ARGFHG FFS - Welding in a lower leg?

[lassenc]

Was putting in new fork seals.

This happened.

Can it be welded or will I need another one?

 

[BigJimmyW13]

How in the world did that happen?

 

[lassenc]

I was installing new fork seals and I needed to seat it all the way so I could get the spacer ring in too. Then snap. I pre heated it pretty nicely.

Leg no.2 went fine.

 

[Punkskalar]

I was installing new fork seals and I needed to seat it all the way so I could get the spacer ring in too. Then snap. I pre heated it pretty nicely.

Leg no.2 went fine.

Yeah, that can be welded. Those early forks are BAD to do that. I've done them in the past. They don't come out perfect, but they can be made to work again... Welding up that old cast stuff so thin is a pain...

 

[lassenc]

Have you had that happen to you too you say?

 

[pyroman]

Why did it need to be pre-heated? Not dissin Ya, just wondered. Mine went in quite nicely.

 

[lassenc]

Because I needed heat to get it out, so I heated it to get it in too. It just makes it easier and it takes no time to do it.

I just measured the seal, it measures 41,4mm.

 

[lassenc]

Left plenty of material

 

[gggGary]

A minor comment here. Aluminum corrodes and turns into aluminum oxide. Aluminum Oxide is bigger than the aluminum it came from. You add oxygen atoms and and the structure is not nearly as tight. So.... when doing a seal R&R in a groty old fork leg you should sand away oxide till you get back to the original seal bore ID. I ran into a perfect example of this when replacing a front wheel bearing on my Prius recently. Getting the old bearing out was terrible and it took considerable work to get the bore ID in the hub back to a size where the new bearing could be pressed in. Wisconsin salt is awful. In a perfect world you would turn the seal bore in a lathe but since these are rubber seals nothing is all that critical, sand paper wrapped around a socket should get you back in business. HTH

 

[lassenc]

These bikes, well mine atleast have taken some abuse over the years, so I imagine that finding the completely original size would be hard.

Do you know it? If so, then I have a lathe available.

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[gggGary]

No, but measure the OD of the seal, subtract .002" for a nice tap in fit and have at it!

 

[lassenc]

.002 is like one 5/100, should be doable. Remember this seal was something in the ballpark of 0.4 but had rubber on it, unlike the one I took out.