fork tube removal//help needed

Crack it loose assembled.Spring pressure holds it all together.
Then tear it down.

SPARKY47 wrote: Crack it loose assembled.Spring pressure holds it all together.
Then tear it down.

That's what I'm saying, leave the spring in and compress the fork it will hold it.

update. mission accomplished. had to fab a tool to 'hold' the piston by wedging the piston to the side and pinch it against the tube wall.

I hoped the technique of compressing the fork while assembled would do it, installed the forks and axle and via straps compressed the forks completely. It did give some resistance but still allowed the piston to rotate. no luck.

I am too sleepy to re-write the info in this post so check this link out: www.kz-1000.net/forkdamper

That will work great on fork cylinders with the hex indentation. Some of them (like mine) just have a round hole (see pic in my previous posting), and believe it or not the Kawasaki special tool is a nasty looking reamer that you jam down into the hole and it cuts into the fork cylinder to hold it. I substituted a rubber vacuum plug to prevent damage to the fork cylinder hole. I don't know why Kawasaki didn't use the indented hex on all of them; it really is a better design than the round hole. Ed

I'm doing the MKII forks also and they have the 'round' damper as shown inthe pic above, I'll try these ideas suggested in building the tool for these forks.

My 1980 fork had the 17mm hex socket in the piston and I made a tool for it, which woked great. But then I had to take apart a '78 fork tube and discovered the round hole piston top. So I had to resort to the tapered square broom handle. It worked great! I was surprised. I thought surely the oil in there would just make it slip, but no, I hammered it in and it wedged in there and held like a champ. Almost too well in fact. Had a helluva time getting it out of the piston. Just taper the broom handle so that the very end of the square is about 3/8" across, and the taper is about two inches long.

riverroad wrote: My 1980 fork had the 17mm hex socket in the piston and I made a tool for it, which woked great. But then I had to take apart a '78 fork tube and discovered the round hole piston top. So I had to resort to the tapered square broom handle. It worked great! I was surprised. I thought surely the oil in there would just make it slip, but no, I hammered it in and it wedged in there and held like a champ. Almost too well in fact. Had a helluva time getting it out of the piston. Just taper the broom handle so that the very end of the square is about 3/8" across, and the taper is about two inches long.

I had considered the broomstick method, but I was too afraid of what I would face if the wood broke off in the hole (I know, I'm chicken!) That's when I decided to make a tool that couldn't break. Took about 20 minutes not counting the ride to Home Depot. Ed