K1100 Rebuild. Seal Snapring Question

[Snowman]

Ok, I have the forks apart and am ready to pull the old seal out but the snap ring is a bid odd. I don't see a way to compress it? You can see the two ends in the photo, How do you pop this out? Special tool?

[Scott_]

Well, you kind of need 3 hands....... lol..
Anyway, you do need a small pick or a couple of pocket sized screw drivers to get into the edge of the ring to work it out of the groove.
You are lucky that the inner tube came out and you are not trying to work this ring out along side the chrome tube.............
You will be installing this ring while the tube is in place so make absolutely sure you have the seal, and the "z" ring installed with the correct orientation as you don't want to risk damaging the tube or seal trying to do it over.

[Snowman]

Do you have the BMW part number for that 3rd hand? . . .lol

[Howard64180]

I struggled for a while with this on my K100.  It seemed like the circlips were seized in.  Then I found this (fourth and ninth post down):
http://k11og.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7520&view=previous&sid=887752e6feaf03bbdb4c32a617c00d65
I didn't even remove the seal completely at first, just collapsed it inwards a bit at the circlip ends and the circlips came out easily, followed by the seal.

[subforry]

I struggled for a while with this on my K100.  It seemed like the circlips were seized in.  Then I found this (fourth and ninth post down):
http://k11og.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7520&view=previous&sid=887752e6feaf03bbdb4c32a617c00d65
I didn't even remove the seal completely at first, just collapsed it inwards a bit at the circlip ends and the circlips came out easily, followed by the seal.

00-000-001 -  Johannes or Hans for short.

I did use my teeth and dental floss when I replaced my fork seals

[Snowman]

Ok, all done, lots of fingers, elbows and words my 5 year old grandson can embarrass his teacher with. But they are done, other than the snap ring these are probably the easiest forks i've worked on. Great ride using the Honda SS8 10W oil, less dive under braking too.