evaluating bushings in swing arm off of bike

yamaman

Dunno, try just loosening the nut, see what happens!

5twins · Full Member Joined: Aug 05, 2006 Posts: 1616

deleted

xjwmx

Jimmy, when I greased mine (all original still) the extra grease came out of the hole in the fitting on the opposite side.

Tomterrific

It's no surprise that old bikes have hard grease inside the swingarm. I bet most of them never were greased by the original owner. Even so, my bike sat for over 10 years, maybe 15. Plenty of time to get the grease dry and hard. One thing I do to all junk bikes is to pull the grease nipple and squirt penetrating oil inside the swingarm grease. (and every where else) I just stick the little red tube all the way in and spray while I drag it out. I did both sides of my XS and I sprayed the back of each nipple too, so the ball and spring work properly. I needed to do this more than once to penetrate and loosen the old grease but now the swingarm takes new grease like it was new. At some point I will get bronze bushings and need to disassemble the swing arm. I hope the fresh grease and oil have the parts ready to slide out with little drama. Banging out old bolts is no fun. Have you heard of some guys needing to saw the bolt through on each side of the arm to get it out? Shudder!

Tom Graham

650skull · Support Staff Joined: Jul 19, 2007 Posts: 1186

When i tried to removed the tube from the swing arm it was seized so a simple remedy was to take it to an engineers shop and for $10 they pressed it out............... The bushes were the hassle till i ran a hacksaw blade through them in a couple of places (length ways) then got a screwdriver and wedged then out, More like broke as they were so brittle

jimmythetrucker · Full Member Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 1283

xjwmx wrote:

Jimmy, when I greased mine (all original still) the extra grease came out of the hole in the fitting on the opposite side.

If the fitting on the other side of the bike was any good, grease wouldn't squirt out of it like that. There's a check-ball inside that zerk supposed to stop that from happening. What you got there is a bad zerk.

I put my swingarm together will all new parts and pumped everything full of grease BEFORE I put it together. When I put the swingarm up into the bike, I pushed the tube and the bolt through and all the extra grease squirted out the other side of the bike, just as anybody'd expect it to. I didn't have any trouble until I tightened everything up and then tried to pump more grease into it just to make sure it would accept grease. It won't. I can't figure out why, which is what this is all about.

yamaman sez I'm gonna have to tear it down again and I'm pretty sure he's right at this point.

xjwmx

Jimmy, the reason it won't accept any more grease is it's full and there's no place for any to come out. I think if you simply loosen the nut the gun will force grease out of somewhere.

thorshammer · Full Member Joined: Dec 12, 2008 Posts: 58

Hi Jimmy just curious did you drill the holes for your zerks in your swingarm and then put your bushings in above them and thereby plug the holes just a thought did it myself. If you did you may have to pull the bolt tube and zerks then drill thru the bushing with a size smaller drill. That way you won't damage the threads for the zerks and the bronze will not hurt anything.

jimmythetrucker · Full Member Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 1283

thorshammer -- No. My zerks are threaded into the holes prepared for them at the ends of the swingarm bolt.

xjwmx -- I'm beginning to think you're right because I can't account for it any other way. I did everything right using all new parts. I know the zerks pass grease because I tested them before I threaded them in there. AFTER I threaded the zerks in, I shot grease through the zerks and watched it come out the holes in the side of the swingarm bolt. So I know the bolt passes grease, too. Only think it can be, I think, is I used my two-foot breaker bar to tighten the nut on that swingarm bolt. I bet I pulled the frame so tight against those new grease seals that the gun can't force grease past 'em, just as you say.

I'll find out one of these days directly. The cold weather is blowin' off here, now. Soon as we get over the April showers, I'll get to work on the bike. I got a lotta work to do an' I'm sick of lookin' at the f***in' thing. I wanna ride it but it won't run yet. Gotta git 'er done this summer.

xsleo

If you grunted very hard with that long a breaker bar, you have it over tourqued. The book calls for 71 to 79 ft/lbs. To much and you may break the threaded part of the pivot bolt off. I might suggest you loosen the nut and tourque it to the right amount. You might find it takes grease.

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