Check out this two part seal head from a Sachs shock. Notice the cir-clips that go above and below the head. Also the seal is one piece, combining the shaft seal and body seal rather than just having a shaft seal and an O-ring. Did you see the shaft bushing? No? That’s because there is none. This is not the best shock I’ve worked on.
A normal seal head is one piece with an O-ring between itself and the body and a O-ring, X-ring or seal for the shaft as well as a shaft bushing. You push the seal head into the shock body, install the clip and let the pressure hold the seal head against the clip.
To take a shock apart you just release the gas, push the seal head down and remove the clip then pull. But how do you push the seal head in if there is a clip bellow it? They must really not want me to rebuild this shock.
I took it apart but I could not bring myself to do something that dumb to put it back together. I made a normal seal head with bushing and held it in place with just one clip.
I had another reason for replacing the seal head. The American branch of Sachs does not even know what a motorcycle is. The American branch of the seal company does not import that seal and “Sir we would need 6 to 8 weeks to get it from Germany and there is a large minimum order.”
After this the re-valve was easy. Not! The piston/valve stack is as bad as the seal head but Jim taught me well and I fixed that too.
If someone tells you Sachs shocks can’t be rebuilt or re-valved tell ‘em you know a guy. This one cost $420 with a spring. The next one will have to included the price of the seal head, about $30 more.