Make a Homemade PVC Fork Seal Driver for $3

[Bob K.]

Others have created different varieties of PVC pipe fork seal drivers. This was my expedient solution for a Sunday afternoon. It worked great and cost me a whopping $3 at Lowe's.

 

The inner fork tube has an outer diameter of 1.58". Purchase a 2-foot section of 1 1/2" PVC pipe. My piece had an inner diameter of 1.8"...just enough space to fit snugly over the inner fork.

 

The 2-foot pipe is long enough to fit completely over the inner fork tube, especially if I push the inner fork tube all the way down into the outer fork tube before I begin seating things.

 

The ends on my piece were a little ragged so I squared them up on a miter saw, which also gave them a nice, clean finished edge. Then I knocked off the sharp edges, inside and out, with some sandpaper.

 

On one end, I left the edges crisp for driving in the metal slide (aka "slide bush"). The 2-feet of PVC had plenty of mass to drive the metal slide in with a few whacks.

 

On the other end, I beveled the inside lip of the pipe with a Dremel and a stone. I didn't want it to be sharp and I wanted it to clear the thin inner lip that sticks up on the oil seal.

 

The safest way to drive in the oil seal is to place the pipe against the seal, and then whack the end of the pipe with a mallet. That way I can be sure the pipe is safely over the delicate inner edge of the oil seal. That'll also allow me to better detect the change in sound when the oil seal bottoms out. To prevent damage to the seal, I put a piece of thin tape over the CLASS joint circlip indentation before I began driving the seal.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Bob K.