Popping fork seals out with air pressure

[LarryJ]

I have to replace my 1100GK's fork seals.

I saw, on Bass Cliff's page, how he popped his out using about 200psi of air pressure. Anyone else use this method successfully?

Just like him, I have found the bottom bolts to always be really, really tight if the seals have not beeen previously changed. I think I used a piece of pipe on a breaker bar to loosen the ones on my Yam XS750.

So, his method eliminates the need to loosen that bad boy!
This work for anyone else, before I give it a shot?

 

[subid]

I tried Cliffs method, couldn't get 'em out no matter how hard I pumped. So I sprayed them with PB Blaster, heated the area around the seals with a heat gun and after about 5 pumps they popped right out

 

[LarryJ]

Cool! Very good addendum to BassCliff's write up. Will us some PB Blaster on it too.

 

[Steve]

Make sure that nothing important is at the top of the fork tube when you do this.

If it releases evenly, a seal driven upward by 100 psi of air can be painful (or worse).

.

 

[850 Combat]

My brother got his out that way. He used one of those little 12 volt compressors. His real compressor doesn't go high enough.

 

[eil]

My forks had one aftermarket seal and one OEM seal. The aftermarket one popped right out with little effort. The OEM one did not budge with ANY amount of air pressure. I had to pry it out with a big old screwdriver. (NOT recommended by the way as it's way too easy to scratch the seal seat. They actually have a seal puller tool if you have to go this route.)

Hadn't thought of using heat, I'll have to give that a try next time.

 

[Toasty]

^^ Next time I would screw in big wood screw (or two) and pull it out instead.

 

[eil]

^^ Next time I would screw in big wood screw (or two) and pull it out instead.

I tried that on mine and it left scratches on the fork tube where the screw threads ran into it. (It also did not pull the seal.)

 

[chuck hahn]

Wood dowels or the plastic grip of a screw driver to pry with. No damage.

 

[sharpy]

Why cant u get the bottom allen bolt out to pull the forks apart? A 6mm allen key extension with a rattle gun will suffice. Just tap that allen key in with a hammer first to shock the bolt loose. At least this way u can pull the forks apart for cleaning and examine the bushes wear. Or make up a T-bar that holds the damper rod. If i recall it has a 17mm nut welded on the end

 

[Agemax]

if you havent got an air gun, hold the fork leg upside down, resting on a block of wood. use an allen key socket on a impact driver and whack it a few times. it will come loose