Hey guys, finally decided it was time to replace the badly leaking fork seals on my DT2 but I'm having a problem getting the oil seal clip out (see #5 in linked diagram).  I can see where the two ends join but can't get a pick between them, any hints, thoughts ideas?  Thanks, Tony

oil seal clip

Hey Tony does the circlip have 2 holes if so you need circlip pliers I can’t remember if it does or not a C type 

Hi Wes (?), I wish it did, it's just a round clip that sits in a grove. If the two ends weren't so darn close together I could get a pick between them but they are pretty much touching each other. I have it soaking in the ultra sonic cleaner so hopefully it will clean out some of the 50 year old crap that around it, then maybe I can figure it out. Thanks for the thought though...

With a small sharp pick you can get behind it. Be careful the aluminum in the tube is thin and brittle. I turn them upside down in a can of penetrating oil for a couple days. Every few hours I put a propane torch to them. Then pick out the ring and thin washer. More soaking and heat. Then a multi jaw seal puller/slide hammer to grab and pull the seal straight out.

And I keep a pair of NOS fork tubes with seals just in case......

Thanks, I'll have to go get me some penetrating oil and give that a try.

If C-type. Just take a scribe and get in behind it and lift and feed it out.

Just a thought try tapping your seal down with a punch maybe it will give you some room to go under the clip with a 90 degree pick maybe I’m crazy 

Thanks guys, will give both suggestions a try today, I'm just crazy enough to try anything once

I have redone fork seals on some very scanky bikes and never had an issue getting under the wire that retains the washer and seal.  I use a freshly sharpened and highly disposable Harbor Freight pick and a small tack hammer.

One lesson learned the hard way is just how easy it is to distort the outer tubes, which in my case leak once I did however slight.  So I started to put outer tube in my trusty vice and instead of prying my double hook seal puller against the tube, I clamp said seal puller into a big vice grip and hammer on the vice grip....poor mans slide hammer that has all the force going into the seal and zero into the tube.  I have one fork that was so bad that the inner tube had froze into the outer...I got it out in a similar manner and then cleaned out the corrosion from outer tube with an old cylinder hone once I realized that the cost of the outer tube was way more than the hone.  Last mistake I made was putting too much impact on the cap screw that keeps forks together, 1050 ft-lb from Harbor Freight was too much and getting the stump out was a real messy drag!  Good luck!  BTW Dave at KDI has a great fork seals way cheap that I have used several times and don't leak for me, even on smoothed out inner fork tubes

Good morning guys, I tried under, over and in between with some good craftsman picks but just couldn't get it. I know some may cringe but what I decided to do was use a very small drill bit to create a shallow divit between wire clip and washer, it gave me just enough room to get the pick up said wire and lift it out. Getting the seal out was another fiasco. I tired a harborfreight seal puller, didn't work so I tried Kosmotos trick, that didn't work and just destroyed part of the seal so what I decided to do was use my dremmel with a sanding disk to sand down the seal from the inside to outside not going all the way through it but to create a weak are where I could get a small screwdriver behind it to bend it inward then work my way slowly around it, that worked like a champ. Thanks for all the suggestions and help!