Is there a trick or special tool to refit the oil seal retaining circling on a gold star? I have the new seal in place and can get one end of the circling into its groove but despite trying for an hour with screwdrivers, pliers, a piston ring compressor - I can't get it to clip into place! Any help would be appreciated!
The usual problem is that the flat lip of the seal which seats on the bearing is slightly too thick and slightly larger in outside diameter when compared to the original item. This means that it does not seat far enough back to allow the circlip to be properly fitted.
Sometimes easier to fit if you use a new circlip with 2 holes to allow use of circlip pliers.
Try fitting the circlip without the seal to see if it fits the groove properly. If it does then the seal is the problem. If it is slightly too large diameter you can gently dress the outside edge until it fits properly.
There appear to be seals available from 2 different manufacturers so worth trying an alternative source.
If you are referring to the oil seal in the gearbox , behind the drive cog , they are impossible to fit straight out of the box . I did mine yesterday and I was fitting the seal to an empty shell . I had a bolt through the bearing with a socket pushing the seal in and it still would not fit . In the end I sanded the back of the seal down with emery paper on a flat surface . Still needed the bolt and socket to squish it in , but if not possible then more sanding to make it fit , from the research I did the new seals seem to be a bit thicker . Have a read of page 15 on this forum .
http://www.britbike.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/496950/1957-bsa-spitfire-scrambler#Post496950 .Its a good read