Last night I was able to get the dust seals and spring clips out of the forks. The dust seal was pretty straight forward. Just used a heavy duty bicycle tire lever to pry it out.
The spring clips came out fairly easy as well. At first I couldn't even see them because of dirt and rust but I sprayed some PB Blaster in there and scrubbed a bit and I could find the ends. Then I just pried them out with a small flathead screwdriver.
I got new hardware for the risers. I was even planning on replacing the bushings that the risers mount into. A while back I had an issue with a bad ground from the starter button and tracked it down to between the handlebar and tree. I figured I would replace these bushings just in case. But I underestimated their installation. I sprayed them and used a 19mm socket to give one a few whacks. These things are in there! A pressure fit that's over an inch long. There's no way I'm getting these out without damaging the tree. So I'll forgo this. Thankfully they weren't very expensive.
I really had a hard time getting the oil seals out in my little workspace. Using the tire lever proved fruitless. So I decided to take the legs to work today where we have a heat gun and more tools (and more knowledgable guys). Two of my dudes told me I could drive screws into the seal and then use them to pry it out. So after work I tried it. I warmed the tube with the heat gun then used a crowbar to pry these 4 screws a little bit at a time working in a circle and the seal pulled right outta there.
We have a bead blaster at work. I stuffed the legs with brown paper and taped off the seal race (?) and went to town. Before and after:
Still debating if I want to paint these black or polish and clear coat.
Lastly, pro tip: if you have your new fork springs shipped to work and they're too long to fit in your pannier, just zip tie them to your top tube.
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