Once you have satisfied yourself that you have soaked and penetrated and whatever as much as possible......
Turn the frame upside down and put the head of the seatpost in a big, robust vise, heavily clamped between a couple of small 1/2 " thick pine boards (which will squish around and conform to the irregular shaped aluminum seat post head) Then twist the frame back and forth, trying to get the seat post to turn in the frame. If it does twist, at all, you are in the finish stretch. Twisting and pulling up should free the seatpost. This process takes some muscle, often I have to stand up on the workbench to get the leverage to pull it up while twisting....
IF the seat post shaft breaks off or splits apart, you may have a problem in getting the stuck shards out. So let's hope it comes out in it's entirety...
Dale Brown cycles de ORO, Inc 1410 Mill Street Greensboro, NC 27408 USA 336-274-5959 http://www.cyclesdeoro.com http://www.classicrendezvous.com Director, National Bicycle Dealers Association
-----Original Message----- From: Bianca Pratorius <biankita@earthlink.net> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 18:31:10 -0500 Subject: [CR]Gios Torino now in my hands-- was Dealer dilema
My wife and I went over to the shop, payed the remainder of what we owed to pay in full, $125.00, and now the bike is in our hands with the seat tube filled up half way with ammonia. How long does the soaking take before it breaks free? An additional problem was that the dealer cracked the seatpost and I had to wrap a plastic bad around the seat lug and seat post to keep the ammonia from all running out. What is this stuff called Kroil? Does that work better?
By the way, I have spent a couple of hours measuring the frame for out of alignment using all the string tricks I know of, and the by eye and sight line the bike appears to be perfectly in true. Also there is not one errant file mark, nor excess brazing blob anywhere to be found. There are no over thinned lugs, nor under thinned ones. Every detail shows care and concern for detail. None of my past bikes comes close to this level of love and craftsmanship. Now back to that stuck seatpost.
Garth Libre in Miami Shores Fl.