KZ900 fork damper removal

I have worked on hundreds of forks over the years and have never had a problem getting the allen bolt off using an impact wrench. I remove the top cap and drain the oil, re-install the spring and cap then use an impact wrench on the allen bolt. They always come right out.

KZJOE900 wrote: On a KZ900 its a round nub with two opposing flat sides. I tried everything as well, torch, air impact, tapered broom handle, pipe with flattened end, rod with rubber end, and so forth nothing worked. Finally saw a post somewhere where someone suggested a gator grip tool. That finally worked. Here is the videos I posted on YouTube. Its in four parts. Part 3 which shows me using the gator grip.

Edit: To finally get the seals out of the lowers, I ended up using a claw hammer. But it scratched the inside of the cylinder a bit (no permanent harm done). If I had to do it again I would tape the ends of the claw to keep it from scratching the inner diameter.

Joe, I bought a Gator Grip and it wouldn't fit inside the fork tube. I don't know why.

Okay I got the forks apart. What a pain!

I went down to the neighborhood garage and asked them to zip the bolts out with an impact wrench. The forks were reassembled so the fork springs would put some pressure on the dampers.

One bolt loosened and was free. The other loosened but didn't free itself. I went home and took the one fork tube apart and looked at that damper. I don't know how that square edged tool would ever hold the damper rod in place.

Now that I had one to look at, I took my 3/4 pipe and shaped it with an angle grinder and a drill to make it fit over the damper rod. Then I stuck the pipe in the other tube and was finally able to get that sucker undone.

Now that I have a tool to do this, no big deal taking these forks apart and putting them back together. Here's what my homemade tool looks like.



The 12mm width fits over the damper rod and holds it in place.

Here's what the damper rod looks like.

Kapahulu wrote:

KZJOE900 wrote: On a KZ900 its a round nub with two opposing flat sides. I tried everything as well, torch, air impact, tapered broom handle, pipe with flattened end, rod with rubber end, and so forth nothing worked. Finally saw a post somewhere where someone suggested a gator grip tool. That finally worked. Here is the videos I posted on YouTube. Its in four parts. Part 3 which shows me using the gator grip.

Edit: To finally get the seals out of the lowers, I ended up using a claw hammer. But it scratched the inside of the cylinder a bit (no permanent harm done). If I had to do it again I would tape the ends of the claw to keep it from scratching the inner diameter.

Joe, I bought a Gator Grip and it wouldn't fit inside the fork tube. I don't know why.

As it turns out, there are two sizes of gator grips. The standard size 7-19 mm (ETC-120 or ETC-200) or the King Gator grip (1.25 inch dia.) socket. Maybe you bought the larger one. Glad you got them out. The tool I made like yours didn't work for me. Every time I torqued on the allen bolt with my pipe tool in place, the square would spread and round open again. Then not grip any more. You said the impact had already loosened the second one. So maybe it didn't require as much force. Or you're just a better fabricator than me. :laugh:

Hi Joe,

That's good info about your tool not holding the rod. I have an extra fork from a KZ1000. I think I'll use the KZ1000 internals so I won't have to deal with the KZ900 damper rod business again. All I need off the KZ900 forks is the tubes and the lowers.