Swingarm Bearing Grease

[roeme]

This bumped thread just led me a bit down a rabbithole; since I've removed the swingarm on one of my bikes recently. Getting that nice old-timey-engine-grease smell, I concluded that this was the first time that swingarm came off since the bike rolled of the factory floor over in Japan. I wasn't sure if the universal grease I generally use (motorex 176) was a suitable replacement; after a bit of research (thankfully all the specs and testing methodology are standardized and available) I came to the conclusion that it is.

The guy back in '78 responsible for greasing the swingarm bearings sure was generous though!

[748cc]

Can the pivot rod be safely extracted while the swingarm is still assembled to the bike/wheel? Wondering if I can get away with removing the rod & injecting some fresh grease into the spacers/pivot cavity, and then re-install the *greased*rod. No real time or space to do a full tear down.

[salty_monk]

If you support it properly then you can probably do it I would guess... Some people put a grease fitting on them in the centre for doing something similar.

[Steve]

Can the pivot rod be safely extracted while the swingarm is still assembled to the bike/wheel? Wondering if I can get away with removing the rod & injecting some fresh grease into the spacers/pivot cavity, and then re-install the *greased*rod. No real time or space to do a full tear down.

If you support it properly then you can probably do it I would guess... Some people put a grease fitting on them in the centre for doing something similar.

The more I see things like this, the more I like the tapered roller bearings on my shafties.

.

[748cc]

If you support it properly then you can probably do it I would guess... Some people put a grease fitting on them in the centre for doing something similar.

Okay...Could a grease fitting be added to the swingarm while still mounted to the bike? I'm not sure how deep the spacers fit into the pivot cavity, or how deep a drill bit could go before hitting something I shouldn't chaffe up. And then tapping the hole...the pivot rod would probably still have to come out. I'm contemplating getting a second swingarm that I can rebuild in advance (complete with grease fitting added) & then doing a swap out in one afternoon. That'd decrease downtime. I tend to overthink things

[salty_monk]

It’s not a long job whether you add a grease fitting or not. If you’re not fittingnew bearings I don’t see why you wouldn’t be done I. Two hours or less.

if
adding a fitting you’d want to pull it out and make sure you get rid of all the swafe etc