Hi all.
I've got a 1980 GSX 400 with bad fork seals.
I've managed to dissasemble the left fork fine, but the fork oil seal
that needs replacing is stuck fast into the lower part of the fork leg.
The fork assembly is pretty similar to the GS500 BTW.
Anyone know any neat tricks to persuade it out?
I've tried heating the local area of the leg in boiling water, but that hasn't helped. The rubber on the seal is pretty far gone and has mostly crumbled and pealed away in my attempts to lever the seal out.
The metal frame inside the seal is however remaining stubournly inside the leg.
shifted it, whith a crowbar!
:o
Good for you! I was going to suggest WD40 or Liquid Wrench.
Get 2 long thin self tapping screws. Fix them into the seal midway between the inner and outer diameters and 180 degs apart. Then using 2 pairs of pliers or wire cutters gently pull on each screw. It works best of the pliers are at 90 degs to the screws and you pull only on one at a time and wiggle it out.
self tapers may scratch the tube if you slip.
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REMOVED THE RETAINING CLIPS THAT HOLD THE SEALS INPLACE, DONT CONFUSE THE SEALS WITH THE DUST BOOTS/WIPERS THAT SIT ON TOP.
ok, with the allen bolt pulled out of the bottom of the lower leg, use 2 thin chunks of wood in a Vice and lock the lower leg in. (the wood is to keep from hurting the lower leg) now with spring out, push the upper into the lower abit and yank out with alittle bit of force (like a slide hammer) but dont throw your whole weight into it there are bushings that could come free and go flying and there is still alittle bit of oil left in the bottom that YOU WILL end up wearing.
True you may damage the tube if you slip but when you have tried everything else and looking at whats potentialy a scrap component its worth taking the risk. Lets be honest you could damage the tube in several ways during a seal replacement, you could even drop it and bend it! so the risk of damage is there from the start. I have removed countless oil and hydraulic seals using the method I described, and on many types of industrial machinery and never had a problem. All you have to do is take your time and be careful. I suppose it all boils down to confidence. BTW its also an excellent way to remove the gearbox output shaft seals so long as you dont screw the self tappers in to far and damage the bearing thats behind.
What I got from the OP was...
1) the tube and slider were already separated
2) the top metal lip of the seal was gone (nothing to anchor a screw into)
3) he jacked it out by levering a crowbar against the seal's metal siding and perhaps whatever bit was left of the top :thumb: