okay so how much is a new long bolt? just break out the zipdisk and cut the bugger of at both ends between the frame and end of tube, buy a coulpe of new end caps and a long stud, there you are, its apart.
That's eventually what it came to.
However, since i've been tied up with other projects and quite frankly procrastinating getting my self into something i have no experience with (crankcase and gearbox). Soooo, in the meantime, thought i would tackle the front caliper which was frozen. This i was dreading as well, but it was only one dread vs multiples. The pistons were stuck pretty solid and the MC was frozen as well so i couldn't use the system to push out the pistons.
I envisioned all methods of removal failing and then having to resort to other destructive methods. Oh well, might as well get after it. Thought i'd first follow the Old Brits instructions.
Thinking the outer piston was really seized in there, i used a little too much force and ended driving it all the way flush with the inner piston. Crap! Is it now too far down to get out? Trying to pry it out just kept getting it misaligned with the outer cylinder. My coworker (son) then had a great idea and used a shop magnet to pull it enough to center it in the cylinder so it could then be easily pushed from the bottom. Ok, this was supposed to be the easy part. Now on to the inner piston. I read that using a grease gun is the way to go, but that's really gunks up the caliper, so i went the compressed air route.
I had to put the outer piston back in to route the air to the inner piston and without the outer piston seal (took that out to get the piston out), there was a lot of leakage even with the piston back in. Thankfully though, cranking up the pressure to 60 psi did the trick to pop it (used a piece of metal where the pads go to keep it from shooting out). Doing this again, think i would try first popping the inner piston before removing the outer piston. I then used the magnet to pull it out enough that i could easily push it out the rest of the way.
The pistons didn't look all that bad. Some corrosion, but no flaking. Plan to replace with SS pistons and new seals
Now back to the procrastinating.