The previous owner of my CB400F that I'm restoring must have tried to save 15 cents by RTV'ing the copper washer in the bottom. of the forks. This is the bolt/washer that holds the damper rod down. Anyways the stupid little copper washer is firmly ensconced in the little pocket that holds it. I'm holding off on trying to use too much heat due to the aluminum. Any special chemical (brake cleaner and carb cleaner don't do it) that will dissolve this sh*t? I know the beeb will come thru!
heptane or hexane will work, gasoline will do the job as well as long as it's not black RTV. Or, permatex actually makes a RTV dissolver they rate for use on aluminium
It looks like the red stuff though it's well worn. Gonna try acetone since I've got that. Let it soak for an hour and see how that does. Thx
Acetone was no-go. Heat on the aluminum with freon cold spray on the copper washer was no-go. Soaking the SOB in gasoline overnight...ARRRGGHH
Just run a 90 degree pick around the edge and pry it out. Dress up the surface damage (that should be very minimal, if any) with a round stone after. You may be over thinking this. Shouldn't be this difficult.
Toluene. Never used it myself but have heard it works on RTV. Not sure where you're located but not sold in California. https://www.google.com/search?q=toluene+for+sale&ie=&oe=
Here was my solution.....The picks I owned were just too wimpy to grab the copper washer, they just bent. I took an old fashioned can opener (you know you have a bunch on them just lying around, right?). I ground the edges down so it would fit in the tight space available. I clamped the bottle opener end in the vise, hooked the can opener point on the copper washer and "slide hammer style" yanked the SOB out. Did some minor damage to the wall of the socket pocket but the land was intact so I should be good to go. Don't you just hate it when a simple task takes hours to solve? Thanks for all the suggestions, had to go the brute force route.
