Hi all,
I've been doing some much-needed maintenance on the bike over the last few days. I removed the front forks since the oil seals were leaking badly. I have a shop manual as well as a Haynes manual for the bike, and I've gotten the forks to the point where you separate the tube from the slider. The snap ring near the oil seal as well as the bottom damper bolt have been removed, but I can't get the parts to separate. Both manuals suggest extending the tube/slider out until they stop, then tapping until they come apart. I can't get this thing to tap out AT ALL. I've even gone so far as to clamp the tube back into the triple tree and using a hammer with a block of wood on the slider to apply more force. It's still not working. I've noticed a bit of discoloration on the tube just above the oil seal, almost as if the metal had been heated at some point, I don't know if this has anything do with what's going on. Anybody have any ideas for what to try next?

 

You have pulled the fastener out from the bottom of the fork tube? Once that is out, all it usually takes is a couple of good tugs.

 

Yep, that fastener is out. The tube could slide about 4'' further out after it was removed.

 

I have struck a similar problem and apparently its not unusual - in my case some moron glued the bushes in place, probably with Loctite or similar. I had to heat the snot out of the fork outers with a burner to get them to come apart.

Good luck.

G

 

Wonderful. I might give that a try sometime today. Am I in severe risk of burning up any of the bushings/etc inside the slider if I try that?

 

Remove the oil seals before heating, other than that its just a simple job of heating the top 4" of the aluminum tube/case (or whatever they call it) without going OTT and melting it!

 

Well, that's the problem- I can't get the oil seals out, so I have to disassemble before I can remove them. They're stuck in there good-I've tried drilling and picking, etc, with no luck.

 

Sheesh! That's bad news. I can only suggest continuing to lever them out without damaging the tubes. Maybe slide a thin sleeve down the tube first? Could try using heat (ie flame, I reckon you will need more than just boiling water) to expand the outer tube to remove the seals, but you'll need ventilation and a dispensation from the EPA. Still, BP might appreciate you taking the heat off them in the media

Re using flame: pressure won't build up in the tube if youv'e removed the bottom screw, but maybe there's some risk of explosion in the tube if you go OTT with the heating? Some scientific type on the forum may be able to give an informed answer on that (rather than a chorus of "don't do it"). You could work out the flash point of oil and aim to stay below that.

 

The oil should have a crazy low vapor pressure, but that was a good point to bring up, I wasn't thinking about the oil left inside the tube. At this point, burning the seals out is sounding better and better.

 

H'mm, you're obviously the scientific type... we need your brains. I've heard of vapor pressure but have no idea about the significance with respect to explosion risk, other than that a hot thing+petrochemical+confined volume = potentially disturbing results and low W/PAF .

Lettuce know what happens!