Fox damper removal tool alternatives

I’ve done enough hitting with sockets, backing the footnut off and hitting it etc – always seems to carry the risk of damaging something, as I am hamfisted.

I am also tightfisted, so wondered if anyone could recommend an alternative (preferably from a UK supplier) to the 65 quid official fox tool? Needs to be long enough to work with a stepcast fork.

Remove the nut completely with a 15mm deep socket, take off and discard the old crush washer. Then thread the nut back on half way, pop the deep socket back on and tap the bottom gently but firmly with a nylon faced hammer or rubber mallet. Job done.

I’ve read that you can use a long coupling nut instead of the official tool but the damper rod threads might be a proprietary pitch so may get damaged if they don’t match up.

As long as you use a deep socket so the rebound nob doesn’t get whacked, my above method is safe and won’t knacker your forks.

This was my go-to method, but found it knackers the footnut after a few goes (see above comment about hamfistedness)! Also a bit of a PITA with stepcast as the recessed footnut means that, even with a deep socket, getting a clean hit is a bit fiddly.

Pop a 5mm hex key into the end of your long socket – that’ll act like a punch. Two firm hits with a soft-faced mallet and you’re done!

Hitting the bolt with a socket shouldn’t damage the bolt at all. But if you are damaging it, buy a spare bolt and use that as your ‘foot bolt release’ nut – and use it instead of your normal foot nuts.

I do this on my MRP Ribbon now, as I’ve got a spare footnut.

There are aftermarket tools for sale on ebay, instagram etc much cheaper than the fox ones

They are M8x1.0 and M10x1.0 if you want to make some

You can tap a bit of tube the right size, buy coupling nuts, weld a nut to a bit of tube, make a copy of the fox tool on a lathe just depends what tools you have.

Pop a 5mm hex key into the end of your long socket – that’ll act like a punch. Two firm hits with a soft-faced mallet and you’re done!

Won’t that strike the rebound knob needle, or am I being thick?

Nope, the socket will have an engagement area for the socket wrench, the hex key wont go beyond that.

It’s actually a 6mm, not a 5mm – I swapped airshafts on my 34SC forks tonight and realised!

They are M8x1.0 and M10x1.0 if you want to make some

Anyone had any luck making a tool for these? I bought some steel couplers from Aliexpress. The M8 works fine but the M10 won’t engage with the thread. My m10x1 bolt fits the coupler and the end cap from the fork but not the fork. Feels like the thread on the forks are deeper than normal.

Have you tried using a dead-blow mallet instead of a rubber / soft-faced one? Much more efficient and gentler energy transfer to stubborn things.