Making the most of lockdown

[Sir Fallsalot]

I've been meaning to strip the rear end off this bike since i bought it in 2010 but only now getting around to it. No play at all in the linkage but not long after i bought the bike i noticed the rear end creaking when getting on and off the bike then it stopped and i forgot about it. As i suspected one of the bearings is seized along with the bolt and another badly corroded bearing.

As usual its the most difficult bolt to get at that has seized. Had to strip the swing arm off to get at it and the centre stand has to come off to take the bolt out if it hadn't seized which is a bit of a problem as that's whats holding the bike up but since i'm cutting the bolt it can stay on for now

 

First job is to drill the head off the bolt luckily i had some long cobalt drill bits i bought for a different job a few years ago and long they need to be

 

I started with a small bit and worked my way up to 10mm as that is what diameter the bolt is

Didn't take long and the head is off, i had to put a maul grip on the thread the other end to stop the bolt from turning once the head came off so i could drill a bit deeper on the bolt shaft 

Next was to cut the thread off this would have been a real problem if it wasn't for this little air powered reciprocating saw fitted with a cut down cobalt hacksaw blade, i bought it years ago to cut the swing arm spindle off a scrap XR400 i bought for spares. It took a while but it went through OK

 

Once all cut i used a tyre lever to pry the linkage out

 

And shes out

I was quite surprised how good the condition of the rest of the bolts were for a 26 year old bike

 

So the bike was left like this while waiting for parts to arrive

 

 

[XTreme]

Obviously I can't add anything mechanical........but that bike needs a bloody good clean Fred! 

[Sir Fallsalot]

So to kill some more time i made a tool to press the new bearings and seal back in when they arrive,made from a large bolt.
I screwed the nut half way up the bolt and welded in place then cut the head off the bolt, I should have taken the photo before i started

 

All finished the right side is to push the bearing in, the step in the larger diameter is to make sure the bearing is pushed in the correct depth to allow the space for the seal to fit, the left side is to push the seal in flush after the bearing, well that's the theory anyway lol

 

 

[Buckster]

I have taken the Harley apart to fix a few bits and pieces, replace the stereo and give it a good clean, apparently the rims are chrome, who knew? I need to get a headlight retaining ring, the original one has been chewed up since I got the bike, I have new plug leads to go on, full service, a few other small things that I have left until now.

[Sir Fallsalot]

5 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Obviously I can't add anything mechanical........but that bike needs a bloody good clean Fred! 

That unfortunately is not my thing, i try but get bored so easily

[Sir Fallsalot]

2 minutes ago, BusBoy said:

This is where you and I differ. I'd have taken a brass drift, a 4lb'er and beat that shit out!

I tried the beating the shit out of it approach first but it was seized to the inner bearing collar, after i cut it all out i tried sledging the bolt out of the collar to see how stuck it was but no movement at all

[Sir Fallsalot]

 The bearing and seal insertion tool i made worked great

Bearings pushed in equally each side

And now for the seal

Everything has now been painted waiting for it to dry and once the collars and bolt arrive from Honda i can reassemble everything 

 

[boboneleg]

I feel your pain Fred, I recently had to remove the swing arm/rear engine bolt out of a DRZ400 , that was a real bugger

[Sir Fallsalot]

The rest of the suspension parts were waiting for me when i got home from work last Wednesday thought i'd get it all together that night but forgot i need a new chain slider for the swing arm ordered a genuine one from rugged roads so waiting for that before i put the swing arm on
The new bolt i got to replace the one i cut off is a bit awkward to put in as you need to take off the centre stand and to get that off you need to take off the exhaust but i managed to do it by removing the one sleeve on the side the bolt goes in from. Which was a pain to put back in with the springs attached but really didn't want to take the exhaust off or the centre stand springs 

While waiting for the parts to arrive i made this bracket to stiffen up the back end as it bounces about with the weight of the scottoiler touring reservoir on there. The threaded holes were already in the frame not sure what they were for but were perfect to mount this

 

 

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

10 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

I feel your pain Fred, I recently had to remove the swing arm/rear engine bolt out of a DRZ400 , that was a real bugger

Bob that little reciprocating saw was great at cutting the swing arm bolt off a scrap XR400 frame i bought years ago. I hammered a large screwdriver between the swingarm and frame which gave me enough gap to get the saw blade in, it took a few hours and a couple of blades but it done the job

[Sir Fallsalot]

Decided to lake the back end off the bike to tidy it up looking quite rusty under there. When taking the indicators off i had to undo a load of insulation tape around the wires. When investigating why the tape was on there i found for some bizarre reason a previous owner had cut the wires off the indicators and soldered them onto the the opposite one using orange cable to extend them and couldn't even get that right, they had the live going to earth the reason the fuse didn't blow is because the brackets the indicators bolt onto are rubber mounted and are isolated from the frame anyhow i swapped them back the way they were supposed to be minus all the slack that was there

I also made this exhaust deflector plate, i got the scott oiler touring kit and noticed when taking things apart it was being melted by the hot exhaust gasses you can see the bow in the number plate where it was catching the exhaust gasses and deflecting them behind the number plate getting everything hot there. This wouldn't happen with the standard exhaust but the venom exhaust is a lot shorter than the standard one

 

 

This is the back end painted up its not in the best condition hopefully this will preserve it until i strip the whole bike and get it all done properly

That was my bank holiday and last weeks evenings taken care of next week is the front end, oil and filter change and i'm going to flush the cooling system no time to get bored here

[Pedro]

Suspension looking nice and fresh, congrats.

 

I bet you get a lot more trouble from those bearing in the UK than we do here in drier countries.

[Sir Fallsalot]

7 minutes ago, Pedro said:

Suspension looking nice and fresh, congrats.

 

I bet you get a lot more trouble from those bearing in the UK than we do here in drier countries.

Thanks Pedro to be honest i was amazed how good it was only 3 bearings fooked but changed 4 as their in pairs. In total there are 10 bearings in the rear suspension swing arm and shock, i was expecting to be changing the lot, I've owned this bike for 10 years and this is the first time I've been in there so not sure when anyone was in there last so quite pleased