Holy fuck, that was rough. The guides and the videos show the uppers and lowers pulling apart easily. I had to clamp the lowers in the vice and use the uppers as a slide hammer and repeat the bang bang bang process for 5-10 minutes, with the seal moving almost imperceptibly as it walked it's way out.
Putting the upper bushing back in took a trick, it is a split ring, and is expanded too big to fit in the recess unless you compress it. I found that I could take some brake bleeding hose and cut off about 4" of it, and hammer it in with a punch between the bushing and the lowers. This worked to compress the bushing, and I could then place the washer over it and hammer it down about halfway, and then pulled the washer and hose out and then drive it home.
Tomorrow I get to get back at it and tackle changing the rear tire.
Not sure what bike you are working on. But if you have charged forks you can take the snap ring out and then pop them apart with compressed air instead of the side hammer. I have actually added schrader valves to the fork caps on bikes just to do this.
Interesting. Based on the amount of force required to pop them apart, I think I'd have ended up with the uppers firing themselves through the wall. Bike is a Honda CB500F. The area where the snap ring and seal sits was corroded and rusty, effectively locking in the seals.
Yeah the rust in there can be a killer. It really shouldn't take more than 10 or 20 psi to pop them apart. More than that the slide Hammer is probably the better idea. I have had a few pop apart by hand. All that matters is you got them apart. Never done it but probably a little lithium grease under the dust seal should keep the rust away.
Yeah, I packed the dust seal with grease when reinstalling.