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I just completed a swing arm rebuild on my 78 GS1000C.
The bearings had never been touched, and had developed wear allowing the rear wheel a quarter inch of side to side play.
The outer spacers were worn, especially on the left-chain- side. They were simple to drive out with light taps and an improvised drift
It was easy enough, until I tried to drive out the seized and rusty bearing races. Nothing was budging with taps and a section of pipe as a drift.
Here is what I did, based on past experience with other bearing replacement jobs:
Take a large ball peen hammer and with firm but not excessive force, crack the outer ring of the bearing with the ball, by tapping in a downward direction into the open tube. This will break the rim of the bearing shell. It is easy after that to pry up the broken rim, and the inner roller bearings and slotted inner cage. With the cage and rollers removed, all that is now left is the bearing race, with the top rim cracked and removed. a cylinder, pressed into the swing arm.
To get the rest of the race, I used a 1/8 inch wide wood chisel as a wedge between the bearing race and swing arm body. The narrow chisel is easy to get started, then carefully drive all the way down between the bearing cage and swing arm tube. I positioned the chisel with the flat side against the swing arm tube, so the "wedge" or bevelled side was exerting pressure against the bearing race. A narrow chisel is not only narrow, but also relatively tall-it makes a thin vertical wedge shape.The one I used is 1/4 inch tall within a quarter inch of the tip, getting taller the deeper it penetrates between the bearing shell and the swing arm tube. It caused a ridge to form in the bearing race, lifting it away from the tube wall, relieving the pressure enough to make it easy to tap out from the opposite side.
The new bearings were easy to gently tap into place with a piece of wood, after cleaning the swing arm, and applying a little WD40 to ease the way.
This trick is useful where bearing races don't budge, and where one must pry the mess apart. A narrow chisel is the key, so it won't get stuck, and will form a narrow ridge in the cage to relieve the pressure.
Replacing old bearings can be an annoying and fiddly job
-add your own tricks here
The bearings had never been touched, and had developed wear allowing the rear wheel a quarter inch of side to side play.
The outer spacers were worn, especially on the left-chain- side. They were simple to drive out with light taps and an improvised drift
It was easy enough, until I tried to drive out the seized and rusty bearing races. Nothing was budging with taps and a section of pipe as a drift.
Here is what I did, based on past experience with other bearing replacement jobs:
Take a large ball peen hammer and with firm but not excessive force, crack the outer ring of the bearing with the ball, by tapping in a downward direction into the open tube. This will break the rim of the bearing shell. It is easy after that to pry up the broken rim, and the inner roller bearings and slotted inner cage. With the cage and rollers removed, all that is now left is the bearing race, with the top rim cracked and removed. a cylinder, pressed into the swing arm.
To get the rest of the race, I used a 1/8 inch wide wood chisel as a wedge between the bearing race and swing arm body. The narrow chisel is easy to get started, then carefully drive all the way down between the bearing cage and swing arm tube. I positioned the chisel with the flat side against the swing arm tube, so the "wedge" or bevelled side was exerting pressure against the bearing race. A narrow chisel is not only narrow, but also relatively tall-it makes a thin vertical wedge shape.The one I used is 1/4 inch tall within a quarter inch of the tip, getting taller the deeper it penetrates between the bearing shell and the swing arm tube. It caused a ridge to form in the bearing race, lifting it away from the tube wall, relieving the pressure enough to make it easy to tap out from the opposite side.
The new bearings were easy to gently tap into place with a piece of wood, after cleaning the swing arm, and applying a little WD40 to ease the way.
This trick is useful where bearing races don't budge, and where one must pry the mess apart. A narrow chisel is the key, so it won't get stuck, and will form a narrow ridge in the cage to relieve the pressure.
Replacing old bearings can be an annoying and fiddly job
-add your own tricks here