Lower PDS bearing rusting! RFS owners take heed! No lube, Huh?

[Unit74]

Of course I new this to be true as the lower bearing is Teflon coated, but when I took my PDS off to set my sag yesterday, I was in Horror. The shims were covered in orange on the outside as well as speckles on the insides. The bolt had started to display signs of aluminum/steel contact corrosion and there was definite signs of pitting through out the assembly. I have never used a power washer and always spend lots of time in maintainence so I was shocked to see this. I said Fuggetaboutit and slapped in some Silkolene RG2 grease. I would rathere wear off the remaining teflon and halt the rust than lett it distroy the whole housing area.
Anybody else have this issue? I highly reccomend you take a look at yours as well, as my bike was bought in late December and has 1 race and 2 play rides on it. That's it!

 

[KaTooMer]

You sound new to the whole heim bearing issue. Take at look at my thoughts at http://www.geocities.com/aa21830/Heim.html

All of my heim bushings have had some level of corrosion (I don't use a power washer, either). Most people scoff at the inner tube wrap-around solution, but if you saw my bike you'd know why I don't care what it looks like. At least I get a year's worth of use out of the bearings.

 

[rollingp]

I have found that by keeping the shock heim joint clean I can get about a season of practice and racing on two of them.
To me this is not bad .
If you transport your bike on a trailer or back of truck the salt will get into
it and cause some serious rust action.
As cheap as they are and as easy as they are to replace I dont think
going through two a season is a prob.
I can change one out in less than 15 minutes with a long bolt and two sockets used as a press.

 

[RoadRunner]

How do you put the new heim joint in without harming it? I just bashed my old one out with a 21mm socket (perfect fit) with no problems or gouges. Do you just hammer the new one in as well? Any tips?

 

[rollingp]

I took some 3/8 rod 5 inches long and threaded it on each end about
2 inches.
Put a 1/2 drive shallow socket on one side of the pds boss w nut on the end before the socket .The socket has to be something like 1and 7/8" .
Then on the other side I use a 1/2 drive deep well socket that rests on the outer edge of the heim joint. Center both sockets and snug the nuts .
Tighten the nut on the deep well side and it will push the heim join into the
shallow socket that you have on the other side of the boss.
You can get it almost all the way out. just rap it with a drift dead center and it will come out the rest of the way.
Reverse the process to install it . Make sure you center the heim joint and use a shallow drive socket to press the heim in the boss.
This is just a cheap screw press. Dont ever pound a heim in or all the way out.
You can make up the same press with a longer rod for installing wheel bearings without pounding on them and putting shock on the hub.