Custom Swingarm Bushings (for swinger conversions)

[T8erbug]

Greg b 's solution of bushing sleeves is ideal and no need to be concerned about wall thickness as long as they are a good fit.Turn the bushes on a mandrel and turn up a shouldered punch to press them in so to prevent collapse of bush and once in drive a 14mm bearing ball thru the hole to broach it to size.If you can fit a 6 thou thick liner to a valve guide and it stays in place with no adhesive it will b no problem to sleeve the bushes down to size and b confident it will not fail

[QUOTE=Chuck78;1791866]I've read this numerous times, and it is not quite true. See my photo in the recent "swingarm swap and cleanup" post- the bushing you will be machining does not have to replace the stock inner spacer & both bearing races. You just need a spacer just a hair under 225mm I think it was, that is 14mm i.d. and 16mm o.d.

The inner races are sandwiched between the frame, dustcaps, thrust washers, and inner bearing race spacer sleeve. You just need a spacer to make the 14mm bolt 16mm thock between the frame, and have it just a hair narrower than the frame as to allow tge frame to sandwich the inner race assembly properly. I would use permanent loctite on the spacer to keep it from rattling around side to side.[/QUOTE

I'll go check it out. Thanks for the feedback guys. So Chuck you're saying just go the sleeve route? It makes sense to do that as long as the tolerances are tight just because there is less to do workwise and I won't have to harden the steel, BUT the fact that it only has 1mm wall thickness leads me to believe it would be tough to make on the lathe. I'm not the experienced machinist ha I just come up with the crazy ideas! Daturat100r just about everything you said while probably being 100% correct it went right over my head ha. Any youtube vids you could link me up to so I can get a visual of what you're saying?

[Chuck78]

So Chuck you're saying just go the sleeve route? BUT the fact that it only has 1mm wall thickness leads me to believe it would be tough to make on the lathe.

Good point, I will check with my machinist friend, but he already told me that a 224.6mm wide 16mm o.d. 14mm i.d. steel sleeve would be really simple to make,.

I had thought about jigging up a small drillpress in the frame and buying a 16mm reamer bit to enlarge the holes, but I didn't want to permanently alter the frame so that the 750 swinger would never fit again in case I ever upgrade to a different (80's GS1000/1100) frame or stripped parts off to build a better GS superbike. Also the repercussions of failing to drill it straight were weighing heavily. The amount of time to set up a jig to hold a small drill press perfectly perpendicular to the frame holes/bushings seemed not worth it if my buddy can just make a spacer on his lunch break as he said.

[Chuck78]

I just had a crazy thought that if drilling/reaming out the frame, getting a 16mmx1.0 thread tap off of ebay through the frame would probably make drilling/reaming the 16mm hole a lot easier, as the thread tap would probably be more likely to guide itself really straight through the hole, and ream out half of the metal at the same time. Then running a 16mm reamer through would be pretty easy.

I don't know if this is the best type of reamer to use, but here's the best of the 16mm I could find on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180985951610

a 5/8" reamer I linked in that other post I mentioned seemed to be the style that I think would work the best. I am still in favor of having a 1mm thick 225mm wide spacer sleeve made.

[Chuck78]

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=190634

[T8erbug]

Good point, I will check with my machinist friend, but he already told me that a 224.6mm wide 16mm o.d. 14mm i.d. steel sleeve would be really simple to make,.

I had thought about jigging up a small drillpress in the frame and buying a 16mm reamer bit to enlarge the holes, but I didn't want to permanently alter the frame so that the 750 swinger would never fit again in case I ever upgrade to a different (80's GS1000/1100) frame or stripped parts off to build a better GS superbike. Also the repercussions of failing to drill it straight were weighing heavily. The amount of time to set up a jig to hold a small drill press perfectly perpendicular to the frame holes/bushings seemed not worth it if my buddy can just make a spacer on his lunch break as he said.

It seems we sit in almost the same spot haha. My buddy can do the machine work too and it's just a matter of the bushing/sleeve actually working. My hesitance to drill goes through stages . . Somedays I'm about ready to go out in the garage with my mikita and a drill bit and just go to town. I have waited long enough though I might as well do it right. I'm a little ocd so knowing that my bike could have vital holes that are off center would ruin the whole bike for me because it's not symmetrical.. . My buddy won't be back in town till the 5 of Jan so I'm stuck waiting. When will you be able to get your sleeves done?

[T8erbug]

I just had a crazy thought that if drilling/reaming out the frame, getting a 16mmx1.0 thread tap off of ebay through the frame would probably make drilling/reaming the 16mm hole a lot easier, as the thread tap would probably be more likely to guide itself really straight through the hole, and ream out half of the metal at the same time. Then running a 16mm reamer through would be pretty easy.

I don't know if this is the best type of reamer to use, but here's the best of the 16mm I could find on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180985951610

a 5/8" reamer I linked in that other post I mentioned seemed to be the style that I think would work the best. I am still in favor of having a 1mm thick 225mm wide spacer sleeve made.

So you want to tap the 14mm frame holes out 1mm to make half the hole then ream the threads out? That's not a terrible idea.. In theory it would keep the hole concentric. Hmmmm... Or maybe we're just going nuts to come up with a solution haha.

[Smurf]

T8 or Chuck,

If either of you guys can find a machinist to make up some spacers, I'm in. Don't want to ream or drill out the frame bushings unless I absolutely have to.

[hjfisk]

I am not sure what size spacers the 1100 swing arm takes but I just today installed a 96 Bandit 600 rear swing arm on my 78 1000, What I had to do was use the bearing race from the 78 [15mm center] in the bearings on the bandit swing arm as those were 20mm inside. The out side was the same on both bearing races, the length was a little shorter so I had to ad a shim washer to each side. Then I was able to use the original swing arm axle.With no frame drilling . Might be able to do the same with the 1100 swinger

[T8erbug]

I am not sure what size spacers the 1100 swing arm takes but I just today installed a 96 Bandit 600 rear swing arm on my 78 1000, What I had to do was use the bearing race from the 78 [15mm center] in the bearings on the bandit swing arm as those were 20mm inside. The out side was the same on both bearing races, the length was a little shorter so I had to ad a shim washer to each side. Then I was able to use the original swing arm axle.With no frame drilling . Might be able to do the same with the 1100 swinger

Unfortunately the GS750 and GS1100 bearing races have different inner AND outer diameters so this wouldn't be possible. I wish I wish I wish. ..

T8 or Chuck,

If either of you guys can find a machinist to make up some spacers, I'm in. Don't want to ream or drill out the frame bushings unless I absolutely have to.

Ben and I are going to see what we can do when he gets back.. I'll use my bike as the experiment .. If it doesn't work then I guess we're all going to have a frame drill out party

[daturat100r]

Me not familiar with 1100 swing arm but presumably its setup similar to original s/a with a spacer between inner races but has a 16mm hole where you require it to take the 14mm bolt.A short length of turned bush inserted at each end of spacer will hold the spacer concentric and turned bushes inserted into each of the inner races will reduce the id to required 14mm.
Broaching was wrong term meant burnish and is unneccessary as no relative movement between parts once all clamped up so absolute perfect fit not so important

[mlymanz71]

Did you end up drilling out the frame or did you get some bushings mocked up?

[mrbill5491]

Here is what my swing arm swap looks like. 16mm new bushings made, bushing hole in the frame, bushing installed, bushing welded in and the swing arm installation.

[mrbill5491]

A few more.

[T8erbug]

A few more.

I can't view those pics. Any way you can give us a link or post them in another format??

[gearhead13]

I just drilled out my frame. The hole is not much bigger, so it guides itself, just let the drill and bit do the job, don't put any side loads on it. The strength of the larger bolt is partly why I went this way as I had already installed an 1100 in it. Why install a stronger swinger and use the weaker bolt and smaller bearings?
When I put in the 1100, I could feel the stock steel swing arm flex when I opened it up.