Damper Rod Tool for a 1300

I recently decided to give up and admit that the fork seals were leaking. On other bikes, I had previously successfully used an impact driver to loosen and remove the bolt from the bottom of the damper rod but not on this bike. The bolts are bigger and the damper rod seems not to have enough inertia to keep it from spinning. I had managed to disassemble both forks but I was only able to get one to tighten up on reassembly. So after some wasted time I decided that I needed to disassemble a spare fork tube I had so that I could see just what it is that that special tool is that Ma Kaw suggests.

Check out a 15/16" hex bolt welded to a piece of 1/2" EMT conduit:



It works fine! I welded a bolt on each end so I can use a socket drive to keep the damper rod steady.

Here it is in the fork:




kzcsi

Congrats...necessity is truely the mother of invention:)