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Well I wrote a long specific post last night with pictures but I closed my browser before I clicked "post". So here is number 2
First step for me was to find a way to hold the bike up off the ground since my garage is a finished garage so no framework or beams to use to lift stuff so I simply made a wooden A-frame out of 2x4s (used 4 8ft 2x4s cut 5ft off each and cut opposing 72* angles in each side of the 5ft sections used 2 of the left over 3ft sections to make mid frame braces and the other 2 as the "beam" to go in between). Then I went ahead and loosened the top cap while they were still on the bike and removed them from the tree. After I removed the forks and unscrewed the cap I drained the oil then on to overcoming the spring and pulling down the sleeve to remove the "preload adjuster". For that I tried a few different things but what ended up working the absolute best was some hooks I made out of some small metal rods I found in the garage, they are plant supports that you can get from most hardware or garden stores (not the wire kind the metal rod kind) (link to edit). I bent the rods into a sharp hook back on one end wound the other end around some pliers a few times to give me something to hook a ratchet strap into. I spun the sleeve so the holes lined up with the axle mount at the bottom and ran the ratchet strap through the hole and started ratcheting down til the sleeve was low enough so I could get the nuts that lock the adjuster on the inner tube. Removed that and release the ratchet strap one step at a time to slowly release the tension, but if the have the fork clamped into a vise, wooden or otherwise, you can just lean on the top of the collar to release the hooks and just lean off the sleeve until the tension is removed. Then disassembly, I removed the dust seal and released the spring clip which wasn't a traditional spring clip this one you only needed a small screwdriver to remove it and once all that was out of the way I used the body and cylinder as a slide hammer to separate the two just like in the video posted above and replace slides guides and seals making to the keep record of where everything went. For reassembly its all quite self explanatory except for how to get the oil seal pressed in past the spring clip groove for that I needed a seal driver but I could not find any PVC that fit correctly on my 43mm like in the video AZmidget posted. The ~43mm needed isnt close enough to any standard sizes that I could find, everything was either too big or too small by more than 5-8mm so instead I found a shop vac extension tube that was too big on one end and too small on the other and since those extension tube taper down across the entire length of the tube I simply found the section that looked about right and cut that piece out to use it as a seal driver with a flat cut it worked just fine I ended up using the very end which had a thicker section and shaved off a little excess so give it more surface contact with the seal. Then put some wood over the cylinder and used the faring stay kind of as a slide hammer again to press the seal in just past the spring clip groove, installed the spring clip and then used the plastic tube again to press the dust seal in. Filler up, put in the guts (make sure it all the right orientation/order) and usse the hooks and ratchet strap again to pull the sleeve down and bolt everything back together, as for where on the threads to lock down the adjuster cap I just took note of where it was before I loosened it and put it back (i had one thread showing and put a sharpie mark on to keep my spot). Release tension and screw adjuster cap into body and you can give it the final torque once its back on the bike since the fork clamps make such good fork clamps lol.
I am kinda writing this in a hurry at the moment, if i missed anything let me know or if you would add a note to it post it below and I will edit it in there in a few days.
Pic 1: A-Frame
Pic 2: Plant support metal rod
Pic 3: Overcoming spring tension method
Pic 4: apart guts out
Pic 4: Seal drive using shop vac tube
Aframe.jpg
metalrod.jpg
springtool.jpg
apart.jpg
sealdriver.jpg
