the reason I've never thought about changing my valving. I have casually watched a FOX shock being rebuilt and there appears to be a series of washers with corresponding holes/slots that obviously control the rate at which the fluid is transfered from one side of the shock to another. My friend who was doing this was playing around with how many washers/size of holes to come up with his desired valving. By opening up a shock and inspecting what is already installed couldn’t one figure out what that shock was valved too and make the desired adjustments by ordering additional parts/washers from the vendor or FOX? I’d assume that each washer would have a tolerance mark or PN? I've never done this myself so maybe I'm making too many assumptions on the complexity of this task.
 

roverdoc

Observer
LOL.. that's funny, cause the shocks that i installed on a friends rover, that he purchased from you guys, did indeed have the fox scribe exactly where i stated. they were 85/95 (front and rear) for those that want the sacred info. not the first set of NLDRVR fox shocks i've seen setup this way either... just saying. :wavey:

ditto....
 

gjackson

FRGS
Andrew, SG also custom valved their shocks, so I bet yours are pretty close to ideal. Greg custom valved mine specifically to my specs and they are flat out awesome. Night and day between a shock that is valved right and one that isn't.

cheers

Alrighty, I guess I'm showing my lack of understanding Shock Rebuilding 101. I have the FOX shocks from SG which have a rebound adjustment on the reservoir, hence the lazy man’s way to adjust for rebound and the reason I've never thought about changing my valving. I have casually watched a FOX shock being rebuilt and there appears to be a series of washers with corresponding holes/slots that obviously control the rate at which the fluid is transfered from one side of the shock to another. My friend who was doing this was playing around with how many washers/size of holes to come up with his desired valving. By opening up a shock and inspecting what is already installed couldn’t one figure out what that shock was valved too and make the desired adjustments by ordering additional parts/washers from the vendor or FOX? I’d assume that each washer would have a tolerance mark or PN? I've never done this myself so maybe I'm making too many assumptions on the complexity of this task.
 

Andrew Walcker

Mod Emeritus
Andrew, SG also custom valved their shocks, so I bet yours are pretty close to ideal. Greg custom valved mine specifically to my specs and they are flat out awesome. Night and day between a shock that is valved right and one that isn't.

cheers

Graham, thanks for chiming in. I think that my point, which has been poorly made on my part, is that going with a shock that has been valved by a knowledgeable vendor will put you in the ball park. I also agree with Marc that no one shock valving can cover all vehicles, driving environments or load capacities, but it will get you close.
 

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
I have the FOX shocks from SG which have a rebound adjustment on the reservoir, hence the lazy man’s way to adjust for rebound and the reason I've never thought about changing my valving.

While I am far from an expert on the subject, I believe that "rebound adjustment" you mention is actually the adjustment for the low speed compression damping circuit. I wish I would have paid the extra $$$ for that option when I put Fox shocks on my TJ.
 

gjackson

FRGS
I think that my point, which has been poorly made on my part, is that going with a shock that has been valved by a knowledgeable vendor will put you in the ball park. I also agree with Marc that no one shock valving can cover all vehicles, driving environments or load capacities, but it will get you close.

Absolutely. Greg started with whatever he starts with for SG Foxs and then went from there knowing what my front and rear loads were going to be and my request that the valving be the same front and rear to ease spares.

I think you are probably correct that someone with the skill could rip and Fox apart and get the valving from it. That doesn't mean that Foxs are particularly easy to take apart, esp when you don't have the right tools! :costumed-smiley-007

cheers
 

michaels

Explorer
i'm about to purchase some fox 2.0 resi's with unknown valving. does anyone know how i can rebuild these shocks to have the commonly-desired 400/100 valving? i'd like to rebuild them to those specs and can't find much info on it...
 

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