Guest Kestrel Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 VFRD, Been hammering the living shit out of this thing on and off in the shop for the last 2 hours or so. I'm pretty well fed up.Pulled the forks off to replace the fork seals, clean up the sliders, and refinish the fork legs. Left fork came apart no problem - even the bottom bolt. Whole thing is apart and ready to go.Second fork? Pain in the #@%#@$ ^&^%&.Dust seal is off, and the clip is indeed out. Old seal looks very corroded and has some 'bulges' where it looks like the metal in the seal has rusted and expanded.I've slide hammered the daylights out of this thing, but it doesn't appear to be moving. I've heard possibilities of the inner fork bushings sometimes getting stuck and/or wedged against the seal, which only forces the seal tighter against the inner surface as you try to pull up and out on with the slider. I've tried a few other tricks to extract the seal itself, but can't get this thing to budge. My arms are totally burnt out, and I'm at a loss right now of what to do next. I've heard of some folks heating the aluminum fork leg, but I'm under the impression that severely heating aluminum can destroy its strength.Ideas? Anybody experienced anything like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileyrock Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Sometimes they just glue themselves in there! The last time it happened to me I just added a little heat with a propane torch, just don't over do it and you'll be fine. BR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Bailey, I am guessing you just applied heat to the upper edge of the lower fork leg itself? Aluminum should expand pretty quickly - hopefully enough to break that seal free. I took out the propane torch earlier this afternoon, but didn't really give it a thorough heating. I supposed the paint is going to get roasted, but I'm stripping it and refinishing regardless, so it shouldn't matter in the end. I'll give it a second go around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer KevCarver Posted December 23, 2012 Member Contributer Share Posted December 23, 2012 That happened to my previous PC800 fork. It was getting stuck in the extended position. That's from the bushing sliding under the other one. Propane torch got it loosened enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 That happened to my previous PC800 fork. It was getting stuck in the extended position. That's from the bushing sliding under the other one. Propane torch got it loosened enough. That's actually exactly what seems to be happening. When I slide hammered one end against the other, it gets 'stuck' so to speak, and requires tapping down against a hard surface in order to push the slider back into the fork leg. I'll have to give this thing a good torching in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WERA910 Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 That happened to my previous PC800 fork. It was getting stuck in the extended position. That's from the bushing sliding under the other one. Propane torch got it loosened enough. Happened to me last time my '98 fork seals were replaced... lots of cussing, little heat and little luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Thermal expansion is a beautiful thing.I had been forewarned about heating aluminum, but figured that if this thing wasn't coming apart, it was going in the trash regardless, or into some sort of metal crusher where I could watch with pleasure as it was torn asunder.Torch did the trick, but it still needed an absurd amount of ferocious hammering. Hell - my arms were still beat from yesterday. I can't believe how much force was necessary to get this thing apart. What a colossal waste of time. It's always that 'one bolt', you know?This image is exactly as it came apart. Note that washer is not supposed to be compressing the inner bushing. The order from bottom to top is supposed to be inner bushing, with the outer bushing resting atop that, and then the washer. I suspect the hammering first pushed the outer bushing over the inner bushing, and then to the bottom of the fork where it rattled during my hammering. At that point, the washer slid over the inner bushing during each hammer, wasting even more of the hammering action energy. And then of course the disgusting state of the seal itself, which the picture unfortunately does not do justice.Well, at least its apart. I wasn't sure if I needed bushings, and ended up buying them quite some time ago. Glad I did that - they're definitely worn.Next step is to wash everything out and strip the paint. Then I'll use some mild acid to remove the oxidation, throw on some self etching primer, and then start with the usual painting prep, base coats, and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer KevCarver Posted December 23, 2012 Member Contributer Share Posted December 23, 2012 Glad you got it off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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