CycleryNorth81

RJ the Bike Guy has develop a technique to remove a stuck seatpost using an impact wrench. The video shows how to make the part and how to remove the seatpost.

RiddleOfSteel

Nice.

Hudson308 

A friend shared that with me last week. Should be fairly safe because you're not twisting on the seat cluster. Will require a bit of cash outlay for the impact wrench, but may be just enough of an excuse to invest in one for other uses, as well.

Trakhak

Or you could just go to the nearest auto repair shop. The guys in the repair shop next to the bike shop where I worked 25 years ago were always happy to drive stuck seatposts out with an impact wrench.

TXsailor

I just removed one the hard way. I tried pb blaster, ammonia, lots of soaking and beating with the air hammer. It wouldn't budge. Then I cut it off and drilled it out with a 3/4" drill bit. Then I did the lye/ caustic soda thing and it got a little thinner after using two pounds of lye. It bubbled and smoked but it would have taken a lot more and the stuff is $5 a pound. Finally I cut it down the sides with a hacksaw blade and half of it moved down to the bottom bracket shell. The other half I pulled out. I didn't like leaving half of it in there so I cut it in pieces and got it out through the bb. Then RJ comes out with his video! I have a impact wrench. If there is ever a next time I will try that.

rseeker

Sounds like RJ is healing up OK. That's good to hear.

horatio 

More power!** Works every time.





**For all you Tool Time fans out there

randyjawa 

After learning the hard way, more than once, I now NEVER use excessive force to do anything on a vintage bicycle. I am a cut the post or stem out kinda guy. This old Torpado arrived with a stuck post and stem. It got stripped for parts when both seat stays, chrome plated stays, snapped free of the seat tube lug. I do not even have a picture of the Sekine that I destroyed, using the grunt and grunt method to remove a stuck stem. Anyway, the done for and now long gone Torpado...

MiloFrance

I'm for Sodium Hydroxide, and rubber glue or other to protect the paint where needed. 5 litres here is only a few euros and unless you're in a tearing hurry, it tales a few seconds a day for a couple of weeks.

cudak888 

Honestly, that was impressive. Provided the seatpost is forged and is sticking out enough, this should be a pretty good option for minimally destructive removal.

As for Randy's concerns - they're valid, but if a frame is brazed poorly enough to snap at the stays, the stay caps were probably poorly designed in the first place.

-Kurt

Hudson308 

In the final sequence of RJs clip, you can see he clamped the frame via the seat tube. This should keep the seat stays safe. I suppose a really thin seat tube might twist, but most of those are thicker at the top.

Chr0m0ly 

I took my Miyata 610 frame to two bike shops who both tried and gave up. Then to an auto mechanic. He used an impact hammer on the underside of the seat clamp. Me and two guys were holding the frame and he drove the post out with the air hammer.

It was awesome.

Glennfordx4

I was just given a nice 95 Kona Cinder Cone because it had a stuck seat post, Air Hammer didn't work, 10lb slide hammer didn't work, Sawzall with a long blade worked great lol.

Glenn

ryansu

I think RJ was a fan of Tool time with Tim bitd.

francophile 

I don't see why this couldn't work with stems also. Either using an impact hammer with a fork-end to drive it out with the frame upside down, or using an impact wrench with something forked to spin it.

cudak888 

Perhaps, provided the fork crown is REALLY well secured in a pair of thick rubber jaws to prevent damage - grippy enough to keep the fork secure, and soft enough to conform to the shape of the crown.

-Kurt

francophile 

Good point. I guess this is one of those times when the impact hammer method would be better than the impact wrench (tap down/out vs. spin round/out)

cudak888 

Not really, if you can be sure you're clamped to the crown and not the crank. Impact hammer method could damage the top of the crown.

-Kurt

francophile 

Here's what I'm thinking. I suspect using an IH and fork would be a lot gentler than this: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...tuck-stem.html

I've used the method there to free four different stems since I figured out it was possible. No damage to fork crown. No dimpling in the headsets. Granted, the nicest frame material I've employed this on is Ishawata .22 so I'm not sure how it would work with a bonded frame, or lighter Reynolds, for example.

TXsailor

I tried that with this one. I figured it would work but it never even wiggled. You can see how much I beat on it from the picture. I beat it up down and sideways. I had more beat than M. Jackson! It was truly one with the seat tube.
Always grease your post!

verktyg 

I've posted this a bunch of time on BF. This is the most concise version:

https://www.bikeforums.net/20448179-post17.html

The deeply fluted Sugino SP-xx cast aluminum seatposts seem to be the most commonly stuck ones reported here on BFs.



The deep flutes run well down into the seat tube creating a perfect reservoir for water to collect.

Any respect that I may have had for the GREAT Ironman Triathlete Dave Scott quickly dissipated when I got my first Centurion IM beater, rode hard and put away wet by someone in SoCal.




Maybe it was the great mass marketing Grant Peterson who came up with this urine impoverished choice of these seatposts for bikes that might possibly be used in triathlon competitions - most likely in salt water! DOH!

Way back when I was wrenching on cars and trucks, I used to want to be in charge of hell for the engineers who designed stuff that was impossible to work on!

verktyg

Chuckk

On stuck stems: IF you can get the plug/wedge out the bottom of the fork stem, you can run a long driver up the handlebar stem counter bore until it bottoms somewhere up inside the handlebar stem and have a good, clear shot at wacking it out directly from the bottom.

Air impact (or those newfangled battery things) are also handy for delicate work too. I have a 3/8 drive butterfly impact, and have used the lightest impact setting (1 of 8) for stuff like carburetor jets. Usually down in a hole and with a flat screw slot, old stuff will usually cam out the slot before turning. I found longer, double ended battery screwdriver flat bits (machinists screw driver bits, with the tips ground in flat rather than tapered) fit into a 1/4" drive socket, then extended and fit to the 3/8" drive impact driver.
Lots of vibration at the low power will break them loose. I think this same process would probably work with little bike stuff like dropout screws or derailleur adjuster screws.

Cyclist753

Remember... friends don't let friends get stuck seat posts and stems. Remind your friends to clean and re-grease these items every year or more often!

Velo Mule

RJ says at the start of the video that he likes working on stuck seat post and my knee jerk reaction was that no one likes working on stuck seat posts, however, a few seconds later, I remembered that he has perhaps 5 or more videos on removing stuck seat posts. So, perhaps he really does like trying different techniques to remove stuck seat posts. This one looks promising.

If it were a spindly racing bike, I'd be concerned. But a straight tube mountain bike, the frame is strong enough to stand up to this. The other factor that I think is good about both air hammers and impact guns is that they can deliver a lot of impacts in a short amount of time. If I were to be swinging a hammer for as many impacts as the impact gun, I'd have given up. With an impact gun, the tool does all the work, yes, you still will get a workout, but not like swinging a hammer.

I give RJ a lot of credit for coming up with these ideas, trying them and showing it to us.

OTS 

Having trouble wrapping my brain around this, forgive me.
Please, how do you fit the impact driver between the fork blades?

TIA

Rick