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I have changed the oil and seals on coil forks before but never on air. Are there tips / trick / downfalls I should be aware of?
All advice greatly received.
OK, so either not a popular fork or people are waiting for the hilarious results of my efforts to be posted on-line.
I suppose the main question concerns draining the air. Obviously the air will be drained from the main chamber on the top of the leg but there is another valve at the bottom of the right leg (I think?) Does this have to be drained too or is it a cartridge within the fork itself that can be left alone?
Hi Coyote
I have a pair of 06 Marathon SL's which I think are similar to your AM’s other than the travel. I had to take them to bits to fix the TST unit but didn’t service them other than replacing oil.
The left leg will probably have a screw cap under which are two of the frustratingly small Marzocchi valves – this is the negative and positive air. Let the air out of the negative first and then the positive. Repeat a couple of times until you’re certain there’s nothing left in either. Beware of a bit of suspension oil coming out with the air. The valve at the bottom of the left leg is the “progressive”/bottom-out/end-of stroke air. Let all this out too. There should also be some air in the TST cartridge on top of the right leg, under the little rubber cap – guess what, empty this too.
You can download a full service manual for the 06 version forks from [url= http://www.wheresweyland.com/mountain_biking/110/2006_marzocchi_service_manuals/ ]here[/url]. For mine I actually found a few details were slightly different but it will give you a good starting point.
Top tips for tooling :- For the nuts at the bottom of the legs you will need a special long narrow socket (12mm I think). Alternatively buy a box spanner like [url= 
]this[/url] for a couple of quid from a local tool shop and file it down until it fits. I also had trouble finding a socket to fit one of the nuts on the top – it seemed to be between two metric sizes. Eventually I found it fitted an (imperial) spark plug socket perfectly!
Hope this helps.
Royston
Much appreciated Royston!
Oh yeah, letting air out. You probably have one of the Marzocchi/Schrader valve adapters - use this as it's easy to modulate the flow rate and won't damage the valve like a screwdriver/sharp metal thing.