As above really - I have had this fork as fitted to my Stumpjumper FSR since new and have never had it serviced. It always seemed to be OK. But, during a week cycling in Spain in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Ciclo Montana) the forks chucked their guts up so I decided it was time for a service.

First of all, when i took them to bits, one of the all travel spacers (should be two in each leg) was missing! Bear in mind these have never been apart so this must have been fron the factory.

So 2 weeks later, I order an all travel spacer kit from the US as no one in the UK has any (not even TFT Tuned Shox) and have basically done the service........but can I get the XXX seals back in......? Nope!

I greased them up really well and followed some advice I found on here about using a  small zip tie fed through the seal to let the trapped air out and get them to fit easier but this made no real difference. Basically one side goes down and the other side pops up. I tried for about 30 mins this evening and just ended up badly marking the seals with the cloth covered screwdrivers I was using.

Does anyone have any advice how to get these seals back in! It would be very much appreciated and stop me giving up and going and buying some Revelation U-Turns!

Hmmm tempting Dan, I must admit......while in Spain, I swapped mine out for some 120mm Marzocchi Bomber's with some kind of twist and squash down travel adjust & lockout.

Problem with them was they were too long on anything but completely flat or downhill. Slightest incline and the front end of the bike was lifting up constantly. I'd definitely need some forks with adjustable travel - run them at 100mm max normally and then wind them open downhill - the Revelation 426 U-turns look like a good bet.

 Tomorrow I'll be trying again to get the seals in with a couple of mates assisting. If that fails, then first of all I will have a hissy-fit, then I will get my credit card out and spank some money on the Revelations!!

Well, thought I'd give a bit of an update incase any other poor souls have a similar problem and do a search on here.

 In the end, I got a fairly thick (deep) jubilee clip that I could tighten around the stanchion and sit ontop of the seal. I cut slits in it all the way round that I could put a flat bladed screwdriver in (so the screwdriver didn't slip about) and then a mate and I proceeded to press on the jubilee clip with screwdrivers as evenly as possible. Eventually we worked our way round the whole seal and managed to ge them both to within about 1mm of being fully seated. We also used a rubber mallet to hit the screwdriver on certain bits, but I am not sure that actually helped.3

An evening of light jumping (I'm not really a wheels of the ground rider) at Chicksands and the seals haven't moved so that's that! I'm gonna see how they go and at the first sign of misbehaving they are going to be ditched for some Revelations!!

I pick up my new Revelation U-turns tomorrow with my new heavier spring fitted.

Funnily enough the first fork that came on this bike were 01 Judy SL's. Now if only i could have found the Revelations in Red to match.......

Have just had a look a the Reba's, Mike and they seem quite pricey - seeing as the bike is getting old and I am not sure I will be keeping it for more than a couple of yrs I wasn't planning on spending on much over £250.

The revelation U-turns I have seen for between £230 and £270. They are probably a bit long wound right out, but I'd probably run them at 100mm normally and then whack them open for downhill bits.

Why do you think the Reba's would be better suited?