Grease

[RTL]

I have my rear shock off, sent it to Sage for a revalve. Wanted to grease everything while tore down. New 2001, 2 hours. When referring to the 'linkage', what exactly do I grease? Do I need to take the swing arm off and grease behind the black caps? Or, do I just grease the dog bone areas.

Forgive the ignorance, thanks for the advice.

 

[Sage]

anything that moves that you can get your hands on!

 

[Tantrum]

RTL,

This website might be of some use to you.
http://www.kdxmodifications.com
Click on the linkage link.

B.

 

[RTL]

That takes care of my ignorance. It appears that I have a lot of work to do. Tantrum/Sage, do you perform the zerking service for a fee? I can manually grease but I do not have the tools to do the zerkin... Thanks.:cool:

 

[TOFAS4YOU]

I JUST MY KDX APART LAST NIGHT TO PERFORM THE ZERK FITTING GOOD IDEA BUT I DECIDED NOT TO DO IT BECAUSE OF DRILLING THE RACE WOULD CAUSE PERMATURE WEAR ON THE BEARING BESIDES TO GET THE OF THE LINKAGE YOU NEED TO TAKE OFF THE SWINGARM I USED GOOD WATERPROOF TWO YEARS AGO AND IT STILL IN THERE SO I JUST CLEAN AND REPACKED AND REASSEMLED IT NOT REALLY THAT BIG OF A JOB IT TOOK A TOTAL OF AN HOUR JUST MY .02 WORTH!:aj:

 

[Sage]

I just do it when I service my shock, don't need zerks.

 

[Fred T]

RTL

Really it's no big deal. If you take the rear wheel off your bike and remove the linkage and swingarm like about every 600 miles and re grease it you will be good to go. Plan on acouple hours to be safe but it's pretty straight forward. I understand how you feel about wrenching your bike, but you need to learn to do maint on it anyway and this is no big deal. If your gonna ride you are going to have to learn about wrenching or you'll go broke at your laocal service shop. I knew nothing a year ago before I got my KDX and now I'm comfortable doing maint, linkage, steering stem , removeing suspension and even doing the top end and kips. You learn by experience. Oh yeah, I can also do jetting which appears to be feared my many 2 stroke owners.

 

[RTL]

Thanks guys. I'm pumped and ready to dive in! I know where to go if I have questions. I have a tendancy to over analize things. JUST DO IT being the theme I am hearing. Thanks again!:cool:

 

[canyncarvr]

Bookmark this:

http://www.buykawasaki.com/site/home/

Put in the year, size, model of your bike and you can access parts diagrams.

Helpful to get part numbers if you deal with a non-auth but able-to-order bike shop.

Also helpful is seeing how things go back together if you don't rememmer.

One word of caution (ok ...a few). Be careful putting the pull rods back on the shock linkage. With fresh grease in, things may be a bit tight. It's MANDATORY to get the shoulder of the mounting bolt SEATED IN the pull rod.

Easy to get the shoulder OUT of the rod, tighten it up and things seem good to go.

..until you ride it, notice some clunking noise, inspect the linkage to see the pull rod torn up 'cuz the bolt shoulder has been pounding it.

New pull rods (from devol) and bolts to put it together comes to about $100.

 

[RTL]

Thanks canyncarvr! I will heed your warning!;)

 

[RTL]

Just finished greasing the linkage and swingarm. Took me about 4 hours to do it all, but I learned a few tricks that should save me about 3 hours next time! My biggest frustration came from reassembly. It really helps to have a friend around to help 'line up holes'...:D The 4 hours included installing revalved shock and new Race Tech spring, 5.2. This thing is a beast, set preload to 103mm.

Should be a piece of cake next round. Thanks all for the encouragement and coaching. I plan on tackling the steering column, GV's and front springs next.

:cool:

 

[DVO]

TOFAS4YOU:

DRILLING THE RACE WOULD CAUSE PERMATURE WEAR ON THE BEARING

Not at all. The bearings don't run on the race at all in this area. If you look at them there is an area between each set of bearings and the hole can be drilled between them. Yes it's work to do it, but it'll save a lot more...Don't be afraid to do it because of premature wear.

 

[Tantrum]

Thank you DVO for explaining that. How did your install go by the way?

TOFA4YOU,
If you are using Stock Kawi parts, you will have no problem. On some years, the pivot works kit will give 2 longer bearings to replace the smaller 4 bearings. If you are using this kit and dont feel comfortable drilling the sleeve, then dont do it. But, if you look at the process again, and follow it, I'm sure you will have no problems. I did this to my own bike and everything is fine. Riders have been doing this mod for many years now.

B.

 

[kdxquebec]

b

 

[DVO]

Tantrum, I've had mine done for quite a while now and have no problems. I didn't go about it the same way that you did however. Instead, I drilled and tapped the swing-arm itself to squirt grease in. It's much simpler than the way you did it but your way has one distinct advantage-it puts grease between the sleeve and bolt. If you do a search on this you'll find that it is significant, as many have had serious problems with the sleeves getting rusted to the bolt. Good maintenance will prevent this but so will your particular mod. I'm going to mod my bolt(using your way) to put grease at this place and continue to use the zerks I have in place. It'll be a while though 'cause I recently wiped out my right shoulder so I'm out of commission for 2-3 months. I was in a groove but came out of it real quick. This really sucks. BTW, really like your site. Nice work.