Swing Arm Oiler

As the back tyre was shredded after a heavy weekend of thrashing it went off for replacement. With the wheel out of the way , this was the ideal time to do the annual top up of the swing arm oil, as you can get to the retainer screw in the middle of the axle tube to allow air and then oil to escape as you squirt oil in from the right side fitting. However, since I fited a Mk3 axle and did the twin bolt brace modification, the end face of the axle is right up against the welsh plug and its painfully slow to squirt oil in via a syringe. I'm not the only one who has thought of a reservoir to feed directly in to the best place, which is the middle retainer screw. The only way you can get to this bloody screw properly is to remove the rear mudguard. Oh Joy, how I love to do this just like other PIA things like the oil tank bottom retainer bolt and that horn as well.

By the way, when you have the mudguard off, think about adding a strip of old inner tube rubber to the front inner face to prevent road cack from being thrown onto the swingarm and gearbox. Works good, always done this to my bikes.

Anyway, the oilers been made and fitted and it works really well. It is now a permanent fitting comprising of 2.5mm hollow ferrule turned from hex bar with a 8mm OD for a very tight fitted hose and tridon clip for peace of mind. The plastic hose end was heated in boiling water to ensure a firm push fit over the ferrule and the opposite end runs up under the battery tray and is secured with a cable tie. The hose holds about 30cc of 140W with a screw fitted as a cork. Establishing flow and top up only required removing the grease nipple on the right side of the swing arm, let the oil flow out and nip it up. Recharging the reservoir hose only requires removing the seat and using the syringe to squirt oil into it, maybe once every couple of years?

Mick

This is the ferrule





8mm hose fitted




Installed on swing arm

Looks like you need to work on a chain oiler.

pvisseriii said:

Looks like you need to work on a chain oiler.

Click to expand...

No, that dubious pleasure has been already fitted by the factory, see the stub fitting off the oil return line at the oil tank. It fine to use it if you want your back wheel to look like an Indian public toilet.

Mick

Nice job. If you make up some more fittings, I'd buy one.

What size/pitch is the fixing bolt that it replaces? Maybe something can be made up out of some sort of hose barb or larger Zerk fitting?

These sight tube oil reservoirs are great idea, lets you easy mark the leak down in inches per unit of time. I know what I measured, so curious what you measure, so let us know please. Learned all I needed to know to switch to grease zerks and save next generation from what I ran into on 2 well maintained Cdo that got stored inside for some years, but not decades. I don't have to put a pad under for over
winter storage mess on concrete that then spreads and make a mush from condensation.

Ah yes, getting some lube down by gravity into four one sixteenth of an inch size holes. IF the lube gets down the holes, in theory it will provide a small cushion between the spindle and
bushings supposedly impregnated with oil some 35-40 years ago.

My guess is 95% of oil that we manage to get into the spindle, leaks out past the o rings and the end caps.

What we really need is way to inject lube directly down those tiny little holes every so often.

Some kind of a long, thin, hypodermic needle that has a ninety degree bend at the very end of the needle, and that bend has to be no more than about one eighth of an inch.

This way, we could all simply remove the right side end cap, slide the syringe and bent needle into the spindle and inject oil downward directly into the holes.

Surely, somewhere in this wonderful, innovative world, such an instrument already exists. Maybe for some sort of surgery. Can one be made?

Yes there are syringe needles long and thin and flexible enough to inject stuff deep in and around human hard spots. But why? To me its pure sign of lazyness not to remove the works and put zerks in there. Unless some reservoir capacity provided for this total loss system, what ever oil you did tediously get around spindle will be just residual film by time you get back home from a nice ride. There is no way to built this design to hold oil, I tired with perfect machined matched almost interference fit tight surfaces and new bushes and oil rings filled tube with assembly oil so thick it makes STP look like hot water, seriously 24 hr to drip one drop off knife edge, till total lost in COLD winter hanging from rafters still no heating pumping action, to cover floor in 3 months. Again I remind thee as discipline as you may be now, injury or circumstances may give long gaps in service and the next guy may curse you name for allowing spindle to rust and swell and fuse in place. I know of two swing arms destroyed by the oil lost system. Of all the places that need self lube bushed this is it but for the loads to bear. Your call if you think your man enough to face remove possiblely already rusted spindle or someone else took good care ahead of you so it still comes out as expected. Swing arm works fine a long time with a rusted lipped grooved spindle, till it does get lose and time to seriously service, ugh.
Shame on Norton.

How about this?

I just opened up the hole where the Zerk went. Probably not perfect, but so far it seems to work fine.

-- David

I don't see the problem with the oem pre-75 setup. Inject some oil into the zerk fitting with a grease gun - what could be easier? I use 140 wt because it's available here at the grocery store (yes, really!) but in NY I used 90wt. A quart of either will last you and the bike the rest of your lives!

You have at least as good a chance of getting oil on the rear tire from engine/gearbox/primary leaks as you do from a swingarm. If the Orings and the surfaces they bear against are in good condition there should be no leakage at all. I'd suggest that if they are leaking, it will be corrected by being sure that the washer at the screw is in good shape, that the Orings are in good shape, and the bushings and caps have no nicks/corrosion that might be preventing the Orings from sealing. Once that was done, the swingarm on my 850 has never leaked a drop...or even a film of oil.

xbacksideslider said:

Nice job. If you make up some more fittings, I'd buy one.

What size/pitch is the fixing bolt that it replaces? Maybe something can be made up out of some sort of hose barb or larger Zerk fitting?

Click to expand...

OK, I'm making up 6 more, will post when done. The fitting is 1/4"UNF that screws into the swing arm.

High Desert has a concern about gear oil penetrating the thru holes in the axle to lubricate the bushes. I did too, but can confirm this - I used a vet's horse syringe with a 1.5mm (1/16") aperature to see if 140W oil would flow through under its own weight. It does, no problem. This is the same than the cross holes in the axles to the bushes. When I filled the reservoir hose, I took off the grease nipple which is at the top of the right end cap to see when fresh 140W was dribbling out. This only took 2 minutes, indicating the hollow axle is completely full and has 30cc of extra capacity in the hose above it.

I renewed the axle and O rings last year, and noticed the left side cradle face was scuffed where the swing arm inner boss bears against it. This surface wear meant the O ring on that side was more likely to leak. I cut a sheet of .005" shim steel as a big circle shim and expoxied it to the cradle face. The swing arm fitted up good and I have almost no leakage on either side past the O rings over 10,000kms. And at least I know the axle is full and I don't have to worry about as I can see the oil level.

Mick

The guy at Nithburg that replaced my spindle and bored the cradle and bushings, made some extra holes in it for more flow of oil around the spindle, I reckon. My old rusty one didn't have these holes. Unfortunately I put 90W gear lube in the swing arm from the central top hole because I couldn't find the 140 and pretty much filled it up. I need to get the cover off and drain all that extra oil, because it is all leaking out anyhow. What I'm getting out of this thread is we need to add a bit of oil once in a while to keep some in there, not fill it up?



Dave
69S

Here's an idea. Reroute the original chain oiler to a fitting on the end of the swing arm......

Stephen Hill

Stephen Hill said:

Here's an idea. Reroute the original chain oiler to a fitting on the end of the swing arm......

Stephen Hill

Click to expand...

I don't think you'd want to lube the oilite bearings with 40W.

Why is the 90W seeping out, DogT?

I think the general idea is to top off the 140W every oil change or every other oil change, just to keep some lube in those bronze bushings.

You have confused oil grade rating of engine and gear oil. They are not much different even if the numbers are, so even some thinned engine oil in spindle is a good idea to preserve it if not the drooling.