Repacked Swing Arm Bearings

[Chaharly]

Well I finally went ahead and repacked the swing arm bearings. Still had lots of grease. While i was under her I made up a set of those leveling links and installed those too.

 

I feel really confident about getting it all back together. However, the needle bearings where the bolt for the leveling links go didnt get cleaned really well. I just kind of ran my fingers through it and pushed out as much old crappy grease as I could and packed as much of the pink stuff in as i could. I think it'd be fine that way. Really an easy job, and I dont think I'll ever even think about swing arm bearings again until 100k miles. Really they move so little and such a small amount of grease is all you need anyways I dont think its worth the extra trouble.

 

Did anybody fight that stupid U-joint when going back together. Could NOT make it stay up so we had my brother hold it up from the front with a magnet while i finally worked it in. You DEFINITELY know when its in too it'll tell you. And those STUPID "Y" pipes made me scuff the hell out of my reservoir cover too. Oh well. While i had the wheel off I finally went to the dark-side. I put on a 165/80R 15 Nexen and had to pump her up to about 90 til that bead set.

 

My only question is how do i get that rear wheel pulled apart. I would love to swap out those bearings in there because they feel like they could definitely use it.

[bongobobny]

With the age of the bike it may not be a bad idea my friend!

[cowpuc]

Cant wait to hear some chatter on your take of going to the darkside Harly,,, maybe even a pic or two when ya get er on the road!!!

[Chaharly]

I'll definitely give everyone my two cents on the dark side riding. I put the leveling links on too so she's gonna feel like a totally different ride.

 

Dad and his biker buddies sure don't like the idea of dark side riding

[Marcarl]

Rear wheel, as well as front wheel, have a bearing at either end with a collar in-between. The only way I know is to destroy the bearings on the way out. The inner collar (bushing) has a positioning collar around it at the one end and the other end is loose so to speak so you can move it over. To move it over to one side might be a bit of an hassle because of the grease and dirt that might or might not be hidden around it. Take a long screwdriver and from the opposite end try to move the collar over a bit to expose the center race of the bearing. If that works, well enough, if it doesn't try the other way. Once you can see the inner race from the opposite end you can now use a punch to drive that bearing to kingdom come. Once the inner race is destroyed the inner collar (bushing) will come out and the rest is elementary. There are also seals and keeper rings in there, look for them and you'll see them.

[Chaharly]

Sounds like a fair amount of work. I'll have to do it after I get the valves adjusted