Water in my swingarm!

[rizerdibo]

If the movement is side to side, it is swingarm bearings. If it's linkages then, with the bike on the centre stand, there will be freeplay up and down at the back wheel. There should be no free play at all. If there is free play, strip and re-grease the linkage and check the bearings for rust damage.

Yeah, it's definately the linkage, but apparently not excessive and would pass an MOT. The guy from Dobles said it just needs new bearing needles. Hopefully it will get me up to the national and back!

[rizerdibo]

Took it back to Dobles today. They checked iside the swing arm and said there was no corrosion (as they would.) They sprayed preventative spray in there also. Will check when I get chance/can be bothered. Saw my mate the mechanic before going to see them who assured me there would be no lasting damage, He also said the 'play' was coming from the suspention linkage and was totally unrelated to the water. He also said it wasn't worth worrying about and wouldn't fail an MOT. Doble's said exacly the same and narrowed it down to 2 needle bearings. I made sure I got all this in writing just in case.

Just checked. No corrosion but plenty of sand in there that they failed to remove. Oh and I adjusted both swing arm chain tensioners equally which they didn't.

[rotax793]

There should be no free play at all. If there is free play, strip and re-grease the linkage and check the bearings for rust damage.

Bought my 650 a year ago. It had 7500 km (4661 miles) on the clock. On it I noticed a slight play in the linkage when having bike on center stand and rear wheel hanging. I could lift the swing just a little up and down without starting the actual shock motion.

Having heard that there should be no play at all the rear suspension and linkage I decided to bite the bullet and hence I ordered all the bearings and dust seals for the linkage and rear suspension and also the swing arm from david silver and did the excercise or changing them during the winter. I took help of a friend and we even used a professional press to press out the old bearing and push in the new ones as gentle as possible. We really took our time and saw that we placed everything back in the right way.

One of the swing bearings (right side) had developed a slightly harsher feeling which was appearent when holding the bearing and turning the inner race back and fourth with bare fingers. We replaced all bearings.

End result: Same play still appearent.

After this I decided that a little play in the linkage can be accepted, at least by me. I think the important thing for safety (out of the bearings I replaced) is that the swing bearings are tight.

I asked around on a swedish xl board and some others with 650 had the play as well. On the 600, on the other hand, I have not heard anyone that have this play. But the linkages are different between the two models.

By the way, here is an overview image of the swing

[Plasnart]

My brand new 700 had some vertical movement play. I regreased all the bearings at 10k (about a third of them were dry, esp the right hand swingarm one). After regreasing the play was exactly the same.

[rizerdibo]

My local independant mechanic reckons that most bikes made in the last 10 years seem to have a small amount of vertical play in them. I reckon I'll just live with it.