Odd play in suspension link

[porterdog]

Immediately after aquiring my new-to-me '06 200 I tore down the suspension to evaluate the bearings and make sure I had enough grease in there. Had to replace the swingarm bearings, but everything else seemed tight.

Until I got it back together!

Upon reassembly I could easily feel a bit of play in the system when I tried to move the swingarm up and down. It was quite visible once I looked at the right spot- there was obvious slop in the pivot where the link connects to the frame.

"Crap," I thought. "Shoulda replaced those, too...." Now I'm not so sure!

This is the link:

And this is where the play is:

The fit of the pivot bolt to the ID of the sleeve is sloppy!

Neither the pivot bolt nor the sleeve look particularly hammered on, but there's ~.5-.75mm of motion possible between them. WTF, over?

 

[IndyMX]

Worn out, replace them.

 

[longtime coming]

so that's where the play is... I'm going to check mine to confirm. They come like that brand new, or at least mine did. It seems to be not right, for sure. You don't feel it or hear anything when riding. Mine seems to have play only when "topping out" and, like I said, since brand new.

 

[porterdog]

They really don't look worn, and I can't imagine that the ID of the sleeve or the OD of the pivot bolt would change that much and not have it be visible *before* the bearings got pounded to death.

I'm going to try and shim it in some way; it's definitely not proper!

Longtime- I'd really like to hear back about what you find. I've also put up a similar post in the TT suspension forum.

 

[mudpack]

Bolt-to-inner-race clearance is not critical in this application. The bolt performs one function: to clamp the inner race (you called it the "sleeve") solidly between the frame tabs.
The inner race/sleeve does not rotate on the bolt; the link rotates on the inner sleeve....this means that if it is properly torqued there is no wear on these two part's interfaces.

If the bolt is properly torqued, and you still have play, then you must look elsewhere for the cause.
Bolt everything up and properly torque the bolts. Move the swingarm and look (and FEEL) for relative movement at all the pivot points. You'll find it.

 

[porterdog]

It was tight, but it wasn't tight enough. It's a hard fastener to get torque onto, but the frame ears will clamp down on the sleeve.

 

[longtime coming]

I haven't looked at my bike yet. I did torque the linkage bolts to spec when I greased it last summer. I will check the torque in a couple of days and see what's up. :)