Swingarm Lube. . . No Zerk Fitting.

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I have a 1970 that I just removed the engine and geabox from the frame/cradle. The swing arm moves without any hesitation, very smooth. Do I remove the swingarm from the cradle or just leave it as is? I will either hand sand, grinder assisted sand or sandblast the cradle/swingarm and re-paint it regardless. If its movement is smooth as glass I would sure like to just leave it. Who has taken theirs apart and what "troubles" have they encountered on the reassembly and re 'lubing" of the swingarm? How about that for a question?
kurt
 
Yes, your swingarm probably does move up and down smoothly.
It should, nothing is restricting it.

But, unless you know better, the spindle and bushings are forty years old, and all that time the spindle is slowly wearing away the bushings, which
results in ever increasing rear wheel movement, a very bad thing.

The best way to check your swing arm is with the rear wheel attached, crouching on the right side, grab the wheel and push and pull it hard while keeping your
right hand on the right side on the swing arm to feel the amount of play.
My guess is, after forty years, you need to do something.
If you do not want to replace the worn bushings, the next best thing is to install Heinz kegler's swing arm rings that keep constant forward pushing
pressure on the spindle within the bushes, which greatly eliminates any excess clearance there.
 
BrianK said:
[quote="swooshdaveI don't trust any engineer that says "sealed for life" because there is a marketing guy behind them saying "sealed for the length of the warranty".
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"Sealed for life" is approximately equal to "one size fits all." And we all know THAT is BS....[/quote]

We have stuff that now says "One size fits most". :mrgreen:
 
Bonwit said:
BillT said:
and re-oil every several thousand miles by removing the screw and topping off with a syringe filled with warm 140 Wt oil into the hole. I know it has the wicks and oilite bushings, as I rebuilt it.
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Someone suggested that it might be difficult to get the oil past the felt. Have you found this to be the case? Could you not accomplish the same thing by injecting warm oil through the fixing bolt hole? It doesn't seem like it needs much. Since there's no other choice, you would think this is what the engineers intended (unless "sealed for life" means just that).
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When I rebuilt the swingarm, I seem to recall it took about 10 cc to fill it completely, with pre-soaked wicks.

I've got a whole case of 10cc syringes with hypodermic needles (leftovers from a nasty staff infection a few years ago). The needle is 1" long, which lets me stick it into the felt pretty far. The advantage of this is I can top off without having to remove the rear tire.

I suppose it would be a good idea to just plan to re-lube the swingarm whenever changing the rear tire, as the fixing bolt is easily accessible then.
 
Does gear lube actually go through the hypodermic needles? I'd have thought it was much too thick, but have no experience with this.
 
BrianK said:
Does gear lube actually go through the hypodermic needles? I'd have thought it was much too thick, but have no experience with this.
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You have to heat it up a bit! At about 160 F, its the consistency of motor oil. Too hot, the syringe starts to melt.


(If my wife knew the stuff I put in the microwave, I'd never hear the end of it!)
 
where exactly do you get 140 wt gear oil? I've looked around at the automotive places, but they don't have anything that high here.
 
pelican said:
where exactly do you get 140 wt gear oil? I've looked around at the automotive places, but they don't have anything that high here.
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Mobil 1 LS 75W-140 Synthetic
 
BillT said:
pelican said:
where exactly do you get 140 wt gear oil? I've looked around at the automotive places, but they don't have anything that high here.
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Mobil 1 LS 75W-140 Synthetic
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But do you want to use a multi weight lube? Wouldn't it be too thin at ambient temperature?
 
Some while ago, I formed the opinion that the primary function of the 'seals' was to keep water and dirt out of the assembly, rather than to prevent any excess oil from draining away.
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Oh Amend to above as found same thing, drooled completely out on completely brand new machinist racer build swing arm and cradle and bushes and o=rings with break in oil so thick would not drip on a knife edge in 12 hr and left hanging in winter cold thickening, noticed bottom of cradle always wet from least wipe off till it stayed dry after couple mounts at rest was soaked in carpet pad below. Gave up and put in two zerks and happy lubed and environment sealed out almost maintenance free.

Could close the small spindle holes and make new bigger ones inside bush area and maybe groove the bushes so grease could be pumped in from the oil zerk in cover plate. Issue may be grease only gets to one side, unless checked and made to get to both sides enough before finding a path to outside.
 
The spindle pin wears more than the bushings. Rotate the pin 90* and check the clearance; if it's tight, then the bushings are OK, just replace the pin. If it's not tight, then get the oversized pin and ream the bushings to the size of the new oversize pin.
 
I was pondering how to keep my spindle lubed on my '72 Roadster, and considering Hobot's words of wisdom, and after looking at the whole set-up, I'm wondering if the easiest way to keep the system lubed is to use a socket head centre spindle retaining screw, with a 1/16" hole drilled lengthwise through it, and a length of 5/16" transparent hose double safety wired to it leading up around the engine oil filler area...This would allow 140w to be applied as necessary without some of the aggrevations associated with the stock set-up...

The Yukon winter affords me lots of time to think about this stuff...
 
Yep I did that mod on Peel to keep spindle well oiled total loss going, had 1/2" clear hose I could top off by just lifting the seat. Was a big reason I've sworn off any oil system in spindle as I could see how fast it actually leaked down between rides. Some where I've the top bolt with hose barb on it in case someone cares to repeat my observations for themselves. 850 felt system is pretty good to keep up with once modified to get into it routinely. The main deal is if bike or spindle ever sets up a long time w/o attention, next guy will curse your lack of attention and may repeat it just putting back to factory goodness. I've at least two in mind I'd like to meet when I have my 3 lb sledge in bloody hands.

Yet I'm still stinging from one report here of a total sealed factory set up, so apparently its possible goal to attain in a fully fettered Commando, just not mine.
 
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