Fork seal removal

I have a 83 kz1100 and I’m redoing the fork seals but I can’t seem to get the fork seals out. I’ve tried just muscling the upper and lower parts of the forks as well as slamming them apart and tried to pick the old seal out with a screwdriver (carefully as to not scratch the chrome) but nothing seems to work. Any tricks y’all have found to getting stubborn seals out?

Heat up the the outside of the leg and seal once warm enough they will move, then they should pry out using the correct tool and even a screwdriver, just done a set that had been replaced before by a blind man with a hammer and screwdriver, some should get them done by pet monkey's.

Are you sure you have removed the retainer clip?

 

I do it as kevski says...proper tool and a bit of heat if necessary.

Haha Yeah I can see where people could get “enthusiastic” with the removals. I’ll give that a try thanks! What type of tool do you mean when you say proper tool, are there specialized seal removers?

It's called a seal puller.   www.z1enterprises.com/seal-puller-adjustable.html

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It's called a seal puller.   www.z1enterprises.com/seal-puller-adjustable.html
 

I checked and it looks like those are a “pickaxe” style ones that I need to take the upper tube out for them to work. Can they be used with both tubes still together? I have to get the seal out to even take them apart. 
 

I never ever had any problems to remove any kind of oil and dust seals. If the retainer clip #4 and the allen bolt #15 is removed, you could slide hammering the seals easy out with some wags. Before you doing any un-nessesary force, please show us some pics of your problem area.....

Look at the breakdown Scirocco posted. Did you remove the Allen cap bolt #15 out of the bottom of the lower. It holds the damper rod in which is keeping the upper stantion in the lower. Once you get that #15 bolt out the fork upper and lower will separate. This will allow you to properly remove the seal, clean and rebuild the forks. Remember to also remove the snap ring #4 to get the seal out.

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Look at the breakdown Scirocco posted. Did you remove the Allen cap bolt #15 out of the bottom of the lower. It holds the damper rod in which is keeping the upper stantion in the lower. Once you get that #15 bolt out the fork upper and lower will separate. This will allow you to properly remove the seal, clean and rebuild the forks. Remember to also remove the snap ring #4 to get the seal out.
 

Thanks for the help everyone! I completely forgot to take the Allen bolt (duh!). Along with a little persuasion from a blowtorch I was able to complete it! I appreciate everyone helping me out I feel like a monkey with a hammer whenever I work on my bike haha

wrote:

wrote:

Look at the breakdown Scirocco posted. Did you remove the Allen cap bolt #15 out of the bottom of the lower. It holds the damper rod in which is keeping the upper stantion in the lower. Once you get that #15 bolt out the fork upper and lower will separate. This will allow you to properly remove the seal, clean and rebuild the forks. Remember to also remove the snap ring #4 to get the seal out.


 

Thanks for the help everyone! I completely forgot to take the Allen bolt (duh!). Along with a little persuasion from a blowtorch I was able to complete it! I appreciate everyone helping me out I feel like a monkey with a hammer whenever I work on my bike haha

Happens to us all