After a long time, I got an opportunity to have my hands dirty with a resurrection of the two 1995 Rock Shox JUDY XC suspension forks. I call them “twins” because they were identical in design, had a 50mm suspension, and oil damping. The twins came to me in overall good visual condition, but as you may expect, with some illness syndromes. The very first one was a usual syndrome – broken or missing MCUs. The second well-known syndrome was leaking and/or empty oil damper cartridges (both Gen1). Last but not least, the twins were missing fresh grease and a bit of custom care.
After full disassembling and cleaning, I realized that the working condition of both forks is very good and it's a solid basement for getting them back to the excellent level. I started my maintenance with cleaning and full restoration of internals, inc. oil replacement in a non-leaking Gen1 damper cartridge (I used Rock Shox PitStop oil), and re-greasing lower legs with the r.s.p. Slick Kick grease. The leaking Gen1 cartridge of the other twin has been replaced with a brand new Gen1 damper cartridge (what a miracle to find one) and filled up with fresh Rock Shox PitStop oil. Instead of broken and/or missing MCUs I put inside the stanchions brand-new coil springs from SRP (Specialty Retro Products). SRP makes some other good stuff for JUDY forks, thus I assembled the twins with a full SRP titanium bolts kit. One fork got new SRP dust wipers, while the other one has got new-old-stock Reset Blue Seals. To improve ease of movement I have installed additional foam o-rings under the wipers filled up with the original Rock Shox PitStop oil. The lower legs, brake arches, and crowns of the twins took advanced custom care by hand-polishing with various professional-grade 3M compounds. All bolts have been fixed by Loctite with a torque wrench.
