Swing arm bearings?

[yamahamer]

How many repack your bearings every 16k miles like the manual says? I have almost 30k miles now and was thinking maybe I need to do it this winter but it looks like it's gonna be a job.

[BuddyRich]

Its a real pain. I did mine at around 33k one winter.

[Steve S]

With 58K on the Black Beast, I haven't packed them yet, but I have given it some thought.

 

My riding buddy has a 99 Roadstar with 90K on it. We are going to do a frame rebuild this winter so we will pull the swingarm and repack or replace, which ever it needs. Depending on how bad that is, I may or may not do mine.

 

It's a shame that no one puts a grease fitting on that bearing. Sure would make maintance a lot easier.

[yamahamer]

With 58K on the Black Beast, I haven't packed them yet, but I have given it some thought.

 

My riding buddy has a 99 Roadstar with 90K on it. We are going to do a frame rebuild this winter so we will pull the swingarm and repack or replace, which ever it needs. Depending on how bad that is, I may or may not do mine.

 

It's a shame that no one puts a grease fitting on that bearing. Sure would make maintance a lot easier.

 

Yea I was thinking if I do them i'm going to look for a place to put grease fitting's so I can grease them once a year instead of the whole pain in the butt tear down.

[royalstarjac]

At 22k mi I just had the dealer repack the swing arm and steering head bearings. It was pricey but I now have peace of mind that they've been taken care of.-Jack

[ediddy]

My services were included in the price of my bike so I have everything the book calls for when it is due.

[Eck]

 

With 58K on the Black Beast, I haven't packed them yet, but I have given it some thought.

Same here, I have 59k on my 05 and I am about ready to tackle this same task..

 

My riding buddy has a 99 Roadstar with 90K on it. We are going to do a frame rebuild this winter so we will pull the swingarm and repack or replace, which ever it needs. Depending on how bad that is, I may or may not do mine.

How about a detailed list of what to do and what not to do so it can be posted in the tech articles...oh and you have to include clear photos of the rework/ task...

 

It's a shame that no one puts a grease fitting on that bearing. Sure would make maintance a lot easier.

Ya think...?????????

[1BigDog]

I repacked mine at 26k. It was a pain but there was also plenty of grease in there from the factory. I cleaned out the bearings and repacked them with black moly. Since the bearings only travel a small amount, not like a wheel bearing, I believe that one packing should be sufficient. If you feel play with the swingarm it may be time for a new bearing. As far as adding a grease fitting I believe this was also discussed years ago. It seems the bearing rides in the cavity of the cross tube of the swing arm, if memory serves me, and its not in an enclosed area. You would almost have to pack the whole inside of the swingarm with grease. Most likely you would have to weld in some stops with the races removed, but somehow I dont think that was feasable.

 

One more thing: Make sure you have a good quality allen socket when you torque those swingarm bolts back to specs. I think they torque to 76 ft lbs and just as my torque wrench clicked the socket broke off in the hole.

[Rick Butler]

Hey Guys,

 

After a 100K I finally decided to drop the swing arm on my 02 and check the bearings. And I was pleasantly pleased to find no indentions in the race, so I just repacked them. I was also replacing the rear tire as well as a rebuilt Works shock that I just got back, so this was a perfect time to just go ahead and do it all.

 

However when I got ready to put it back together, I opened up my service manual to get the procedure and the correct torque specs, since this is not something you do every day.

 

But when I got to the installation section, I was surprised to not see more than I did, compared to the 1st gen 1300 shop manuals. But it had the torque specs which was all I really needed.

 

So I saw that the torque for the left pivot bolt was 72 ft/lbs but when I saw that the right side pivot bolt was 51 ft/lbs. This didn't feel right so I checked my 1st gen manual and it showed 4.3 ft/lbs. Those Bozos forgot the decimal point and it should have been 5.1 ft/lbs and 7Nm! I even had a newer RSV manual that I had borrowed from a friend when I gave GigaWhiskey both of my manuals for the Texas Work Day, and it showed the same thing, 51 ft/lbs.

 

So, for you guys who have a RSV Service Manual, go to page 7-72 and put a decimal between the 5 and 1 for the right pivot bolt torque. Now if you always use newton meters for your torque settings, you will be ok because 7 Nm is right.

 

There you have it,

 

Rick

[Moakster]

Rick, always looking out for us.

 

Moakster

[V7Goose]

Rick's note on the correct torque spec is important, and not just for this one number either. The

Yamahaha

service manual has MANY incorrect torque specs! I recommend double checking the torque chart and the torque numbers in the specific maintenance section, then even using the conversion numbers in the manual or an automatic conversion app on the web (easy to find with any google search) to convert one of the metric torque specs to SAE spec and see if it comes out right. That is a bit of nuisance, but considering all of the wrong torque numbers in this very poor manual, it is worth the trouble.

Goose

[N3FOL]

I repacked mine at 26k. It was a pain but there was also plenty of grease in there from the factory. I cleaned out the bearings and repacked them with black moly. Since the bearings only travel a small amount, not like a wheel bearing, I believe that one packing should be sufficient. If you feel play with the swingarm it may be time for a new bearing. As far as adding a grease fitting I believe this was also discussed years ago. It seems the bearing rides in the cavity of the cross tube of the swing arm, if memory serves me, and its not in an enclosed area. You would almost have to pack the whole inside of the swingarm with grease. Most likely you would have to weld in some stops with the races removed, but somehow I dont think that was feasable.

 

One more thing: Make sure you have a good quality allen socket when you torque those swingarm bolts back to specs. I think they torque to 76 ft lbs and just as my torque wrench clicked the socket broke off in the hole.

 

Glad to know that even at 26K, the swing arm bearings still had lots of grease. As I am just imagining how much involved this job is going to be...looks like a major tear down. There is a dealership in our area that offers pre-paid maintenance on bikes, so I may have to look at that option down the road.

[Rick Butler]

Yeah,

 

This is not a simple job, where you need to basically pull the entire final drive and swing arm out to get to the bearings. This because there is a bearing seal that is in the swing arm that has to come out to get to the tapered bearings. Then to get to the pivot bolts, the rear exhausts need to also come off. And you might be able to salvage these seals and reuse them, but I chose to go ahead and replace them. In fact I was intending to have to replace the bearings also, but after I saw the shape they were in, I just repacked them.

 

But in my case, I was looking at changing a rear tire as well as replacing my rear shock so this was a perfect time to undertake it. And with the tempurature at freezing here in North Texas and with my garage being fully insulated and heated, the timing was perfect.

 

And a side note for shock replacement, doing this with the rear wheel out gives you ample room to get to everything. I've done it both ways, and you need to have small hands and be a contortionest to do it with the wheel on, but it is doable.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Rick

[Herb In Texas]

I did mine two weeks ago @ 18k and there wasn't enough grease to butter my am toast. I need to back off the tourque tho I followed my book. Seemed awful tight but no play. Moves freely too. I might question the value closer but don't know where to look. I need to re-read my manuel. and do the converson math. But how do we know the newtons are right and the ftlbs are wrong?

[Eck]

Sure do wish one of you guys would take some photos and write up a good clean understandable tech article...

Heck, I'll even throw your name out there for a VR award.....I mean come on now..

 

Yamerhamer...,

If you know when you are going to do yours, maybe I can come down your way and watch, help, and even take some photos and I will do the tech article..

(just wonder though if I can throw out my own name for that VR award.. )

[1BigDog]

Those torque values seem rather low for a swingarm that supports so much weight and flexing. I have to look at my manual again. However, in the 5 years since I have done the bearing pack, I have never had any issue with the swingarm. I have had the shock assembly out a few times after that during tire changes for maintenance and the swingarm had no side to side play and it had no irregularities in its field of travel. If the torque specs are truly 7.1, and im not saying they arent, then my bearings must be crushed. Ill inspect it more closely on the next tire change.

[1BigDog]

OK, I went back over the manual and saw that the locking nut on the right pivot bolt got that 72 lb torque. The pivot bolt itself is 7.1. If I remember back from when I installed it, I believe that I seated the pivot bolt snugly, set the lock nut and then torqued the whole thing as one unit using the allen socket to 72 lbs. No wonder the dam thing broke. I have had no issues with it but since sometime in Feb im going to replace the fork and wheel bearings and seals then I just might as well replace the swing arm bearings. Then the bike will be ready for another 75 thousand miles.....

 

Learn something new every day.....