after reading the post about the bearings in the swing arm pivots not having enough grease from the factory, i was going to pull it apart and regrease, but i was wondering if you need a spring compressor or some special proceedure dealing with the shock/ spring assemble. Thanks in advance
You really don't need to compress the spring. Here is what I do, others may chime in for what works for them.
1. Put the bike on a stand so the rear wheel is off the ground a bit
2. Remove the bolt where the shock connects to the lower linkage. This will allow the rear wheel to lower to the ground.
3. Remove the rear brake lever (it will get in the way)
4. Remove the swingarm pivot bolt.
If you want, you can pull the swingarm back a bit to get to the inside area (where it wraps around the motor).
OK, thanks...so I take it when on the stand, and the suspension uncompressed, that the shock is not going to shoot downward when I remove the bolt? And reinstalling the eye end of the shock will not require compression on the unit to get the bolt through?? If so, great...but I would have though some preload would exist. Thanks
No, nothing of the sort will happen. The shock is the limiting factor for how far the swingarm goes, so simply unweight the swingarm when pulling out the bolt.
Try compressing the rear brake lever and sliding a screwdriver between it and the frame. This gave me enough room to get to the swingarm bolt without removing the lever (on an 03 YZ 125).