December 24th 2005

Proceed at your own risk!
I am not resposible for any dammage and am in no way a proffesional or expert in shock repair!

2004 Progressive 5th Element Air:
I bought this shock new off of E-Bay for $275 in the fall of 2004. I was very pleased with its performance at first but it started acting funny half way through 2005. It just didn't feel as good as it did when I first purchased it. Well it all came to an end when I used my bike to commute out to the local cliffs to go climbing. I had a heavy internal frame backpack on with all my gear inside on my back, hanging over the rear wheel. My 165lb body became a rear heavy 210lb beast. I got the bright idea to pump the shock way up, and crank the stable platform way up as well. Everything went fine until I decided to jump a curb on the way back, and whalla, no rebound! Now I don't rightly remember, but I think I remember putting something ridiculous like 250psi in both air chambers of the shock. I wish I had read the little sticker along the bottom of the shock that indicated an appropriate range of 75-125psi. Well too late now. The shock would occasionally engage the rebound but mostly acted like a cheap wallyworld spring shock.

The Death Blow:
I got the bright idea to let the air out of both chambers and cycle the shock back and forth through its' travel in the hopes that it would "magically" fix its self. I wasn't too pleased with the idea of sending it in and being without a shock for a while, or trying to fix it myself. Well, this idea was the mortal blow which had me ready to throw the whole thing off our 4rth story balcony. I left the shock pump attached to the valve thinking, "Why take it off, I'm just gonna pump it back up in a second!" Well, you should take it off, because when you compress the suspension the rear linkage will hit the pump and brake your shrader valve right off your slightly malfunctioning shock. God Damn It!

Disgusted and pissed, I preceded to ride the bike for another month with no rebound or stable platform dampening.

Now, I have a tendency to try to take things apart to try to fix them. This doesn't always work out for the best. A rainy lazy day came along after 2 months of shitty shockdom, and I got it in my head to see what I could figure out with this thing. I mean, how much worse could I make it?

Sleeve Removal:
Upon visual inspection I unscrewed the main chamber body off of the top head part. This was simple and only required some medical tape on the shock chamber sleeve for grip and padding the shock head (where the bolt goes through for frame attachment) with cardboard so I could grip it with pliers without damaging it. A vise would have worked better but I don't have one. The shock body sleeve creates two air chambers. One which looks to be the main chamber at the head and another that runs along the large black shaft of the shock. A sliver aluminum divider with a gasket keeps these chambers separate.

SPV Shrader Valve Removal:
In order to completely remove the outer sleeve you need to remove the stable platform schrader valve. Use a standard automotive valve stem remover. you can then insert a 3mm allen wrench and unscrew the entire valve in the logical counter clockwise direction. You can then slide the sleeve (with some force) off the shock. I was happy to discover this, now knowing that I might be able to get a replacement shrader stem from Progressive.

Future Disassembly:
My problem however, lies with the no longer functional rebound. I suspect I need to unscrew the top of the silver divider using a specialized tool that takes advantage of the two half circle slots. There is one hole in the side but it doesn't appear to be involved in disassembly. I tried once to use pliers along the edge of the slotted piece to see if it would screw but gave up after one attempt to prevent further damage. I am going to fabricate a tool to disassemble it further soon.

Rebound Knob Removal (Don't do this!):
In the mean time I decided to see if I could unscrew the rebound knob. I thought I had remembered reading something online about possibly breaking the knob if it is turned too far out. I believed I would know if I was forcing it too much and dove in. The knob turned easily, met some resistance then made a sound of releasing air. It then became obvious that turning it no longer moved it any further out, so I assumed it has unscrewed its' self. After some wiggling it popped out from the pressure inside. It was hard to see inside the hole and the flash on my camera gave me my first good look at what I was dealing with. There is a white plastic plunger that the red rebound knob adjusts up and down and I am assuming controls the amount of rebound dampening applied. This knob however prevents the reinsertion of your red rebound knob! Well, now I really am gonna have to rip this thing apart!

Update: 12-04-2007
       This fall (2007) I got an e-mail from Christos (All the way from Greece!) who had found my website and had a very similar problem. Here is what he found out. Major Kudos to him for getting it all apart and back together again. He reported to me that he has been riding the shock for several months now with no problems after he rebuilt it! What follows is the e-mail and pictures he sent me with some changes to picture references for web usability.

"Hello Jeremy
       I managed to go all through the end (not disassembling the piston of course). First of all I made a tool to

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unscrew the upper part of that silver divider. I am a hearing aid specialist so I took an impression of it. In 1 on the left you can see the shock while I take the second impression and the first impression in front of it. The bad thing was that the tool I made, image 2 on the left, wasn't strong enough to unscrew the cap. That made me focus on the upper part of the shock which has the main chamber valve on it. I tightened the shaft in a vice and a rug in order not to damage it and using a screwdriver through the upper eyelet (Image 1 on the right) I managed to unscrew it. In image 3 on the left you can see it unscrewed and in the background you can see a white rod, which's end was the one not allowing the rebound adjustment rod to go into position.

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       As my homemade tool wasn't so effective I decided to take another path. I tightened the silver divider with the vice from the side of it, as in image 2 on the right and unscrew it using again the screwdriver as lever (image 3 on the right). So in image 4 on the left, you now see the piston out of the shock. To see what else I can take apart I pumped just a little air in the IFP chamber and the plastic part that separates the IFP from the oil chamber popped out. Be careful when it pops not to hurt yourself! In image 4 on the right you can see that black plastic part.

       After all that fun it was time to put it together. :( I tightened the bottom part of the shock (the one with the IFP valve) to the vice vertically to the ground, so that I can pour the oil back in. I took out the IFP valve head off and placed the round black plastic that defines the IFP chamber carefully back in. With the back side of a screwdriver I gently hammered it all the way down and then reassembled the IFP valve. After that, I poured new oil inside the shock shaft until it's level was about 1cm from the top. A little more won't do bad. Slide the piston back in with the silver dividing part all the way up and screwed that dividing part using the tool I made earlier. Good thing to know it was used somehow. At this time oil will come out as it overflows, so have some towel in hand. Of course the oil chamber should be air free but I don't know to do that, so I did it almost air free :)) I placed the white plastic rod back in all the way to the bottom and screwed the rebound adjuster to the head all the way in. After that i screwed the head of the shock to the piston shaft, after positioning back again the diaphanous spacer and the elastomer part. At this point it can't be screwed securely because it's not possible to hold the piston shaft but that is no problem. We want the head even a little screwed in so that the white rod won't blow in the next step.

       Now we are ready to put some air in the IFP. Just a little at a time until the piston starts to go up. When it goes a little, screw the head securely and put about 50psi to the IFP. Make sure that the rebound knob doesn't come out now, which means there is pressure to push the white rod upwards. After that let all the air out of IFP and take off the valve again. Place the bottoming elastomer and screw the sleeve back in. Reassemble the IFP valve, fill it with air and it is ready to go!!

       I haven't ridden it yet, but i'll do so extensively this weekend, so I'll know if it is ok or if it is ready for disposal :(

       The good thing is that this shock does not have high pressure chambers or nitrogen filled ones, so it is quite safe and easy to open. I would never try so with a FOX RP23 for example because of the above reasons.

       I hope that was interesting. If you will use the above information in your site please refer to my name in the text. A little vanity in me :))

       I hope it will work properly and we will be able to help some people after Progressive went down and many people are left with their 5th elements unserviceable.

       By the way the oil viscosity is 2.5 according to the UK service rep but it was much too thin. 5 Wt oil works much better. Service is still offered if someone is willing to post the shock to the UK. http://www.tftunedshox.com/ is the site and it has details on services and prices. I was not willing to pay and most important to wait a week or more.

       If it doesn't work I'll go for a FOX RP23 for my Santa cruz Blur. The national FOX service is at my city just 20 min's from my home.

Thank you for your time and help.

Christos"

Thank you so much Christos!!!

© September 6, 2008