Front Fork Diassembly Tool/Adapter

So you need this kind of socket, right?

Scirocco thats the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Rick, the gator grip I have is 25.80mm

If your fork cylinders are similar to mine the Gator Grip tool as shown in the photo in posting #816278 above won’t work. This is because the outer circumference of the Gator Grip tool hits the outer circumference of the fork cylinder, and this prevents the pins in the Gator Grip tool from engaging the fork cylinder. So the fork cylinder will not sink into the Gator Grip tool. The images below should help show this issue. Ed

Spring compression/pressure on the damper is all thats needed. I service/tune modern MX suspension, that "special tool" is not needed, otherwise you would see a bunch of them for sale.

I'm not familiar with the particular forks you are working on Rick but on a lot of the Japanese forks there is a hex shape in the top of the [strike]damper rod[/strike] Cylinder and Piston Unit (Kawasaki term) that needs to be held in order to remove the screw on the bottom. I use a socket like shown only I insert a long extension backwards into the socket so to speak so the hex is on the end.

BTW: I know some guys that use a broom handle sharpened into a bit of a taper on the end. Cram it down into the top of the Cylinder and Piston Unit and hold the broomstick while loosening the screw on the bottom.

You can modify a socket or a long pipe with slots to grab/hold the damper.

Scirocco wrote: So you need this kind of socket, right?

Yep Scirocco, that's the little beast that gets the job done. Thanks for putting the pictures up.
Rick H.

Kidkawie wrote: Spring compression/pressure on the damper is all thats needed. I service/tune modern MX suspension, that "special tool" is not needed, otherwise you would see a bunch of them for sale.

I understand what you are saying Kidkawie. After reading a bunch of old posts on this subject it's pretty clear that many have accomplished holding the damper rod in several ways. Most times by simple friction holding the rod with a broom stick or wedging a broom stick between the rod end and fork cylinder. While these may all work to one extent or another I was looking for a different solution that will handle even the most stubborn of removal situations and the obvious answer is a socket to receive the damper rod end, or an adapter of some sort to do the same thing. With all the advancements in machining and tool design I would think making this adapter would be doable, but at what cost? So now that I know what the adapter looks like I can show pictures to some of my friends that are tool makers/machinists and see what they have to say.

90% of the time there is always a "work around" when the situation calls for a special tool, like removing plastic push pins on car bodies today, but the special pliers made for that function sure make it easier and save time. I still remember trying to get old GM door and window handles off when they used U-shaped clips to hold them on. I was too broke or cheap at the time to buy the special tool for the job and would fiddle around with a couple of small screwdrivers trying to push the clips off. When I bought the special tool for the job I thought I died and went to heaven it was so easy! Slip the tool behind the handle, line up the clip slot and push clip out. Almost took longer to type that out then do the job.
Rick H.

this is probably as good on how to dismantle forks/replace seals as anything IMHO

Rick H...
If price is acceptable I’d be interested in a socket...

Mikaw wrote: Rick H...
If price is acceptable I’d be interested in a socket...

Now that I know the details of this socket/adapter I will track down one of my machinist buds and see if they can't make something up for me. I will let you know what I find out.
Rick H.