Cartridge Fork Special Tools Substitutes

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KDXGarage
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Cartridge Fork Special Tools Substitutes

Post by KDXGarage »

I had been leary of working on my '94 KDX200 cartridge forks since I didn't have the special tools mentioned in the manual. I finally got curious enough to see how much could be done without the special tools mentioned in the service manual. I just did an oil change, so this doesn't cover the cartridge holding tool. I found a few substitutes that worked well for two of them, the Fork Spring Holder and the Fork Piston Rod Puller.

On the Fork Spring Holder, 57001-1286, a 16mm wrench worked very well.

On the Fork Piston Rod Puller, 5001-1298, a thumb and forefinger worked well before the spring had to be put back on. When the spring has to go back down over the rod, nut and spring guide, it got tricky. I held the rod up as high as it would go, then held the spring guide, lowering the spring down to the top of my fingers. I then got a pair of needle nose pliers and came in from the side, through the coils of the spring. I held onto the top of the rod, then spun the spring down into the tube. When I got it spun all the way down as far as it would go, I put the spring seat on top of the spring. Then, I grabbed the spring guide through the spring as best I could, then relased the pliers from the side of the top of the rod and put the pliers on the top of the rod, coming down through the top hole of the spring. I dropped the spring all the way down at that point.

On the fork oil level guage, I bought a syringe without a needle from the Tractor Supply Company and used a length of dried up, old carburetor vent hose to make a home-made tool.

I got two zip-ties and made a T, then sat the top of the T across the top of the fork tube. The leg of the T went down in the oil. I pulled out the T and measured the distance on that to measure the fork oil height level.

I think this procedure should work on the '95 and up KDX's too ('91 - '94 KDX250's also). It would be a little easier with the special tools, but the way I did it wasn't that hard at all.

I hope this helps someone wondering about the special tools.
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Post by KDXer »

I tied a piece of speaker wire around the nut on the rod. I fed the wire down through the cenre of the spring and slipped the spring straight down into the fork and pulled the rod up through with the wire. Not sure if that makes sense to you but it was easy peasy...
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Post by KDXGarage »

Yep. Makes sense. I saw a website this morning where some guy did the same on a Suzuki Bandit.

Speaking of Bandit, BikeBandit has the rod puller tool for only $10, $11.something for the spring holder. Compared to most special tools' special prices, those are pretty cheap!
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