Stuck swing arm spindle

htown16 · Mar 7, 2015

Dismantling my 74 850 project. The swing arm spindle is not moving. Tried the bolt in the end to turn. Tried heat. Tried driving it out with brass rod. The swing arm turns free on the bushings but the spindle is stuck inside the frame tube. Not much access to soak with penetrating oil. This bike has been exposed to the elements. The lower gearbox bolt was a two hour struggle to get out. Any suggestions?

Craig · Mar 7, 2015

do the 850's have that centering bolt to hold spindle in place ?
Craig

htown16 · Mar 7, 2015

Yes and it is out.

Craig · Mar 7, 2015

Can you get some penetrating oil in there and move swing arm ?
Craig

Railroader · Mar 7, 2015

On my 72 I continually added penetrating oil for 2 weeks. Took off the primary side, found a cheap socket and extension. Heated everything up with propane and drove it out. Even at that a lot of force was needed while hammering. Once the spindle cleared the first bush it came out easy. I have also read in the forum that some have resorted to cutting them out. If your not in a hurry lots of soaking with penetrating oil seemed to do the trick for me. So far while restoring my bike this operation has been the most difficult out of all the work. Good luck.

Hobot · Mar 7, 2015

Hahaha such simple machines what could go wrong. Seems someone reported they were able to puzzle the cradle out the frame with stuck swing arm to deal with better. If rust has allowed wearing of lips on spindle sleekness, that are not in about exact same center line and width then twisting clear is wishful thinking, and may require inches of tons forced shearing hardened metal plowing to slip er on out. If not the above situation and others advise don't want then implies you are not man enough to own a fully fettered Cdo. Just hope it don't drive ya to drinking into ancient solution.

baldy · Mar 7, 2015

You want to turn the 1/2 inch bolt you stuck into the swing arm spindle into a jacking bolt. To do this, place a properly sized 1/2 inch drive socket under the bolt head and turn the bolt to draw the swingarm spindle out into the socket. I have done this successfully.

PeterJoe · Mar 7, 2015

You can remove the gear box cradle and swingarm as one unit and then press out the swingarm spindle using a hydraulic press or possibly an arbor press.

htown16 · Mar 7, 2015

The cradle and swing arm are out of the frame.

gjr · Mar 8, 2015

Heat and a press. It will be hard to get any penetrating oil into the center of the cradle. I like the idea of using the 1/2" bolt as a jack screw.

Greg

Hobot · Mar 8, 2015

As sensable as others soulutions are Peel & Trixie pulleer was a tough hardened necked down pu truck shock bolt threaded into spindle, cranked down to point wrench jaws spread & threads almost sheared and bolt twisting before I applied ANGER to 3 lb sledge on beefy hardend drift that got hit so hard so much I had to grind mushrooming ends off a few times over a week of insanity to finnally discover why - so when above didn't work first hour on Trixie I sliced arm off and took to dozer shop with 30,000 lb - 15 ton press to remove Trixies which took careflull blocking of the cradle which looked like made of plastic it deformed so much - as took 23,000 lb 12.5 ton to press it out to save cradle. Once the the case hardened lips sheared enough to move the pressue dropped to 18,000 pis to shove all the way out. Best wishes your spindles ain't this stuck up. GT Enterprises could not get Peel 'saved' swing arm to fit cradle and pass spindle again so paid for that attempt and then a new swing arm to get going again. So about 3 month delay on pre Peel deal.

Egholt · Mar 8, 2015

Heat and penetration oil is not that good , as the oil will evaporate .

I use heat and an old candelstick (parafin) .

This trick is verry usefull .

Michael

Hobot · Mar 8, 2015

Again tough spindle can be from 2 reasons, 1. just rust clots taking up space binding-grinding so hand tool twisting and pulling plus pounding with thermal help and extra lube aid OR 2. metal edges mis aligned in hardened spindle surface hanging up on bush edges that only brutal force can resolve. I just lucked out by two examples of No. 2 doo doo with 2 swingarms too much slack to tolerate. If don't move on out with normal advise then its labor, bone/flesh & tool saving to dissassemble to essenitally bare frame w/o oil tank- battery tray to apply more brutal escalations.

kerinorton · Mar 8, 2015

years ago when we worked on Austin Mini's we used a tool for compressing the rubber suspension units in order to renew the strut joints. That same tool can be use to pull in or out a Norton Commando swing arm king pin. Don't have a photo but it was about 10 inches long, threaded one end same as Norton king pi and the other end had course threads which a long nut wound onto it. A thrust bearing was between the nut and the job so turning the big nut was made a lot easier.
When I made my oversize hard chromed pin for my 750 in about 1976, I used that tool to haul it into place. Never going to move again, and my auto oiler will stop it wearing out.
Dereck

JimC · Mar 8, 2015

As Kerinorton posted, an oversize spindle is the ticket. Ream the cradle bore to true up and make a spindle the same size as the cradle bore. Also, you'll have to ream the bushes to size. Freeze the spindle for a day or so, heat the cradle for a shrink fit. Press the spindle in. No more lateral moving of swing arms in the cradle. If the isolastics are setup correctly and the swing arm isn't loosey-goosey and you have a decent headsteady, that Commando will handle quite well.That's considering everything else is up to snuff.

Years ago, I had a Commando that would get pretty scary above 80 mph. Went trough everything. I mean everything. Finally, I wore out the rear tire. When I replaced the tire with the exact same brand and size I had a very stable Commando. Never had a problem with handling after that, no matter the size or brand of tire used.

htown16 · Mar 8, 2015

At least two people have suggested permanently fitting an oversize spindle. I'm starting to wonder why I'm obsessed with getting the spindle out. Judging by the cylinder walls in the engine and other bits I think this bike hasn't done a lot of miles. The swingarm bushings look in good shape and I can't feel any play or binding. I can replace the outer seals and hopefully the inners don't leak excessively. I'm painting the frame on this bike so it doesn't have to come apart for powder coating. I think I'll put some oil in it and see how bad the inner seals leak. While I'd like to do it right for the next guy while I have it, it isn't going to do a lot of milage with other bikes to ride.

kerinorton · Mar 8, 2015

htown16 said:
At least two people have suggested permanently fitting an oversize spindle. I'm starting to wonder why I'm obsessed with getting the spindle out. Judging by the cylinder walls in the engine and other bits I think this bike hasn't done a lot of miles. The swingarm bushings look in good shape and I can't feel any play or binding. I can replace the outer seals and hopefully the inners don't leak excessively. I'm painting the frame on this bike so it doesn't have to come apart for powder coating. I think I'll put some oil in it and see how bad the inner seals leak. While I'd like to do it right for the next guy while I have it isn't going to do a lot of milage with other bikes to ride.

Just leave it alone. If you want to guarantee oil getting there, drill out the locating bolt and braze a 3/16 pipe to it. run a 3/16 id tube down to it from a 30ml bottle secured to the top frame and fill the bottle with 90 or 140 gear oil. It will take 6 months to leak out, but while it is leaking out, you know its being lubricated.

dereck

ps it is what I have done on both my commandos more or less.

Towner · Mar 9, 2015

Have you tried to turn in a bolt with a lock nut and 2 strong washers fitting on the swinging arm end. Turn the nut against the washers to get tension on the spindle. When it still won't move, you can try some slight strokes with a hammer on the bolts end while it is under tension. Then retighten the nut and repeat with strokes.

Edit: If the spindle touches the washers, you can put a suitable socket between.

Ralf

N0rt0nelectr@ · Mar 10, 2015

baldy said:
You want to turn the 1/2 inch bolt you stuck into the swing arm spindle into a jacking bolt. To do this, place a properly sized 1/2 inch drive socket under the bolt head and turn the bolt to draw the swingarm spindle out into the socket. I have done this successfully.

I had a tool built that is a shaft threaded all the way. I used an old cut down fork tube and the threaded rod with a heavy washer and a nut to jack the spindle out. The machinist at work didn't have much to do that day and I took advantage of it. I need to get on photobucket and post some pictures.

N0rt0nelectr@ · Mar 28, 2015

Swing arm tool.

Stuck swing arm spindle

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