Two posts ago I mentioned that I was cleaning up the front fork. I never posted pictures of that finished work so here it is. The first two photos show the front fork and swingarm before and after after rust was removed.
You can see the fork cleaned up very nicely. The original paint and primer came through like a champ.
The swingarm is aluminum so no rust just some cleaning and grease removal. I then hit both pieces with some clear coat making sure not to get the clear coat in to the bearing races. The bearings were all very solid and spinning level so need to pull or replace those. The roller bearings for the front hub (underneath that large 22mm nut) will both need to be reseated slightly as they came off their respective bases just a bit when removing the hub itself. A little love tap on reassembly will take care of that detail. The needle bearings in the swingarm pivot however were a different story...see below.
So inside the swingarm pivot at the end of the fork are these nifty needle bearings. This kind of bearing consists of the bearing shell (which you can see as the center circle) and then the needle bearings themselves. The shell is constructed so there is a lip on each end. The needle bearings roll around held in place by the lips on either end of the shell and the swingarm pivot which goes through the center. But when you drive out the pivot the bearings are free to roam about as they please. This normally means needle bearings all over the place. If you are lucky your grease has held the needles all in place so they can be removed cleaned and repacked. In my case that is exactly what happened. 18 needles per bearing, one bearing on each side of the opening so a total of 36 needle bearings to be individually refitted back into their respective shells. Once the needle bearings are in place carefully drive the swingarm pivot back through the hole and you should have a functioning swingarm pivot.
No comments:
Post a Comment