I'm working on a front fork spring replacement, front end overhall and for the life of me, I cannot get the aluminum fork caps off either fork of my bike. I followed the factory manual at first and removed the forks before attempting, but quickly wised up and put one of the tubes back in the triple clamps on the bike, keeping the upper clamp a bit loose, but even with that, the aluminum nut is about to be stripped, from using a 17mm well fitting socket and a long breaker bar for the proper leverage.
I even gave it a shot on my other FT500 sitting next to it, and seems like it's the same thing. It's almost as if the aluminum has bonded to the steel? Does anyone have any tried and true soak or liquid wrench treatment they can recommend? I'm usually pretty adept at removing stuck fasteners, but this one is about to get me and damage my fork caps.