Yamaha Suspension Questions

[Duc-Monster]

I decided to grease my suspension on my 2002 YZ250. I removed the rear suspension link. I did not find what I thought was grease! I found rollers surrouned by hard yellow material. I call the local Yamaha dealer and they told m that this was the cageand it is made of teflon!. I can't beleive that. So I started to talk to one of the guys I race with and he told me the dealer was wrong. Yamaha uses a really wierd grease and it gets hard. Who I right?


Do I just peal this stuff out and use regular grease. My friend who races gave me a tub of belray grease. Is this stuff OK to use?

thanks in advance.

The Duc

 

[Jeff Howe]

The guy who said your dealer was wrong is wrong. Thats how the YZ bearings are. It is not a hard teflon, it is more like a silicone cage. Just dig it all out and repack with grease. You have 28 needles per bearing. The Bel Ray is fine.

 

[dkortje]

I did that on my YZ and had a few of the needles fall out. I just put them back in with grease and put it all back together, but it made me real nervous. Is that OK or do I need to replace the bearings?

 

[Jeff Howe]

What I do is remove all the silicone type cage, and smear grease in the bearing race, reinstall the 28 needles and then pack them full of grease like any other bearing. I've seen the bearings go a full season on the yellow crap and look ok, I've also seen them totally roached in a season of use too. I don't gamble with the yellow crap, I take it out and pack them full of grease.

 

[MikeT]

Originally posted by Shocknut
It is not a hard teflon, it is more like a silicone cage. Just dig it all out and repack with grease. You have 28 needles per bearing. The Bel Ray is fine.

Shocknut, You aren't telling him to remove and break the bearings out of the hard cage, are you? Just clean out the old grease and repack, correct?

 

[bclapham]

no, the yellow stuff is not the cage, its the weird lube, it is a cageless bearing (unlike the swingarm bearing that do have a cage) you pull all the needles out, and pick the yellow crap lube out of the shell and clean it with carb cleaner. then fill with grease and replace the needles back in. once that its done the suspension is bliss!

 

[MikeT]

Oh, I guess I've never seen one like that...

 

[bclapham]

Originally posted by MikeT
Oh, I guess I've never seen one like that...

you can spot them a mile off, they are newer yamahas with loose, squeaky, rattling linkages that clank everytime you land! i suppose most people change the yellow stuff straight away or just change the whole bearing one year later when they are knackered! i was lucky with mine, bought the bike used but didnt have a facility to strip it that far, ended up doing it in my parking lot....just in time!