replacing fork seals

[alexey]

I'm trying to replace the fork seals on my F3.  On one of the tubes, I drained the fork oil, took out the dust seal and the retaining ring, unscrewed the bottom screw, took out the whole damping assembly, and now all I have to do is separate the tubes, which should take out the old seal, right?  Well, as hard as I try, it just don't budge.  Is there a safe way to get medieval on this thing, or am I better off taking it to a shop and let it be their headache?

[sportbikepete]

I believe if memory serves, you need to heat it up and then slam it apart really hard. If I can find my Race Tech video i'll watch and confirm.

[alexey]

Interesting.  I assume I only heat up the outer tube.  I don't have a blow torch.  Anything else I can safely use for this?

[sportbikepete]

Yes do not put the torch to the "sliders".  You will need to go get a torch, inexpensive.

[sportbikepete]

OK Racetech video did not use a blow torch they just slammed it.

[alexey]

Thanks for all the advice.  Just got off the phone with a guy at a local shop.  He said he wouldn't recommend heating it up, but just basically using a lot of force.  I think I'll give it a shot again, and if I fail I'll just go and let them do it.

[Eric Kelcher]

Yep just kinda make like a slide hammer fully compress than yank real hard do it about 3-4 times if it does not come apart you most likely have a snap ring still installed.

Do the fork seals and change the oil in both forks at the same time.

[alexey]

So the story ends like this for now:

Over the weekend I finally got some time to mess with the bike.  I figured I'd try to get as far as I can with the other fork leg.  To my surprise, everything went perfect.  I didn't strip the bolt on the bottom and the inside and outside tubes came apart super easy.  There must be something wrong with the other fork leg, so I'm gonna take it to a shop tomorrow.  At least I know I wasn't crazy all this time.  Thanks a lot to everybody for the info.