MkII rear suspension rods

[frankd]

Before leaving on vacation next week, today I changed the back tire. While I have it off, I intend on greasing the rear suspension linkage on my 89. I bought this bike last winter, and the previous owner told me that he was told that it had sat for quite a while. Makes sense, it only had 30Kmiles showing. Well, a lot of bolts that I never had any trouble with on my 83 (that I purchased new) I've had a devil of a time with the 89. This bike has a lot more rusted bolts than I figure it should have. It must have been stored in a mighty damp place.

 

Anyway....I unbolted the rear links from the swing arm, pulled the bolt, snap ring, and loosened the pinch bolts from the rods that you're supposed to tap out towards the left side. Mine are siezed almost solid. If I hit the rear rod firmly with a hammer it moves a little. I really don't want to hit it that hard. I've soaked it with Kroil now, and it's soaking. I hope it frees up.

 

Anybody else have this problem?

 

Frank

[camos]

When bolts or shafts are seized some careful heat around the perimeter first before applying some penetrating oil often helps.If a hammer is required to provide more pursuasion, using a brass drift to hammer on is much safer.

[saddlebum]

Another option is to heat the head of the bolt red hot then quench quickly with cold water (may have to do more than once ) this causes the bolt to shrink slightly and loosen in the threads and avoids heating parts you would rather not replace. replace the bolt with a new one after, as the temper will have changed. Another way to heat it If you don't have a torch but you have an arch welder handy is to place the ground clamp on the bolt place a carbon rod in the rod holder and ground the carbon rod right to the head of the bolt and hold it there until it is red hot (use a large dia. carbon rod), then again quench with cold water. beauty of this tecnique is no flame to burn anything else BUT DO DISCONNECT YOUR BATTRY CABLES

[cimmer]

Yes I had this issue with my 89 VR after I purchased it a number of years ago. It too had been sitting for a number of years and had very little movement in the rear supension. I found the parts were seized and I had to drive out a couple of the rods and replace some of the bushing in the relay arms. I ended up putting in grease zerks so I could grease everything instead of taking it all apart. I didnt need to heat anything to remove them but just a little force on them did the trick.

Hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Rick F.

[Dano]

The MKII's have flat spots on the links which are ideal spots to drill, tap and install zerk fittings to service in the future. Your bushings may be shot now that the bolts are seized to them, they are a fabric/hard cover type deal. Pull them out and clean them up good, along with liberal lubrication when reinstalling them should help in the future.

 

Good luck,

 

Dan

[frankd]

My son and I "convinced" it to come apart. I held a heavy hammer head against the left side where the rods come out and my son applied some energetic hammer force. BTW, the Kroil soak did do quite a bit of good also. At least the part that attaches to the swing arm finally would move in an arc!!! (prior to taking it apart) I was surprised when I got it apart just how tight the bushings still were. There was some etching on the rod. I cleaned the rod up with a wire brush chucked in the drill, greased it and the bushings up, and put it together. Another thing that helped put it back together....I took a chisel and tapped it into the opening on the leftmost piece where the pinch bolts are. This opened things up a little and the rod slid back in much easier.

 

I intend to install zerk fittings this winter. Anybody have a picture of them installed? How many zerk fittings are installed? Do you drill holes into the bushing so the grease will go into the center of the bushing?

[dksmith196958]

isnt this a great group of people .. always willing to help , give advise , sharing there past problems that they toghter have solved the many little gliches with these bikes.......cant wait to be able to meet some of them......... at the michigan ridein .........