What’s wrong with my Reverb?

I recently got a broken reverb from my friend.
He said that it had had some sag and finally it totally collapsed.
I of course was interested if it could be fixed.

The post could be compressed by hand and did not hold the position.

First I noticed that it was lacking almost all of the pressure.

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Fixing reverb remote with bent piston & broken bushing

Last summer I managed to ride into a pretty severe OTB (over the bar), which resulted in a few weeks break from driving, buying knee and elbow protectors and the most severe of them all, a broken Reverb remote.

From outside I could tell that the remote had a bent piston and broken bushing. After the breakage, I could still use it a little on the rest of the ride, until it leaked too much and stopped working. The leakage resulted probably because the piston head was not perpendicular to the cylinder. Normally the bushing keeps the button level and guides the (straight) piston rod and centers it in the cylinder.

Bent piston and broken bushing
Bent piston and broken bushing

When I took the remote apart I also found that there were some scratches inside the cylinder, probably due to still using the remote after the initial breakage.

reverb_remote_parts

scratches inside the cylinder
scratches inside the cylinder

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RockShox Reverb rebuild (without Reverb bleed tools)

I have a 125mm RockShox Reverb (A1) in my Enduro bike. The bike was bought second hand and the Reverb had some sag and extended easily if bike was lifted from the saddle. So it was clearly in need for full rebuild but I was lazy and kept riding as it still mostly worked.

Then came winter weather with -10 degrees C, which was enough for the Reverb in its current condition and it didn’t stay up anymore. At home I took it from the bike and it had leaked oil (or something similar but more gooey) under it, no use trying to fix it by pumping more air.

Oil / slime on the bottom of the post
Oil / slime on the bottom of the post
the foam washer had also given up
the foam washer had also given up
Leaked internal seal head and slimy IFP
Leaked internal seal head and slimy IFP

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