Have done some work on forks previously including a seal change and breaking apart inner leg to access rebound valve.
But this winter we had 3 sets of forks to change oil and look over, and have 3 KTM Adventure in the garage now and a friend also bought one so getting more invested in performing oil changes and fork maintenance fast and efficient.
Having some form of impact drill be it electric or air powered really help, Im lucky enough to have a leftover my dad retired since he upgraded to newer tools that all share the same battery so have a good Makita impact driver I use.
Have this fork cap tool and really like it since it accepts a 3/8″ socket holder so fork cap can be removed with impact driver, sure you can undo top while clamping fork leg in lower triple while still on bike but much easier to just hold it with our hand and undoing with impact driver.
But where the impact driver really makes the big difference is when removing compression valve from bottom of fork and releasing inner leg, so easy to just push piston rod against outer tube as described in my previous post about replacing fork seal.
If you want to inspect rebound needle there is no need to break apart outer part of inner leg, if the black plastic spring guide is removed rebound valve can be slid out through the other side:
Have also built this jig to hold things in place for ease of breaking things apart:
And to lock things to stop spinning threads were taped in some aluminum these are an odd M14 fine thread, have a couple extra that Im willing to sell, also have some of the handles used at the end to help pump the inner tube to purge the air out of the fork:
This one looked good still:
But in my dads bike it looked really bad:
It was too bad to reuse rebound tab so that was replaced, part number 48600203, bought new nuts also but they could have been reused, but if doing this replace the seals on rebound needle also, part number 48600046.
If rebound distance tube is stuck to plastic pin in the fork cap take care getting it out, they break easy.
I choose to remove clicker, place fork cap in a plastic bag, pry it out with a knife:
Why in a bag? Cause there is 2 small steel balls pushed out by a spring:
With that out you can easily unscrew plastic pin guide and use a small 1/4″ socket as a slide hammer and “gently” get it out, then clean out inside the distance tube, I just by hand rotated a suitable drill inside it:
Easiest way I found to reassemble is to screw plastic pin a little in and then get clicker in place, adding some grease to hold balls in place and with some needle nose pliers push balls in as ju push it down in place, might have to turn it a little to line up with slot in plastic pin.
Might be worth looking over the preload adjust also, its easy, remove plastic washer, usually sticks inside cap, remove lock ring and turn preload to work it all the way out, remove any corrosion with some WD-40 and som nylon scrubber and reassemble, can be a little tricky getting thread to start:
A piece of tubing with threads taped into it and a handle to help pump inner leg when bleeding air out of fork:
Have ordered some material and might look at offering some of the stuff I have made like the jig to hold parts and aluminum bits to lock rod to remove rebound adjuster and pump help handle for bleeding up for sale as a way to raise some funds for my charity work.
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