K1100 Marzocchi forks

The K1100 fork uses a damper cartridge, so the valving is not able to be seen. Shown here is the right fork leg. The three main parts are the slider, the tube, and the damper assembly (which is made up of all of the components in between).

The damper cartridge fastens to the bottom of the fork leg with a bolt (not shown) and to the stop disc with the two split-ring clips. This essentially holds the fork together.

The spring, spring cover and spacer all are assembled between the damper body and the stop disc to form the damper assembly. However, that cannot be simply inserted into the tube, as there is a circlip about an inch from the top, inside the tube. This circlip keeps the damper assembly from sliding out the bottom, and the spring seat won't pass it either so the damper cannot be dropped in from either end. You can either assemble the components from both sides, or simply remove the circlip, insert the assembled damper into the fork leg, and reinstall the circlip. With the stop disc above the circlip, another plate (not shown) sits on top of it and the fork plug holds that together. This way the end of the rod (and the split clips) are trapped between the circlip and the top plug.

Of particular imporatance is that the spring sits on a locating stub on the damper, and aftermarket springs may not fit around that stub. The stock spring has a 20.3mm ID and is a snug fit around the stub on the damper rod. If your aftermarket spring has a smaller ID, you will need to deal with that. In this case we reduced the stub diamter on a lathe to fit Lindemann springs which were 1mm smaller than stock.

Other dimensions:

Stock springs: L=421mm, D=30mm, d=4.85mm, 31 wide coils with 5.5mm gap plus 15 close coils with 1.8mm gap.
Stock spacer 95mm

Lindemann springs: L=382mm, D=29mm, d=4.85mm, 40 coils with 4.8mm gap.

 

K1100 Marzocchi forks