Santa Cruz Tallboy Pivot Axle Maintenance

bucknejo

bucknejo

Well-Known Member
Hi team,

After all the rain and damp riding conditions this Spring I've developed a familiar creak in the lower link area of my Santa Cruz Tallboy. I've always had the LBS grease and manage the pivot axles but decided I would give it a whirl this time around. Even bought a fancy new grease gun:

https://www.amazon.com/Carbyne-Prof...1495021323&sr=8-2&keywords=CARBYNE+grease+gun

I pulled out the pivot axles and it looks like there is some "silvering" on one of the guys. This link below says if I see this condition I should get a new kit STAT... And like the internet obeying automaton that I am, I ordered one last night.

http://enduromag.com.au/site/enduro...servicing-pivots-on-your-santa-cruz-vpp-bike/

But since I want to ride tomorrow (and this weekend) I'm going to go ahead and just clean the existing hardware and re-insert + use fancy new grease gun. So I did that, but the creak, although muted, still keeps calling my name. From what I read on the internets, the torque on the pivot axles is kind of like a headset and since I'm not torquing down headsets or pivot axles every day, I'm not exactly sure how tight to make these axles. Short story long, if I still have a creak, are my axles too loose or too tight? Or am I just doing it wrong? Yep, the creak can be coming from anywhere, but I've had this same creak before and the pivot service cured it. BB seems to be fine. Same as all other gear.

The creak starts singing when I'm out of the saddle cranking it strava style uphill.

Also - the bearings in the lower link are brand new ( < 10 rides) as I got a new one with bearings pressed in late last fall with no riding over the Winter.

I'll be bringing her into the LBS regardless next week, just want to have a nice quiet ride or two beforehand.
 
The creak could be coming from the tapered expansion collet. I had that happen to me this week on my Tallboy, I removed two of the tapered collet inserts &bolts, lightly greased them and put them back in. Squeak gone.

And yeah, like a headset. Unbolt the shock so it's not affecting the swingarm and then adjust until it smoothly moves up/down with no play.

-Steve
 
Disconnect your shock from pivot axle arm. It's only one set screw holding it on.

Remove rear tire.

With shock disconnected you should be able to move swing arm freely, with no sticking points. If you cannot pivot bolts are too tight. Also check for noise at this point. If you have a creak try to identify exact location.

Check for lateral play in swing arm by pulling it side to side. If you can see, feel play pivot bolts are too loose.
 
thanks guys.

looks like i made it worse for my morning ride - actually cut it short since i thought the whole bike was going to collapse.

just tore both links down and followed the santa cruz instructions to the letter. looks like the upper link was gnarled up a bit so i took care of that too.

initial tests look good. will let the loctite cure for a while and maybe take her out again on sunday.
 
If that doesn't work...and you don't think its your BB...try checking out your pedals. Try to temporarily swap out your pedals (one a time) from either a spare set or another bike so you can rule them out. On more than one occasion I had went through the whole rigmarole of taking apart and re-greasing my linkage, shocks, BB, headset to chase down an annoying creek and it ended up being a pedal that simply needed some love. You may not hear it when you spin them but when you put some torque on them that's when they creek -- usually at the power part of the crank stroke. It can easily be mistaken for a noisy suspension or BB. If the swapped pedals aren't creaking then its a matter of greasing the bearings in the noisy pedal(s). If you think about it... that little pedal spindle and its bearings probably take more abuse than any part of the bike so it should be no surprise that they would potentially be the source of your problem.
 
Ride On said:
... mistaken for a noisy suspension or BB. If the swapped pedals aren't creaking then its a matter of greasing the bearings in the noisy pedal(s). If you think about it... that little pedal spindle and its bearings probably take more abuse than any part of the bike so it should be no surprise that they would potentially be the source of your problem.
Click to expand...

glad it wasn't the pedals as one of them is seized to the crank. and i like my cranks more than i like my pedals... in any event, jamming up the hill i live on earlier this evening looks like i cleared the creak with the pivot axle maintenance.

thanks guys for chiming in. hopefully the fix lasts a little bit longer than a few rides.
 
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