Hello everyone.
Today I'm writing about removing the swingarm from my G650GS.
The main reason I wanted the swingarm off was to replace the rear shock.
Removing the swingarm roughly involves these steps.
- Remove the chain guard
- Remove the rear wheel
- Remove the rear linkage
- Remove the swingarm
Here I mainly cover step 4, removing the swingarm.
This is the swingarm still attached to the bike.
I'll start from here.
To remove the swingarm, all you need to do is remove the rear linkage and pull out the pivot shaft... except that the pivot shaft wouldn't come out.
For the pivot shaft, see this post.
Things are a little out of order, but next I remove the rear linkage.
Once the rear linkage is off, the swingarm drops, so I rest it on something to stop it dropping.
Here I used a 10-litre plastic jerry can.
Also, ready for removing the swingarm, I take off the rear brake hose guide (yellow arrows in the photo above).
Once the bolts already removed in the photo above are out, the swingarm is ready to come off.
Now I pull out the pivot shaft.
(See the post mentioned earlier.)
With the pivot shaft out, slide the swingarm out towards the back of the bike.
Take care with the rear shock and the chain as you do this.
The swingarm is off!
Here it is with the swingarm removed.
My workspace is a bit of a mess.
The swingarm is quite a large part, so I recommend tidying up and working in as much space as you can.
This is the bike without the swingarm, seen from directly behind.
It's a good chance to clean places you normally can't reach.
Now let's check the swingarm I removed.
The seals on the needle bushes had fallen apart.
This is the chain guide rail and its mounting.
Grit has stuck to chain oil flung off the chain.
I remove the chain guide rail and clean it.
I clean it with Plexus and a toothbrush.
It comes up reasonably clean.
I also clean the screws so that no dirt is left in the cross-head recesses.
Next, I remove the needle bushes.
The seal rings are no longer usable.
I was surprised that plenty of grease was still there. Given how hard the pivot shaft was to get out, I thought it had never been serviced since new, so either I was wrong, or it's very good grease.
The needle bushes are flanged, and the seal ring on the side without the flange stayed in the swingarm.
I removed it with a flat-blade screwdriver, taking care not to damage the swingarm.
Rather than a screwdriver, I think it's better to use something softer than the swingarm, such as a bamboo skewer.
Here's the needle bush I removed.
The part in contact with the bearing has no rust, but the part outside the bearing had rusted.
A close-up of the rust.
As usual, I polish it with Sabitori King.
The obvious rust is gone, but the rust had also lifted the plating.
It's not the part in contact with the bearing, so I'll reuse it as it is.
Since the swingarm is off anyway, I decided to replace the bearings too.
So that the bearings come out smoothly, I spray them with WAKO'S Rust Penetrant and leave them for at least a night.
Here's the post where I replaced the swingarm bearings.
I also noticed something while replacing the bearings, so I wrote a post about that too.
That's all for this time.
The chemicals I used this time were Plexus, Sabitori King rust remover and WAKO'S Rust Penetrant.
(Plexus has become hard to find; VuPlex is an alternative.)