How critical is the spacing?

Here's a great trick...
- Plan on how you will put together the pieces for a week
- Get parts prepped hot and cold
- Lay out various hammers and other tools
- Carefully lay the spacer pipe beside the hammers, in plain site
- Put in both bearings, and totally $@#%$ing forget about the spacer pipe.

After all this, I still forgot the damn thing. stupidstupidstupid

Checked with the dealer, they said they couldn't get the bearing out without destroying it. And they didn't have any replacements in stock so it would take more than a week to get a new one. Considering their price per hour for labor, I figured I had earned the right to destroy one of the bearings myself and just order another one from the same source online (which got here in 4 days). I started trying to pound it out with a solid rod the way I did the originals, but I was worried about damaging the good bearing so I gave that up. I ended up prying out the race and grinding a slot in the rest to pop it out.

A bit of 1/2" threaded rod and a stack of washers got the other bearing seated down where it needs to be, so now I just have to wait for the new bearing to show up, and REMEMBER to drop the spacer pipe in beforehand.

Put it in there now.
Steve

Oh I did that already. Then I turned it over, and it fell out. I need to do some touch-up on the paint tomorrow anyway, so not much point it trying to keep it in place. Of course if I screw up and forget to put it in before the bearing a second time, I need to just give up the whole project. :S

I put things in the way so I can't forget them.
Steve

Well I don't have to flog myself... Got the new bearing in the mail today, dropped in the freezer for several hours, and got it popped into the swingarm. And this time I DIDN'T forget the spacer tube. Sucked it the rest of the way into place with some threaded rod and tapped the dust seals back in place.

I have some nice synthetic bearing grease I've been using on my vehicles for years, think I'm going to pack all the new bearings on the bike with this stuff as well. Hoping to get things assembled tomorrow so I can work out the position of the tailfin, but at least I'm finally done with the swingarm.

One down....
Steve

One down? Oh crap, there's another swing arm? :evil:

This makes me wish I had a grease fitting back there on my bike.

Mine has one but they put it in facing the wrong direction. :huh:
Steve

swest wrote: Mine has one but they put it in facing the wrong direction. :huh:
Steve

Jeeze, mine also is nearly impossible to get to. Dumb ass installer.

I managed to put in one that pointed up, got it filled with grease, now it is sloppy. New bushings for me. :dry:
Steve

I looked for some sort of reference on my bearings to indicate a direction, but there doesn't seem to be any. Normally one side will be flatter than the other, and/or there will be a part number stamped on one end, but there's nothing like that on these.

I did discover that the previous effort to back the swingarm before tapping in the bearings was a wasted effort. On this last one, I only put it in the freezer for a few hours, then sprayed some WD40 around the outside before tapping it in, and that seemed to be enough. The bearing slid down to within 1/8" of flush, and and I had to draw it in to 3/16" below flush anyway. I think the WD40 coating really helps get the bearings down into place, and it will wash away soon enough so the bearing isn't likely to move any more.