The hammer method worked but this was no 'light tap'. What I found underneath was a very dirty and rusted fork shaft yet the bearings were greased well and worked just fine. So that was a surprise considering that it worked just fine but in reality was rusted. But this surprise has meant that I will take my time with this repair and make sure everything else is clean too.

I have only found one problem. What super design tool do I use to hammer the crown race down to the bottom of the fork? I have about 1 cm left to go. I am sure you construction people know which sized pipe I should buy to fix this problem? It needs to have a diameter larger than the 3cm of the fork but the part I need to hit is closer to 4cm. And the pipe needs to be 30cm long at least. The Parktool variant is here but spending 679kr for this seems a bit much.

What I do need to buy is some grease. I had some but it has gone missing in my move and I won't find it until I buy a new one (as usual). I did fix my brakes also which was a relief since I have always had trouble with those. But a tool to unscrew the XT bottom braket is on my list because that thing must be very dirty.