Fork damper rod blues

[humbucker]

Well, I seem to have hit the age old problem of that damper rod retaining bolt which just will not crack free, the rod spins round without the bolt unscrewing.

I know this may sound like an odd request, but in order to replace the seals, do I even have to take the fork apart? I have the spring out and drained the old oil, can I not somehow carefully prise the old seal out, replace the oil and put the new seal in?

[Stu]

have you tried to crack it off with the fork fully assembled?

with the forks assembled the spring helps it stop moving

if you can get the seal out then no need to split it

[eastanglianbiker]

As Stu said normally leave fork assembled and that is enough pressure to allow the damper bolt to be undone so might be worth dropping spring back in and replacing top cap

[Kawamad]

I always chuckled at the Haynes manual suggestion of whittling down a peice of wood like a broom handle and holding the rod from inside the tube method!

I made me own holding tool out of whatever metal was lying about in the shed,but the methods described in earlier posts often work.

[humbucker]

Thanks for the help guys, I reassembled the fork but it still wont budge. I even tried the other fork whilst it was still clamped to the bike and hadn't been touched. For now I will just replace the seals, the MOT (Spanish style) is due in 2 days so as long as it isn't leaking, it will buy me some time to clean them out properly.

[humbucker]

My friendly German neighbour has an aladdin's cave for tools etc and in about three seconds, he managed to free the damper rod bolt.

So far so good.

I then remembered the bit about pulling the fork apart, Sadly, King Kong mode meant that I didn't so much pull it apart as rip it apart. Bits flew everywhere. I am ok with the seal, the washer and the top bush.

What I am not sure of, is the at the order at the other end. There is little spring and what for the lack of a better word, I shall call a 'thing'. Do these fit in the order shown or do they go somewhere else please?

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s291/Jayeman/Bike/2015-04-17%2011.27.57_zpsmeibjxfq.jpg

[humbucker]

Well, I put it all back together and it all works fine. My first time ever changing the seals and I am proud of myself. Also saved a shed load of money. I found the youtube video by moonfleet41, Delboy, a great help. Well worth looking at his channel for 'how to' stuff.