So far so good. But, as usual…I’ve saved the best for last! Here it is…the dreaded inner tower seal:
After a bit of head scratching and probing around…I’ve decided to try using my pilot bearing puller:
Placed as follows, and adjusted for moderate pressure against the seal…I will give the vice grips a few upward taps, and if this does not work - I will then heat up the area of the tower which surrounds the seal, to soften up the seal rubber a bit prior to giving the vice grips a few more taps:
The above mentioned “seal heating” worked well for getting the seal out of the rack cylinder (long tube) - so I figure it should work here, although using the bearing puller will be less ideal than getting something to push evenly around the lower seal circumference from the other end. In fact…Bruce Arnn recommends punching out the lower tower bearing plug to get at the seal from that end, but this would still not allow a “full circumference” push - unless something wide enough could be snuck in through the spring cylinder hole.
But back to the rack cylinder (long tube). There is a plastic piece (see photo below), which I’ve seen referred to as a “seal guide,” which sits outside of both the cylinder seal and its plastic backing ring. Looks like this could be guided in from the outside end, with the larger circumference “flange” facing outwards…then squeezed (facilitated by the slots - see photo) to allow this flange to snap into what looks like an appropriately sized slot in the cylinder, prior to dropping in the plastic backing ring and driving the actual seal - which are done from the inner end of the cylinder. But…am I correct about the orientation of this plastic (“seal guide”) piece? I can find absolutely no reference to this - and my act of pounding out the old seal/backing plate/seal guide basically destroyed the guide itself, leaving no clue as to its orientation. At any rate, here is the “seal guide”:
