Removing swing-arm bushings without a press

Brian, the spindle is generally an easy sliding fit in the cradle itself and the whole assembly can be drifted into a central position with a brass drift from either side, thereafter it is only the rotational movement using the swingarm itself that is needed to locate the bolt, I've done quite a few and found it only takes me a few minutes to line up the holes. Please continue to call it "the BrianK technique" Dave and Brian sounds too much like 'Siegfried and Roy' to me!

Dave,

I think you are bringing that back to me now, it may have been another bike I made that drift for.
This one had a lock bolt in the middle did it not?

Cookie,

The model I am refering to is the earlier Commando with the single centrally located lock bolt that goes through a hole in the tube attached to the gearbox cradle and locates into a threaded hole in the swingarm spindle. It's not really a very satisfactory method of securing things, as the whole assembly can still pivot around this bolt if the bore of the gearbox cradle tube is worn oval, hence the change to large cotter pins on the later model and also the popularity of the Heinz Kegler kit refered to in this posting. I have fitted an oversize spindle on a bike recently and it wasn't cheap to have the cradle tube line bored to accept the larger spindle, I did however manage to save a few pennies by using an old pair of bushings and having these bored at the same time.

I always leave the extracting bolt and locknut on the spindle (a spare front motormount bolt works well) to use as a convenient "handle" to push or pull the spindle in the swingarm and cradle and if I can't line up the hole by raising the swingarm I can put a wrench on the bolt to rotate the spindle a little more.

Never thought of using allen wrenches as a "go/no go" gauge for aligning the hole though. Good idea! I also find it much quicker to remove the front mounting nuts to the fender and rotate it downward while doing this task.

I don't want to talk about what I did to my fender in this process....

I am loving the newly bushed/Kegler-ed swingarm! Finally got it out on the highway, which is where formerly I would really notice the hinge in the middle. Tis gone. Lovely!

Thanks again for all the help guys.