If it is not necessary to separate the forks it is possible to remove the seals using hydraulic pressure.
Make up a box similar to this. (I made the section which houses the lower fork leg of a size to permit the projection which comes out at 90 degrees on both fork legs to sit inside the box and it is this projection which takes the load when the fork is compressed):
Put some plastic in the section designed to hold the lower leg of the fork:
Fill the (extended) fork leg to the top with oil (I used less than 500ml of light weight cheap engine oil + the existing fork oil). Filling the RH fork leg with the damper is a bit of a pain. Replace the fork leg cap, remove the dust seal and oil seal retaining clip, and place the fork in the box:
Place a bottle jack (or similar) in the box in line with the fork:
Then start jacking. The hydraulic pressure will force the seal out. Make sure you keep control of the fork when you start jacking to prevent the leg rising out of the box. I was forced to do it this way today because I was not able to separate the RH leg and was not worried about inspecting the bushes as the bike only has 55,000km on the odometer. Very little oil flowed out past the seal when it came out so I did not end up with a great pool in the plastic inserted in the lower section of the box.
Would not recommend this method if it was necessary to do a thorough clean out of the lower fork legs or if it was necessary to inspect the bushes.
I have done this before with a low km GPZ1100 and it was much easier because it did not have the one piece damper through fork cap system of the ST1100. On that occasion I just used an upturned wooden pallet as my 'box' with a semicircular cut in the centre 4x2 of the pallet to house the fork tube.
Anyway - all care no responsibility with this advice - use it at your own risk
Apologies to any granny I am teaching to suck eggs.
Make up a box similar to this. (I made the section which houses the lower fork leg of a size to permit the projection which comes out at 90 degrees on both fork legs to sit inside the box and it is this projection which takes the load when the fork is compressed):
Put some plastic in the section designed to hold the lower leg of the fork:
Fill the (extended) fork leg to the top with oil (I used less than 500ml of light weight cheap engine oil + the existing fork oil). Filling the RH fork leg with the damper is a bit of a pain. Replace the fork leg cap, remove the dust seal and oil seal retaining clip, and place the fork in the box:
Place a bottle jack (or similar) in the box in line with the fork:
Then start jacking. The hydraulic pressure will force the seal out. Make sure you keep control of the fork when you start jacking to prevent the leg rising out of the box. I was forced to do it this way today because I was not able to separate the RH leg and was not worried about inspecting the bushes as the bike only has 55,000km on the odometer. Very little oil flowed out past the seal when it came out so I did not end up with a great pool in the plastic inserted in the lower section of the box.
Would not recommend this method if it was necessary to do a thorough clean out of the lower fork legs or if it was necessary to inspect the bushes.
I have done this before with a low km GPZ1100 and it was much easier because it did not have the one piece damper through fork cap system of the ST1100. On that occasion I just used an upturned wooden pallet as my 'box' with a semicircular cut in the centre 4x2 of the pallet to house the fork tube.
Anyway - all care no responsibility with this advice - use it at your own risk
Apologies to any granny I am teaching to suck eggs.
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