As above, the damper rod had worked its way loose and disconnected entirely from the cap. That's what let the tube slide down so far when the wheel was removed.

All I had to do is lift the spring out, compress the left fork leg so I could reach the damper rod, pull the rod as far up as it would go, replace spring, then carefully reattach cap. Once cap was screwed on, I used a 17mm wrench and to tighten the damper rod to the cap.

Did the OEM klx springs use a white plastic PVC spacer, or did the PO maybe install some aftermarket springs in this bike?

 

OK, understand now that the rod and cap did come apart...makes sense. On the spacer, that's not OEM. It's not an uncommon thing for people to use a home fashioned PVC spacer to provide some preload when desired. In your case it could also indicate aftermarket springs that are a bit shorter and need the spacer to fill the void. My '06 250 with 300 springs use a setup like that because 300 springs are a hair shorter. Not sure how to tell exactly if your springs are OEM or not. My Race Tech springs for a 300 had some different paint color marks, but I couldn't tell you what-was-what from memory now. You could measure your springs to see if they're OEM length or not. That might tell you something if they're not OEM length. When I resprung my '06, there were no other OEM length springs available like there are for the '09 and later models, so I used 300 springs. If your springs are shorter than OEM, you probably have aftermarket 300 springs.

 

Next time I have the legs apart I'll measure. They *feel* stiffer than I've come to expect from Japanese OEM dual sport forks.

 

I'd check out the other side. If it had been settup properly it would not have come apart. The spacer is not stock, so.......

 

Yes...^^^This^^^