Forl leg Oil seal removal

[voelser]

Hey guys,

I'm slowly taking apart my XS and today the front fork legs were on the list. Managed to get most of it disassambled, but I am struggling to get the oil seals out. The clip and washer were heavily crudded up and took forever to remove. But the Oil seal won't budge and I'm of course trying to be careful.

Anybody have any tips or tircks to make them come out easy?

Incidentally. I did maange to bend one of the circlips that came ot the bottom of the forkleg. Easy enough to replace, but can anybody tell me what size I need? It seems to be 25mm-ish?

Thanks!

 

[wherearewe]

Heat the leg in boiling water. give it an honest 20 min in there. You want it to get nice and hot and expand. Get some leather gloves, then a seal puller with some wooden dowl to protect the lip of the lower and lever it out. Be care careful of the teflon coated bushing that is that area. If you get too physical and slip it can be ripped.

 

[Royboy]

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23156&highlight=3/4+dowel

roy

 

[voelser]

Ah...there is a tool for that...figures! Lol I had to look up 'dowel'...lol

Right, tool on order. So, wait until it gets here. Question about the teflon bushing. Just in case I damage it, where can I get a new one? All the usual places don't seem to have them.

So, as removing is a bitch, I assume that installing new ones could possibly be a pain as well. Any good tips on that?

 

[wherearewe]

Yeh sorry bad spelling. DOWEL.

Here is a picture of a damaged bushing. It sits below the seals. You can see it looks like brass maybe, sprayed with some sort of teflon coating (I'm speculating here). It can be damaged if you are not careful and are running the tip of your leveraging device up the inside of the leg. i.e.. make sure you are neatly under the seal. The part looks press fit, not intended to be replaced.

Install is pretty easy, esp if you have a bearing and seal driver kit. A vice is a must. Put the seal in the freezer before installing, heat the leg a bit. Red rubber grease helps A LOT. To be fair install is actually very easy. Removal is harder.

 

[voelser]

Yeah, i can see that bushing in mine. I'll exercise my patience and wait for the right tool for the job! Next problem are the drain plugs which are stuck solid in the legs. I want to powdercoat the lower legs and i'm trying to remove everything. If I cant get them out, I guess I could leave them.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[wherearewe]

Impact wrench and a vice + a little heat.

 

[5twins]

I do like Gary's tire iron-in-the-vice removal technique and may try it some time. I found myself doing quite a few fork renovations so I put together my own little kit of "special" tools .....

To protect the fork leg, a piece of aluminum angle was slit and the "finger" bent down .....

This sits nicely on top of the leg with no need to hold it in place .....

For seal removal, I filed the tip round on a big old square shanked screwdriver .....

The square shank keeps the tool from rolling while prying and keeps the blade flat to the seal .....

Last up is a cleaning "tool" for the inside of legs and tubes. If your fork oil wasn't changed in many years (very common on these bikes), you're going to find it pretty mucky inside the forks. This simple rod with a small loop on one end allows me to thread a solvent-dipped rag in, wrap the extra around, and swab those parts out to my heart's content .....

 

[gggGary]

Easy removal 101, just thought of and tried this today, duh, I've only removed about 50 seals in my shop.
Hit seal area with rust buster, what ever, Pick a large socket say something over 1", flat side down hammer the socket down around the seal a few times. then use any of the tools above or the one I show elsewhere. seal will come out MUCH easier because you have loosened the seal's grip on the fork tube. I did one without the socket trick and the second one with the "new trick" it made a big difference first one fought me for a while had to turn and pry a couple times, second one was MUCH easier.