Rear suspension bearings

[SVandal]

I am trying to remove the bearings out of the swingarm and I was wondering if there is a special trick or if they just need to be pressed out. Also, has anyone ever put some grease zerks in the swingarm to allow the bearings to be greased without a full dissassembly? My main swingarm bearings are shot so I am looking at this for preventative maintanance.
Thanks

 

[mkelly04]

You should be able to press them out.

As far as the grease zerks go, unless you find a way to get a hole in the bearing race so the grease actually greases the bearing then it wont work.


And, since you should only need to grease the linkage once or twice a year I dont think its worth it.

 

[SVandal]

I had wondered about the zerks. I am just having trouble getting the bearings out so I wanted to see for sure before I broke something.
Thanks for the help.

 

[IndyMX]

I got a foot or so of threaded rod from Home Depot, some thick washers and a couple of nuts.. Not ordinary nuts though, these baby's are long.. They are in the same area as the threaded rod.. They are used to join two pieces of the rod.

Then you can use sections of cut pipe or a couple of sockets the right size and use that do press out the bearings. Also can be used to press the new ones in.

Use a smaller pipe or socket on the side you are pushing from and a larger size on the side that the bearing will push out into.

Pretty easy to do, and total investment was under 10 bucks.

 

[tom87b]

HEY, I just replaced evey bearing in my kdxs suspension,front and back, wheels too, plus the neck bearings as they were shot too. Heat was by far an invaluable assist. Benzomatic torch is a must. I used sockets to punch out and press in most all of them with the help of a vice for pressing in. If you get your bearings from pivot works, youll notice that instead of four swingarm bearings, youll get two that are twice as long. If you have any trouble getting that linkage bolt out closest to the engine,let me know. It took me three days,heat,injanuity,a little blood and some luck. It was only after the bike fell off the stand and landed on its side that I relized this gave me the angle I needed to wail on the sucker. Good luck man! :cool:

 

[SVandal]

Ok, well, using a socket, a vice, some wd40, and some stem risers from my mountain bike I was able to press them out. They are rusted up so I'll be ordering some new ones from Kawasaki. So far I haven't gone through the linkage bearings, but I fear the worst. The steering bearings just need to be cleaned and repacked. It just makes me glad that I didn't pay the asking price. Thanks for the help, it will make putting them back in a little easier.