Saturday, Nov 28, 2009
Anton responded to a posting on AdvRider regarding removing the flange with information that if you get it good and hot it may come off with your (protected) fingers. OK, I’ll give it a try.
Snap ring
Removed
My first try at removing the snap ring failed… my cheapy convertable snap ring pliers wouldn’t open the ring enough to remove. Sunday I found a pair of snap ring pliers that looked like I could abuse into opening far enough. I was correct, snap ring removed.
Ready for heat
Heat gun too slow
I first tried to heat the flange with a heat gun. Fail! Perhaps it would have done the job had I more patience. Instead I put the heat gun away and grabbed the MAPP gas torch. The RepROM calls for the flange to get to 100-110 C before pulling. I got it that hot as reported by my non-contact thermometer.
I couldn’t, however, quite pull the flange off although I thought it budged a bit.
Flange removed
Removed with helper
I grabbed my slide hammer puller and check out if the holes in the adapter for pulling harmonic balancers would fit. Yep. I re-heated the flange, screwed in the adapter using the wheel lug screws, attached it to the slide hammer, and with a bunch of gentle taps the flange was removed.
Mapp gas much quicker
These are the tools that got the job done. Given the hollow axle, I could feed the slide hammer shaft in from the other side of the bike if I need a little help installing the new flange. I might not need the help, though, as I’ll be able to heat the new flange without getting the axle tube warm.
Friday, Dec 4, 2009
Old and New
Old and New again
Heating
The new part came in yesterday. The first two images show the slight differences. I threw the part in the oven to get it good and hot while installing my rebuilt rear shock. Either I didn’t let it sit long enough or didn’t have the oven hot enough as the part did not want to slide on, even with gentle taps from the slide hammer. I knew enough that hard taps were bad. I’ll try again when I get time, later, probably using the torch again to get the flange good and hot.