Rear drive needle bearing and swing arm restoration

[NicoNZ]

Removed my swing arm bearings in less than a minute. Not sure what all the fuss was about! Slide puller with one "L" shaped hook behind the bearing. Maybe I am just lucky :-)

 

[pete roper]

You were lucky😂

[Lucky Phil]

28 minutes ago, pete roper said:

You were lucky😂

I didn't want to say that Pete. No way would mine come out with a slide hammer only.

Ciao

[pete roper]

The first one I did needed a bloody gas-axe! It was on an 1100 Sport C that appeared to have been assembled in a very damp salt mine....

[docc]

5 hours ago, pete roper said:

The first one I did needed a bloody gas-axe! It was on an 1100 Sport C that appeared to have been assembled in a very damp salt mine....

Glad not to be alone . . .

[gstallons]

I like that !

[Chuck]

15 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

I didn't want to say that Pete. No way would mine come out with a slide hammer only.

Ciao

Unkept couldn't get one out, so I said bring it down, and tackled it with a grin.

I couldn't get it out, either.

I ended up welding up that stupid bearing and jacking it out of there.

[Lucky Phil]

My home made tool works really well, truly it does:) But the secret is loading up the bearing and then impacting the bearing housing with a copper hammer or a 2lb hammer with an aluminium block to protect the swingarm. The impact shock is absolutely critical to the operation. The problem with the impact puller is mainly the fact that it's difficult to restrain the arm solidly so the energy from the impact of the slide hammer is all transferred to the bearing. Docc had the theory right but I'm still surprised the webbing wasn't too stretchy.

Ciao

[docc]

"Recovery" straps would be too stretchy. This was a "tow" strap. They still stretch a little, but not much. It still took heat and quite a lot of slide hammering to free them.

[Lucky Phil]

7 hours ago, docc said:

"Recovery" straps would be too stretchy. This was a "tow" strap. They still stretch a little, but not much. It still took heat and quite a lot of slide hammering to free them.

I was trying to avoid heat just for the sake of the finish. Heating is sometimes the only way but it's usually in the last resort category for me. My home made tool solutions works like a charm and you can make the tool for literally $5. You need an internal puller of course but what the hell Guzziisti wouldn't have one of those:)

Ciao 

[pete roper]

Phil, I have virtually every puller known to man, and probably a few not available to aliens! On that Sport C the ONLY thing that eventually moved it was heat, lots and lots of heat! Yes it did for the paint but believe me, if I could of found an alternative I would of been all over it like a rash!

[Chuck]

I welded a stud in the bore, welded the bearing so it wouldn't turn, and made a steel saddle with a hole in it for the stud to go through. Put a nut on it, and started turning the crank.. No damage to the swing arm.

[PeterT]

I found this thread v. useful since I too found my small, outer, unsealed needle cage all rusted up just like the pictures shown.  Greasing it at every tyre change is a "must" from now on!

So armed with this info I bought myself a slide hammer bearing puller (only £35 from Amazon), a new needle bearing and inner race and a canister of freeze release.  I did try "wacking" the back of the bearing to drive it out from the other side using a thick steel rod before I realised that I was just hitting a thick steel washer that the bearing is squashed against that appears to be trapped in by a steel cylinder that lines the surface into which the bearing is inserted  So at this point I looked at this thread and got myself properly prepared.  I levered out the inner cage and needles with a screwdriver to give me a surface to pull against.  I heated up the bevel box first by just setting it close to domestic room heating electric fan.  The bevel box was still filled with oil.  Using my meter that has a thermocouple and a setting to read its temperature, this showed that I got the whole box to about 45-50deg.C.  I then inserted my 30mm puller and expanded it to catch the outer lip of the bearing and I squirted some of the freeze/light oil release (though I'm not really convinced that this actually did anything).  I then spent about 10-15 minutes playing my hot-air gun around the needle bearing, monitoring the surface temperature until it got up to 100deg.C, and then used the slide hammer.  It did pull the bearing up about 4mm before the outer lip distorted, expanding just enough to allow the puller to detach. Now that there was a gap at the back I then re-seated it against the back face, tightened it up, gave it another freeze spray and reheated it back up to 100deg.C and then with about 5 or 6 modest slide-hammer wacks it came out.   I am now just carefully contemplating how I can pull in the new bearing with a bolt down the central axle hole after, heating it up to what appears to be an obligatory 100deg.C.

Any good thoughts or things I should be careful of here? 

[MartyNZ]

Peter, it seems that you did a good job of removing the bearing. I went through the same pain.

https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19514-encyclopedia-of-compatible-parts/page/2/&tab=comments#elControls_216691_menu

 

[Tinus89]

Soooo, pushing some life back in this topic.

 

Did my 2-yearly big maintenance including greasing of the driveshaft and checking the small needle bearing was on the list too.

Findings:

Bearing pre-cleaning

Bearing inner race post-cleaning

 

Bearing post-cleaning (flush with degrease & rag)

 

I've considered cleaning up the inner race even more using scotchbrite/sandpaper, but voted against it for materials loss reasons. I've regreased and remounted the bearing for hopefully another 2years of service.

Question: should I expect to change this bearing in two years time? Or should I not expect it to last this long?

 

Also in the same subject/region: I've discovered I have some feeling play in the rose joints of the reaction rod on my bike (the lightened "sport" version of aluminium). I'll most likely have to replace that next year as well...