Fork Damper Rod Removal

I am doing work on the fork assembly of my 1981 XJ650H. While I am at it I wish to replace the fork seals but need to remove the Damper Rods.
I am working out of a Haynes workshop manual and they show a home-made adapter; however, they provide no details such as the size.
Since the Damper looks like it has a hexagonal socket I assume that an allen wrench on the end of a long extension bar would be the tool to use. The problem is I cannot determine what size the hex recess is in the head of the Damper rod as it is deep inside the stanchion. Anyone out there ever performed this operation? Would you know what size the recess is in the Damper?

 

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8355.html
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=1 ... ocket.html

 

The "Universal Fork Damper Tool"

For ALL Yamaha Bikes

Steel Rod:
60cm Long
12mm Diameter
19mm Hex Nut -- Welded to one end.
22mm Hex Nut -- Welded to other end.

19mm Hex |<------60cm Rod------>|22mm Hex

Grind the Rod to fir the Hex Nuts.
Weld Nuts to Rod
Dress welds flat.

 

The internal on mine which are off of a 650 turbo were 22 mm. I just took a spark plug socket and tunred it around. the 1/4 drive extension fits into the open end and then I just added extensions to reach the end of the tube so I could put a ratchet on it.

Rick's Universal fork dampener tool sounds like a good idea though. Might have to build one of those.

 

In the shop we used to keep the forks assembled, clamp the caliper mount in the vice (so the fork is horizontal) then undo the damper bolt with an air gun. The tension from the fork springs keeps the damper rod from spinning, and the entire job is a 5 second one :wink:

 

I did the same as TMHack turned the spark plug socket around and used extension for the depth stuffed some rag into the plug socket to keep it all tight worked first time exactly the way I was hoping for.

 

I wish to thank you all for your suggestions. I'll see what I have around the shop to make one of these tools. Thanks again guys.