spring seat removal?!

[cdndrtbke]

im replacing teh rear spring on my 2001 xr400 and im at the point where i need to remove the spring seat so i can take off the old spring and put on the new one. all my manual says to do is to remove rubber seat from spring seat and then remove the spring seat. easier said than done. it doesnt say how to remove the spring seat from the shock assembly and its definitely not very apparent how to figure it out yourself. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

[XR250rdr]

loosen the collars all the way (to the top) and the spring seat will come off to the side.

[cdndrtbke]

i have loosened both collars all the way and the spring seat is just sitting there loosely at the bottom of the shock but i cant get it off. the mounting bracket for the linkage is in the way and it obviously wont slip over that. am i supposed to somehow get the spring over the spring seat or something. im missing something here and it sucks. thanks

[XR250rdr]

Once the collars are up all the way the seat can move up then remove the snap ring. Then the spring seat will slip down over the clevis and you can remove the spring.

I thought it was like the 250 spring seat.

[dale]

First, remove the shock from the bike. Then with the preload adjuster loose you need to knock the lower seat toward the top of the shock. This will expose a wire type ring to take off, then the lower seat will slide off the bottom. The lower seat and the wire ring can corrode so it may not be easy. Use WD40 or similar.

[cdndrtbke]

sweet...thanks. it took ALOT of persuading to get the two seats apart. after that it was easy as pie. thanks again

[dale]

sweet...thanks. it took ALOT of persuading to get the two seats apart. after that it was easy as pie. thanks again

I coat the wire with anti-seeze on assembly.