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im in the middle of trying to change my leaky seals but i can not pull the seal out. i have everything disassembled and removed. i keep yanking on the fork tube and leg like i watched on youtube but its not "just popping out. and im also 6'4" 265 so im really yanking on it and wont budge. and ideas?
I'm the same size as you, and have done dozens of fork seals for customers.
Yesterday I ran into the toughest set to pull apart that I ever encountered. This is on a '95 Honda CBR 600 sportbike. Most forks are variations on a theme, and the set I did a few weeks before was on an '02 Sportster 1200 custom, which uses the same brand--Showa.
If you have the bottom bolt removed, then the only other thing that could hold them together is the snap ring (probably just a bent wire ring) under the dust seal, and on top of the oil seal. Make sure that has been removed.
If all that is good to go, then you may be running into what I ran into yesterday--the upper and lower bushings could be worn enough that the inner one (on the upper fork leg) jams inside the lower one that is pressed into the lower part of the outer leg, just under the oil seal. If that is happening, be prepared to work harder--my shoulders ache still this evening...
What I used was a multi-technique approach...1. repeated heavy separation blows with the tubes themselves, 2. a brake bolt boss held fast in the vice, 3. a MAP gas torch to heat up the outer fork tube at the seal/bushing area, 4. a good helper/wife to hold the fork tube steady so that it didn't hit the floor when it finally came undone, 5. lots of patience.
Eventually, the seal began to emerge, but I had to slam the tube back down together after each separation blow, because the bushings would get stuck together, expanding the outer one such that it would be forced tighter to the outside fork tube wall.
Well, enough talk, here's a picture that's worth a thousand or so words...
thats probably the same problem i have because after good seperation slams the tube gets stuck up so i have to hit it back down with a mallet before the next pull. and yes im sore and pissed off lol. so will i have to replace the bushings or will they only cause issues when trying to remove seals "which will never happen again" lol
Sounds familiar, but the good news is that you know what's going on at this point.
I too, had to slam the bushings back apart between separation attempts--that was as much work as trying to get them apart.
The bushings are wear items, and are designed to come apart each time you separate the tubes. The leading edges are supposed to simply butt up against one another and the inner un-presses the outer one when separating the tubes--usually without much force at all. When the leading edge of the inner slides past and into the edge of the outer bushing though--that's when it sucks.
As a matter of course, I tend to replace them in forks that have them, because there isn't much point in reusing them when replacing new oil seals, even if you don't destroy them upon dis-assembly.
They don't hold the oil seal in at all, they exist in the tubes below the oil seal, but if they don't come apart like they're supposed to, you'll never get that seal out with normal methods.
I haven't tried the heat yet. Kind of worried because I have chrome fork legs and it will probably discolor them but I guess I can paint them, I'm not a fan of the chrome anyways but I just wanted to be done quick LOL
well i tried heating it with a heat gun no luck. then i clamped it in the tripple trees and beat on the leg with a deadblow for ever still nothing. brought it to a neighbor who works on harleys for a living and he tried for an hour and he said in all his life doing seals he never seen them stuck like this. might have to find another set of forks
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fork seal help
