How to disassemble older air forks?

[1983lux]

Hey all,

I'm currently working on an 83 suzuki GR650 that needs some fork seals. I've got the model that has air forks up front. The manual says to bleed the air, push down on the fork tops and remove a circlip, but I'm not seeing any circlip. Has anyone taken these type of forks apart before? Also, I hear I'll need to make some kind of custom tool to loosen the damper rod nut. A 19mm nut welded to the end of a pipe/rebar should work?

Thanks for any help!

 

[teazer]

They are the same as other forks of teh era but with two wrinkles. There's a schraeder valve to pressurize them, and the top nut isn't a nut at all. They use a flat plug with an O ring and it is retained by a circlip. Check a parts list for details.

Remove that small round cap which covers the schraeder valve. Press the center - just like a car or bike tire to release any residual air pressure (likely zero) and then remove the valve and what looks like a washer above teh top cap. Beneath that you should see the circlip.

That's where things get a little more tricky. Bolt the fork leg back into the top triple clamp and set up a puller on the clamp so that it screws down onto the top cap to compress the spring a little, then pry out the circlip and remove the clamp/puller.

Something like this..