I recently came accross an old skyway TA frame with an old steel seatpost fused and rusted to the inside of the seatube. I had my friends at the city of vancouver try everything to get it out. We welded a 6 foot bar to it and pounded the bar with a hammer etc. and could'nt even budge it 1/32 of an inch. What can I do? Is there anything I can soak it in to unfuse it? Is there anyway to drill it out? Any help would be appreciated. The bike is otherwise great and it would be a shame to lose it.

completely cover it in wd 40. make sure it gets down the seat stay part of frame as much as possible. Then let it sit 5 or so minutes. take a cloth, wrap around the post, and put a vice grip on the cloth to the post as tight as possible. try turning it. If it doesnt turn, but the rag is slipping, I suggest not using the cloth if you could care less about the post and just want the frame. If it doesnt turn at all, repeat entire process. this should help a lot. It worked when I got a frame that someone had bent the seatpost and put it further down into the frame.

spray wd40 around where the seat pole goes into the frame. On the end of the seat pole weld a square piece of steel that you can hold in a vice.Now turn the bike upside down and hold the the square piece of steel in the vice then use the frame as your leverage and try to twist it out now but if that does not work add some heat with an oxy torch to wear the pole is stuck in the frame to nearly red hot this will help break the rust between the frame and seat pole but do not twist until the frame has cooled down a bit. Hope this helps you it worked for me more than once .

Does the frame have a vent hole in the BB that leads into the seat tube? If so, plug the top of the seatpost with a cork or rubber plug or something. Turn the bike upside down and spray a bunch of PB Blaster in there. PB is the best stuff there is for this job, and it's available at most auto parts stores. Then turn the thing over and over to run the PB into the post/seat tube joint from the bottom, while continuing to spray some in from the top on the outside. Clamp the post in the vise, and use the frame as a big lever and twist away. Only use heat as a LAST resort. Be patient grasshopper - the penetrating oil thing will work but it may take days, not minutes.

these threads should help:

http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=001588#000000

http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=001361#000001

http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=000948#000007

http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=000776#000000

http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=000240#000011

http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=000013#000000

It sounds like that thing is in there pretty good. If it were mine I wouldn't even mess with it, I would take it to a "good" machine shop. They will get it out.....but it might cost you.

I had to do that with an old Schwinn beach cruiser frame. Penetrating oil, and then stuck it post down into the vice. It didn't slip at all, and took a good 15-20 minutes to get it out. The whole time being the same high amount of effort to move it. I was very happy when it finally let go and came out. I was also physically exhausted from the sheer effort involved.,,,,OS

I had it with a Mongoose once, i coult NOT budge it at all, so I chopped the post down to about 1/2 inch, and cut the tube down one side ito the gap where the clamp tightens, then when I had a gap in it, I crushed the tube with pliers and it dropped out.

Fun fun fun.

I have a similar problem with a GT Pro performer. I am patiently waiting (6 months on now) for WD40 to do something. Other ideas I have considered.

1) Cut the tube down to the frame and then use a hacksaw blade to cut through one side of the seat post from the inside, but run the risk of also cutting the seat tube of the frame.

2) Clamp a stem onto the seat post and then add a set of forks to the stem for leverage. Hasn't worked yet as I have been trying to stand on the frame and lever the forks at the same time. Written that idea off.

3) Get a bucket of ice and water and insert the seat post into it to try and cool it down. I am told that if you add salt to the solution it makes the water even colder (don't ask me something to do with physics). I would then heat the frame with a hot air gun. The cold should shrink the seat tube and the heat swell the frame and dink the seat tube would fall out.

4) I would try sticking the seat tube in a vice, if
a) I was happy to right off a GT lay back
B) The chip board the vice was attached to could stand up to the abuse.

I dont think WD40 is the answer either, you could try petrol, it is thinner and it will eat any corrosion in there... and if you get really annoyed, you can set it on fire!!!!!

BURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ORB

thanx for all the tips. I think since oil thing did'nt really work, I will take it to a machine shop. The fact that we used PB Blaster and welded a six foot bar to it to twist it out and tried twisting the frame etc....all unsuccessfull......tells me it aint coming out unless it is drilled or cut. Anyone in Vancouver who could help me with this? $$$

sorry, I didnt mean wd-40, I meant silicon spray.

I still have my seat post stuck in my supergoose it the lay back post i wantwed to put it on my new project but i couldnt get it out either

Once you get it out, remember to put a thin layer of grease on the new seat post. EVERYONE should do this to all of their seat posts before installing.

This is what has worked for me. A really REALLY stubborn seatpost came out by using heat, a vise, and wd40. I actually had a seatpost twist like a licorice stick before finally breaking loose. Typically, I can get a stuck seatpost out by tightening an old seat onto the post and spraying the post with some oil. Try turning the seat to rotate the seatpost. Lay it on its side and stomp on the side of the seat to break it loose if you have to.

get it drilled out at a machine shop fella...waste that post and have a ta that hasnt been twisted, poked, sawn, or set on fire...its the easy way
dave

I've had this problem...not fun at all. An alternative to drilling is to take a hacksaw blade to it. Start by cutting the seatpost off just above the frames seat tube. Then with only the blade in your hand, start cutting through the seatpost from inside- out to the frame. It is a slowwwww process. You will need to make two seperate cuts and the seatpost will come out in pieces. This process is slow but will preserve the frame integrity. Have fun!!!

I've already posted my slide hammer trick in some of the posts that Elvis linked to.

Let me add that patience for the PB blaster is a must if it's that rusty. Spray it in the morning before work, spray it after work, spray it before going to bed, spray it for a week or whatever until it comes out.

Good luck

I wouldn't recommend sawing or drilling out a seatpost unless it's aluminum. The seatube wall is pretty thin.

I had a similar problem with a rusted shank of a stem in a fork. Absolutely miserable. I SOAKED it in wd40 (an entire can of wd40 in a slim cylinder , then let it sit for a couple days. After some serious hammerin', it eventually came out. It was still very stubborn....

Oh man, just remembered the stem on that same cruiser. Had to put a 3/8's extension through the bottom of the fork, and pound it out with a 2 pound sledge hammer. Half the time the extension would bounce completely out of the fork. It finally came out after about an hour of pounding. Moved about a 16th of an inch per hit. Excruciating!,,,,OS

I feel your pain man, keep at it!!! I am loathing getting the seatpost out of my 55 Columbia. Top of the seat tube broke off, so they soldered the post in. Oh JOY!! lol!

[ August 25, 2004, 12:05 AM: Message edited by: Oldschool'd ]

You can use an old stem to tighten down on that seatpost too. Put a pipe on the stem shaft and put your back into. This sometimes works. It wasn't enough for that one bike that I ended up using heat on. Heat did the trick. The seatpost was really frozen in there though. Again, seatpost came out looking like a Twizzler.

Why isn't drilling a good idea? It seems like it will be easier than anything else?