Swing Arm Bearing Question

[Dan in Grand Rapids]

Hello Everyone,

Now that the snow is here in Michigan I decided to lube the swing arm bearings. I have never taken the swing arm off, so I was anxious about what I would find after reading lots of posts about little grease on the bearings. The bearings have tons of grease and move smoothly. The question I have is now tight should they be. The manual shows that they are pressed into place, but when I took the swing arm off both bearings and seals just fell out. I can easily push then back in, but they come back out just by sticking one finger in and pulling. There is no pressure holding them in. Is this normal, or are they worn out after 75,000 miles and need replacement? I appreciate your help.

[George R. Young]

At some point, you have to loosen the locknut (92015) and back out the swing arm shaft (33032A) a bit on the right hand side. Then you can assemble the bearings, seals and other bits and tighten to the frame.

Then you screw in the RHS swing arm shaft and torque it to 20 ft-lb. Then you're supposed to hold the swing arm shaft to prevent turning and torque the lock nut to 38 ft-lbs. Tricky without special tools.

What I did is hold the swing arm shaft (with an allen key if I remember rightly) and tightened the lock nut 'firmly' with a box wrench.

[Dan in Grand Rapids]

Thanks for the reply George. I don't think I asked my question very well. I am wondering if the bearings should be tight in the swing arm when it is off. Should they be able to fall out or pulled out with one finger? When the manual shows that they should be pressed in this leads me to think that they should be tighter in the swing arm.

[George R. Young]

Aha.

The bearings (92116) in the swing arm are two-part tapered roller bearings. There's a race which is pressed into the swing arm and probably has stayed in there. If the race is coming out easily, you have a problem.

Then there's the part with the rollers, which should easily come out and go back in, to contact the race.

Once it's in place, it's held by the preload when you torque the RHS swingarm shaft.

Plenty of snow here in Ottawa, too. Managed to get final season rides in on Dec. 24, 25 and 26. Now working on projects like you to get through the winter. Carbon fender extender and rearset plates on the SV650S, other stuff for the Concours.

[Dan in Grand Rapids]

Thanks George. That makes sense. The races are still in place. I decided to replace them due to my mileage and the fact that it is apart right now. One of the bearings seemed to have a bit of side play in it when I pealed a lot of the thick grease out.

[George R. Young]

Is there side play when the bearings and swing arm are fully installed and torqued?

The reason I ask is that it's hard to identify play in a tapered roller bearing unless it's got some load on it. The manual says to check for play by attempting to move the (fully installed) swingarm from side to side.

Also, it's a bear of a job to get the races out of the swing arm. The inner and outer parts of the bearing are supposed to be replaced together.

Also, this type of bearing usually lasts forever, unless the rollers have flat spots or cracks.

(Also, I'm frugal).

[Dan in Grand Rapids]

There was a bit of play in the swing arm when it was installed. The last couple of hundred miles there started to be a vague feeling from the rear on curves, and especially if I hit a bump on a curve. I did not try torquing them as I wanted to take it apart and see if there was any grease left. Maybe it would tighten things up if I just torqued down the swing arm. I will do a bit of exploration. I appreciate your help.

[timsatx]

I am eventually going to do this. I bought a spare swingarm. Just need to buy the bearings.

http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=9607.msg116964#msg116964
http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=6061.45

[Dan in Grand Rapids]

I ended up replacing the swing arm bearings, and the races were in their tight. The fist one came out pretty easily with a slide hammer, but the one on the right (throttle) side did not come out easily. There were lots of busted knuckles. I ended up grinding a washer down into an oval with the long end the same length as the race. I slid it in behind the race and used a bolt with a washer and nut on the outside of the swingarm to pull it out.
Now I am putting it back together and have a question. I started putting the triangle tie rod in and started with the front bolt (the one to the frame). When the bolt is tight the there is play. The tie rod can be slid along the bolt about 1/4 of an inch and each direction. Is this normal? It almost seems like there should be spacers in there, but I checked the manual and it does not show any. I guess once the side bars and the shock are bolted to it there is not much place to go, but it still seemed like it should fit tight in the frame.

[Jim __]

Do you have the "fat" end of the triangle bolted to the frame?  Thin end is attached to the links from the swing arm.

[Dan in Grand Rapids]

Jim,

It is the fat end attached to the frame. I checked the manual and pictures online and I am sure that it is correct. Everything feels tight now that things are all bolted back together. Before the shock and dog bones were added I could move the triangle sideways on its mounting bolt. It probably won't move much with everything bolted together, but it just did not have the tight fit I expected. If the triangle is placed in the frame there is about 1/8 of space on each side. I thought it would be tight in the frame. My KLR was so tight that I had to hammer it back in. I guess it is designed to be rather loosey goosey and I should just not worry about it.