Since my shoulder is injured and I can't ride, and my cylinder is removed from my bike and I can't ride, I figure I may as well get some maintenance done. We've all heard about the grease shortage in Taiwan where our bikes are assembled, so some swingarm maintenance was pretty high on the list. The job is not hard - only special tools is a torque wrench.

Getting started, remove the rear tire:



Remove the pair of plastic brake cable guides:



Tie off the rear brake calipers up out of the way:



Remove the change guide slipper to free the chain:



Remove the upper dogbone linkage:



Remove the swingarm pivot bolt:



The swingarm will now pull free:



Other than the rear wheel, these are the only parts removed, not bad at all:



The swingarm - all grimey even after I washed my bike which is usually just a simple hosing, nothing close to deej's standards:



I cleaned it up though in preparation for exposing the bearings:



The bearing seals lift right out:



Followed by the pivot sleeve:



To expose some pretty dry bearings - thankfully it doesn't appear any water has penetrated and they are in good shape:



Use molybdenum disulfide grease:



Pack the bearings thoroughly - squeeze the grease in and around all the bearings until they will accept no more:



Apply a little grease around the edge of the seals, and reinsert one followed by the pivot sleeve, followed by the other seal:



Repeat for the bearings in the other arm.

I love the Kawasaki service manuals: "Reassembly is the reverse of removal."

All back together:



60 ft-lbs of torque for this bolt:



65 ft-lbs for the pivot bolt.

Reassembled and ready to ride:



Oh, that's right, I can't ride because my collar bone is still broken [:@]:



And ... my engine is still in pieces [&:]:



Sigh. At least my swingarm bearings are serviced.

 

... and its a little bit cleaner than when you started!

Great job! Did you ever consider writing motorcycle maintenance manuals as a career? If you haven't, you should!

Mike

 

Great photos! Deej is having seizures seeing all that dirt..lol

 

Yea that's the first thing I thought was why didn't you wash and detail the bike before you started anything. LOL But seriously I am going to print this out and get it done asap. Thanks Nobrakes, you're the BOMB!!

 

You did such a good job on the steering bearings, it's the least I could do It does feel better knowing its done and doesn't take that long. And I think this confirms the severe grease shortage in Asia.

 

Nice job ... as usual Brian ... Oh but it's Thailand not Taiwan [8D]

 

Doh! [&:] I got the first letter right

 

sweeet... i am going to be doing alot of that stuff over the winter also.. thanks for the pics.....

 

Nice, Brian. BTW, I don't have any experience in this (go figure!). How often is it recommended to go between checks for this. I know that we all should do it soon since it looks like it was barely done at the factory at all, but after you have done it once, when should you expect to inspect and reapply?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Excellent post Brian. I will be doing this when I change out my rear spring and planned on servicing the swingarm too. Now perhaps someone could do a post like this showing how to do stearing bearings as I want to do those too when I do the front springs.



LV