The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Chainsaws => Topic started by: Tom King on March 26, 2020, 06:43:19 PM

Title: Best crank seal puller
Post by: Tom King on March 26, 2020, 06:43:19 PM
I've used the screwdriver slot.  I bought the Hutzl/Farmertec knock-off copy of the Stihl seal puller.

Yesterday, I used another tool that gets the call for all sorts of unusual jobs, including the one it was intended for-pulling cotter pins.  The end is sort of a pig's tail curl, with a right angle end.  When you pull a cotter pin with it, you don't go in with a plan about what you're going to lever it off of, but there's always something.

It works sort of the same with the saw crank seals.  The point easily goes through the rubber,  gets behind the metal, and you'll find something to fulcrum it off of.

Of course, as with any method, tap the seal in a little with an appropriately sized pin punch, to make sure it's loose.  After that, the pin puller gets it right out.

Even though that Hutzl tool was cheap, I wish I'd left it where it came from.  It'll work, but by the time you fumble it into the correct configuration, the seal would have long been out with the pin puller.

All the tool truck tool companies make virtually the same thing.   You can find them on ebay, every day.

I included in the picture the best tool for large cotter pins.  This particular one is a SnapOn, but there again, all the tool trucks sell the same thing with different names on them.

You grab the eye of the cotter pin with it, while holding the intermediate "handle", and tap the end with a dead blow mallet (or hammer).  The pin comes on out without having to straighten out the ends.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35437/IMG_2282.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1585262555)
Title: Re: Best crank seal puller
Post by: Fishnuts2 on March 27, 2020, 09:49:34 AM
Thanks!
I have the Hutzl one too, but this looks easier and faster.  I'll have to check it out.
Title: Re: Best crank seal puller
Post by: hedgerow on March 27, 2020, 01:15:43 PM
I have a couple of them that are similar to your red handled one that are snap on that I have had since the 70's when the first job I had while going to tech school was at a oliver white dealer and you needed a good cotter key puller to remove an engine from a oliver tractor as they had a double chain that drove the tractor and getting those keys out wasn't fun. I have used those puller's a lot over the years to pull a lot of seals out of a lot of bad locations. 
Title: Re: Best crank seal puller
Post by: Tom King on March 27, 2020, 03:23:57 PM
This one (the red handled one) is a Mac SP29A.     I think it's 29.  If it's not 29, it's 26.   That one is probably 40 years old too.  The end is a lot more curly-qued, like a pig's tail, than it looks in that picture.  I think the point must be pointing down.  The curls give an almost unlimited range of pry points.

On little seals, like string trimmers, and the flywheel end of some saws (like an 036), I like to pull the rubber out of the seal, so I can see how far under the seal the bearing is, and then judge how to pry the seal out.  I just grab the rubber with the point, and pull it out.

For bigger seals, I just poke the point through the rubber to get under the metal part of the seal.