First post.  I recently picked up a 1990 CR250R.  Pretty good condition except for the front forks.  Two problems -

• they leak
  
• whoever last worked on them thought they needed to play muscle man and over torqued everything, to the point of rounding off the top cap where you would normally put a wrench on it   ( I don't see this style work on other parts of the bike )

So when I opened the right fork, the cylinder, as in the inner piece that the dampening rod slides through, was jammed down hard in to the bottom of the fork.  HARD.  From over-torqueing the bottom bolt.  The bolt came out easily but nothing would slide apart.

On the left fork the bottom bolt is seized up hard.  Even tried spraying WD40 in the recessed part where the bolt head resides and let it sit overnight.  Won't budge at all.

The left fork is a loss.  There's actually chisel marks on the top cap where someone has tried to get it loose in the past.  Throw-away.  I knew I was already going to have to get new forks so I tried to get the right fork apart to at least better understand how these are assembled.  I attempted to unscrew the top cap from the dampening rod (there is a nut that tightens against the top cap, they both thread the same way), the rod sheared.  Of course once the nut and the top cap were separated they both unscrewed easily and now I can see how it should work, I think.

Good times.  Starting over with forks off Ebay that look to be in much better condition.

Question for the forum - would you expect this to be easier?  :-)  With the top cap unscrewed from the tube, when you pull the bolt from the bottom should the cylinder/spring/rod slide out with only minor resistance?  Is there any reason to ever unscrew the top cap from the rod?

Yes after bottob bolt is removed, the damper should slide out no problem. The reason why we need the fok cap off is in part for the final oil level measure. It has to be done with damper rod collaosed so the cap will be in the way.