Seized Seat Posts!!!

I have a super nice Rocky Mountain Tange Frame, and an acceptably attractive Alpine Stars Cromoloy frame, both with nasty, terminal sezied seatposts.

Does anyone have a difinitive cure for this? I have tried all sorts of methods, heating up the tubes with a blowtorch, clamping them in the vice and puuling till my amrs come out, prising apart as much of the seat tube as i dare and flooding with penetrating fluid, Short of drilling them out, I am at a loss.

Can anyone help?

I have seen a couple of methods used by those with the right kit:

1) Assuming you don't want to keep the seatpost: Slice all but about 1" of the post off, leaving 1" above the top of the tube. Then use a
Dremmel or similar inside the post to cut the post into 4 vertical slices, through to the tube, then pull the slices from the inside with pliers.

2) WD40 down post/tube, leave it for a while, put post in vice, with the underside of the frame stood upright facing you, and twist.

Just an idea: Riskiest, depending on strength of frame: WD40 down post/tube, leave it for a while, use small jack under seat on top of top tube/seat tube meeting point. I guess either the post or the tt/st weld comes free first?

Also, if you are well tooled up or know a workshop, perhaps putting liqiud nitrogen down the tube might contract it enough to free?

depends if you want to save the seat post or not .

if you dont , and everyhting else fails , cut the seat post 1 inch above seat tube and use a metal saw blade to cut the stuck post . will take a long time .

Assuming that the frames are steel and the posts are alloy, take out the bottom bracket, seal any holes in the post and pour in some (I think!!) caustic soda. This will attack the alloy post but not the steel frame. Leave a goodly time and then see what has happened. Do this out side!

On a different note, can some one remind me whichh BB cup undoes clockwise? BSO bother!

BB undoes clockwise on right hand crank.

I am in the process of doing the vertical cuts in a very thick alloy GT post in a Richter frame. What a frikkin' pain. Not greasing your seatpost should be punishable by something unbearable.

ive heard the caustic soda on an alloy post works

i use a crappy ( but not too crappy ) quill stem and clamp the bar clamp end around the seatpost . i then drill through the clamp and post and pop a bolt in ( if you have a tap use that too to be pro ) get a suitably long tube and slide onto the quill for leverage

ive torn the bar clamp end off a crappy stem before so be careful

last one i did for the sheer hell of it . steel frame and steel post nicely rusted in and probably too large . ended up putting on some steel toe boots and standing on the frame while i used my weight on the tube . heard a nice CRACCCCCKK and then lots of twisting back and forth while slowly pulling it out

never been beaten yet

Hmmm... When speaking to others about caustic soda to remove anodization on some crank arms, it was said to me that if there is steel parts on them, then they will dissolve faster than the aluminum. Wouldn't this also be true of the steel frame?

I agree with the idea of putting the seatpost in the vise, with the frame upside down, and using the frame to twist. You've got a LOT of leverage that way, and if you used some good penetrating fluid, this should do the trick. If not, I agree with using the hacksaw method, to cut from the inside of the post, to the frame, though this is a VERY slow method..

caustic soda (a base) shouldnt damage steel since iron does not have amphoteric properties, meaning it will react with either acids or bases but not both (in the case of iron, acids).

i poured loads of it in my cindercone and it survived, the paint however did not. if you want to preserve you paintwork be careful.

digitalkreation":1e19g7en said:

Hmmm... When speaking to others about caustic soda to remove anodization on some crank arms, it was said to me that if there is steel parts on them, then they will dissolve faster than the aluminum.

Click to expand...

i think they may have been refering to the actual anodizing process as any steel placed in a anodizing bath of sulphuric acid will react violently dissolving the steel and tainting the aluminium and contaminating the bath.