Swingarm maintenance Do It!!!

BranNwebster said:
It's what a grease gun connects to. Also called Zerts

96226d1203602671-broke-grease-fitting-bucket-what-grease-zerks-metric-american-cropped.jpg
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ol. Look what a google image search on that brought up! :)
 
FZ6771 said:
The owner's manual says repack the swingarm every 16000 mi (19000 km) . My Kawasaki KLR650's swingarm had little if any grease so i checked the FZ with only 6860 miles it too had no grease . there was some pitting and corrosion I never rode in the rain and it stayed indoors. Because the swingarm bearings and pivot bolt are so close to the exhaust pipe the heat from the mid pipe can melt the grease so its very important to do this before 16000 miles. sorry i didnt take any pics
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Don't you get the 5 years warranty in the US????
Here in Denmark we get the 5 years if we let the dealer do all services on the bike.

This is clearly a warranty issue .....
 
Fz6Sa said:
Don't you get the 5 years warranty in the US????
Here in Denmark we get the 5 years if we let the dealer do all services on the bike.

This is clearly a warranty issue .....
Click to expand...

If you or a shop don't keep up the maintenance they may not fix it under warranty. It will help if you buy a 5 year warranty, the warranty is good for only one year in the U.S.
 
FZ6771 said:
If you or a shop don't keep up the maintenance they may not fix it under warranty. It will help if you buy a 5 year warranty, the warranty is good for only one year in the U.S.
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We only get a 1 year warranty in Aus, but they may have an extended warranty since I bought mine.

Unfortunately my local Yamaha mechanics are monkeys, and they have a bad reputation for anything mechanical. Even though I'm entitled to a new TPS, I'd rather travel 200km to get it done in Mildura.

BB
 
Damn...take that off, grease this, nipple that...ya'll are kill'n me.

I agree keep up with the maintenance, but how much free time do you really have, I might get one weekend off in a month, if I'm lucky two. And what's your free time worth to you (or the owners of the nipples for that matter).

Personnally I'd rather have my nob greased by the nipple owner, and let the mechanic have the bike on occassion.
 
replace the swingarm every 19K km??? isnt that abit excessive? i dont even change tires every 19K! let alone part of the bikes frame!
 
Aleziel said:
replace the swingarm every 19K km??? isnt that abit excessive? i dont even change tires every 19K! let alone part of the bikes frame!
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They're talking about repacking the swingarm bearings and bushings with grease, and replacing the bearings IF they're pitted(worn down).

It's not as important as say steering head bearings, but it should be done every couple years atleast, more if you ride in the rain a lot.

This also gives you the opportunity to soak the chain in some kerosene, clean up the shock, swingarm, exhaust, etc.
 
I have a 2007 FZ6 that has 4000 miles on it now. It has been raining alot here lately so i figured this would be a good time to work on the bike.

I decided to pull the swingarm off and check the bearings after seeing this thread and guess what. There was very little grease. If I had waited 16000 miles, the bearings would have been trashed. Also the shock bearing basically had no grease in it at all. So I to would recommend everyone to check the swingarm and shock bearings.
 
My '04 has 42k km on it and I serviced it this weekend, winter is coming so it's a good time to get a bit more adventurous than changing plugs and oil!

I have the factory manual and it seems to explain things clearly. I might have to work on it in the house though, wonder if mrs will object? :)

grunt1 said:
Do you torque all the bolts to a certain spec? I'm thinking that I should invest in a torque wrench!
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All the torque settings are in the manual, it's always a good idea to torque properly.
 
Last edited:
I took my bike to the shop for the 20k maintenance. I copied the maintenance schedule and asked them to repack the swingarm. The called me and told me that "nobody does this" and that it would cost about $1000 in labor to do it because they had to take the whole back end apart. He said that they never wear out (Honda dealer). So, I said no thanks...but now I am wondering how many people are having this done???
 
Hmm sounds like a good chance to save money and do it yourself then:thumbup: I haven't done it yet (coming up on 12k miles) but am planning on doing it when I change sprockets/chain.
 
FZ6771 said:
The owner's manual says repack the swingarm every 16000 mi (19000 km) . My Kawasaki KLR650's swingarm had little if any grease so i checked the FZ with only 6860 miles it too had no grease . there was some pitting and corrosion I never rode in the rain and it stayed indoors. Because the swingarm bearings and pivot bolt are so close to the exhaust pipe the heat from the mid pipe can melt the grease so its very important to do this before 16000 miles. sorry i didnt take any pics
Click to expand...

Sorry but 16000miles is 26000kms, not 19000. I had to correct that... not sure why.
 
craig007 said:
I took my bike to the shop for the 20k maintenance. I copied the maintenance schedule and asked them to repack the swingarm. The called me and told me that "nobody does this" and that it would cost about $1000 in labor to do it because they had to take the whole back end apart. He said that they never wear out (Honda dealer). So, I said no thanks...but now I am wondering how many people are having this done???
Click to expand...

I've never heard of a swingarm bearing failure in my life, but if the manual says to do it, it's a good idea to do it...
 
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