As I was!!!! The FORK SPRING GUIDE DOES come off without taking out the damping rod assembly! Compress the spring...loosen jam nut....remove cap.....remove jam nut....remove metal collar that is below jam nut....Whala! the fork spring guide just pulls off!
It's a good thing I double checked the service manual! After pulling the fork spring guide....my fork oil level would've been too low by quite a significant amount!
Also to note.....when reinstalling the jam nut you must level exactly, 13 mm (.51") of exposed thread above the jam nut before reinstalling the cap assembly....
When servicing forks on our bikes, I HIGHLY recommend having a service manual (RTFM!!!) When searching and reading past threads...there are quite a few things People leave out!
Does anyone know how to remove and especially reinstall the damping rod assembly without the damping rod tool and/or holder?
12mm is the measurement for exposed thread. (C in the service manual) 13mm is the measurement inside the cap back to the rebound adjuster. (D) Better practice is to ignore the 13mm measurement and back out the rebound adjuster fully counter clockwise. You don't want the rebound needle to bottom out before the cap bottoms on the lock nut. If it does you could bend/damage the needle.
In reality 12 or 13 or 11mm doesn't really matter. The only thing this will change is the total number of clicks available on your rebound adjuster. Only the first 12 or so actually do anything. The stock needle is pretty blunt and once you get out 12 or so you are flowing as much as possible anyway.
You can remove the complete cartridge by just removing the bolt in the bottom of the fork and many times to reassemble you do not need a cartridge holder. Usually there is enough friction between the cartridge and the fork lower that it doesn't spin and the bolt will snug up nice and tight.
Unfortunately sometimes this isn't the case and you will need the a holder to prevent it from spinning. I made my own out of an old socket and a piece of pipe. I would not remove the cartridge unless you plan on making or buying a proper holder.
Redneck way to get it tight without a holder is to tighten as much as you can until it spins. Then a quick hit with an electric impact gun will usually get it tight without it spinning.
I would not do this. good chance of stripping out the bottom of the cartridge. But hey you asked.
If you want to get the lower nice and clean spray it out with brake cleaner a few times and hang upside down for a while. I sometimes refill the fork with atf fluid bleed the cartridge to help get the inside of the cartridge as clean as possible without disassembling the cartridge. Drain and hang for a while to make sure all the atf is out.