Has anyone found a tool to hold the damping rod so you can remove the bolt to dissasemble a front fork?

So far ways of doing it are:

Jam a tapered piece of wood in and hope it holds

Driil out the bolt and remove it that way.

There must be a better way?

Thanks for everyones input in advance

I am considering buying old forks just because it is easier

um,  ah,   

have you considered an air impact gun
or taking the forks to a shop to have the bolt loosened only
and then taking them back after you rebuilt them to have it tightened

or the total pain in the a$$ method of just carefully prying out the seals and then installing them while the fork is together

I'm pretty sure the tips section has it - A couple of inch-sized bolts that have a head that fits the metric hole, and a coupler-nut to hold them together and make it long enough (or just weld something onto one bolt.)

I know this because I have the bolts and coupler nut, though I have not even used them as yet, and I must have seen that here. I'll take a look and edit/add link if I can find it.

Faq section, not tip section. Shown (peeking out of PVC pipe) in bottom of this thread, but the link to the thread about the tool is bad now:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=16318.0

Here we go - start there, read on down for an easier to find the bolt for version (Kerry's) as I described.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=7084.msg59516#msg59516

thanks. I had a look at those posts before but they apply to the earlier forks because the post 2004 don't have the serations to fit a bolt in(there is nothing just round).

I tried air impact gun and it just spun. broom handle would not hold.

I was hoping for a do it at home approach instead of using outside help.

drilling out the bolt has been the most reasonable idea so far. I was thinking of doing this and replacing the damper rod with an earlier model so its not so hard next time.

Huh - one more plus for having an old bike, I guess.

You might be able to cobble something from, or like, a plumbing test plug - the large-scale equivalent of the little plug that holds in your later-model bar-ends. Rubber plug that expands to grip when squeezed. Would take some cobbling. Section of pipe smaller than the fork, section of threaded rod, 3 washers and 3 nuts plus the rubber part itself. Double-nut one end of the rod, put on a washer, the rubber, the second washer, the pipe, the third washer and the nut. Stuff whole business in the fork, wind up the top nut until the rubber grabs good. Might want to cut a screwdriver slot in the top end of the threaded rod to hold it, or use two more nuts jammed at the top end. Not going to be helped by the oil left in there.

Or use an internal pipe wrench and a bunch of socket extensions and duct tape-

Thats a good find. smart thinking there. I will try and give the pipe wrenches a go when I can afford it. Thanks

There must be a commercial source for this tool?  Is this what we need?

http://www.hondasuzukioflynchburg.com/Dennis-Stubblefield-INNER-FORK-DAMPER-HOLDING-TOOL-detail.htm?productId=9250234

i believe it's this

09940-34531

http://www.alpha-sports.com/tools/suzuki_tools.htm