Swingarm Bearing Question

[Guest]

Hey guys,

I was unable to locate my original bearings (30203J) locally, so the guys at Fastenal located a substitute with the exact same dimensions.

The only differences aside from brand are rubber seals and that the new ones are ball bearings, not rollers.

Will this affect anything? The guys there were unable to tell me anything, but I figure same shape, size, function = go for it.

Have I erred yet again?

[Steve]

Personally, that is one location where I would insist on having the tapered rollers.

If all the loads were strictly side-to-side (along the axis of the pivot bolt), the balls would work OK, but you also have twisting loads as you lean into turns, and that is where the tapered part of the bearing starts doing its job.

.

[Call Me Ahab]

Personally, that is one location where I would insist on having the tapered rollers.

If all the loads were strictly side-to-side (along the axis of the pivot bolt), the balls would work OK, but you also have twisting loads as you lean into turns, and that is where the tapered part of the bearing starts doing its job.

.

DAAAAAAAAAAMNNNIIITTT!! All right =[

I'll have to track them down somehow. Thank you sir!

[bwringer]

Yep, you need tapered bearings here.

Brand-new bearings from Suzuki are about $35 each. Not outrageous, unless you don't count the value of your time or the gas to go back and forth to Fastenal or wherever. They seem to be an uncommon size, and even the standard bearings available that are close to that size are $25 - $30 each.

It's not surprising to me that the doofs at Fastenal didn't know anything useful... hopefully they'll take the return.

Also, are you really sure you need new ones? I've never seen these actually go bad. Just re-grease and adjust per the manual.

[Call Me Ahab]

Yep, you need tapered bearings here.

Brand-new bearings from Suzuki are about $35 each. Not outrageous, unless you don't count the value of your time or the gas to go back and forth to Fastenal or wherever. That seems to be a nonstandard size, and even the standard bearings available that are close to that size are $25 - $30 each.

It's not surprising to me that the doofs at Fastenal didn't know anything useful... hopefully they'll take the return.

Also, are you really sure you need new ones? I've never seen these actually go bad. Just re-grease and adjust per the manual.

Yeah they were pretty bad - I chucked one of them in the trash, lost the other one... the races still show traces of just how bad they were. They corroded and the grease had nearly gone solid, the one I threw out had 2 broken rollers, and they were rusted pretty bad.

I called Motion Industries, the guy I talked to is shipping some in for me at $21 a piece. Not bad, paid 16 for the ones at fastenal... I'll check with them about the return.

I hope like hell I don't have the same trouble removing these bearings as I did with the originals...

**

When I assembled the swingarm with the ball bearings, I noticed that they were 1mm thicker than the old ones. This did not seem to matter at all, in fact I'm sure I can go even furth in terms of thickness if I had to. As long as your OD and ID remain the same, it looks like you can play with the width. But that's just what I'm seeing, could be wrong

[FiremanBob]

I bought the swingarm needle bearings for my 550 from Z1 for $6.14 each.

[Steve]

I bought the swingarm needle bearings for my 550 from Z1 for $6.14 each.

That's nice, but the shafties don't use needle bearings, they use tapered rollers.

.

[bwringer]

That's nice, but the shafties don't use needle bearings, they use tapered rollers.

.

Yup, and the shafties have a lot fewer issues with these bearings than chainies. And they're even adjustable via threaded stub axles.

If they don't get water inside and corrode as the OP's did, they'll pretty much last forever.

[hikermikem]

Yep, you need tapered bearings here.

Also, are you really sure you need new ones? I've never seen these actually go bad. Just re-grease and adjust per the manual.

Check these out: http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...d.php?t=197569

Pretty sure they needed replacing...

[Call Me Ahab]

Check these out: http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...d.php?t=197569

Pretty sure they needed replacing...

Omg o_O.. just wow!

Mine weren't THAT bad, but they were pretty ugly.. Mostly just rusted and torn up races.

Have new ones supposedly coming in, but the vendor stopped emailing me. Kinda gettin nervous.