Swing arm maintenence.

I posted this up on a GTR specific frum about a year ago, it details removal, cleaning and relubing of the GTR's rear swingarm. The process will be basically the same for other bikes, the GTR is a Uni Trak setup, but older bikes will have an easier time with dual rear shocks and no linkages to take apart.
Anyway, here it is:
I don't intend to list every minute detail of this job, it's fairly straightforward, just a lot of things have to come out in a certain order.
Well, here we go! It was a fun, dirty job, but someone had to do it!
Started by taking bags and mufflers off to get access to both sides of the rear wheel/suspension.


Then you remove the rear brake caliper. The flexible line runs along the swingarm and you'll have to unbend two brackets which trap both the brake line and coolant overflow hose.
Then remove the caliper bracket by unbolting torque rod from bracket. I didn't unbolt the other end of the torque rod, no point, and it didn't get in the way.
You won't have the caliper bracket completely out at the moment, as the axle bolt retains the lower part. So unbolt axke (this is the only place you may need something you don't have, a 27mm socket. This bolt goes right through the differential case, so hold the other end of teh bolt with a spanner!


Then you can slide the axle bolt right out leaving the rear wheel on the drive splines of the differential. Push the wheel to the right and it wil drop off it's splines. I chose to leave the wheel to one side and off the splines, and then unbolted the differential at the four bolts that hold it onto the swingarm tube. Then you can remove the differential (there is a small spring that will probably fall out, don't lose it! Put the differential aside, with the vent hole up, or risk an oil leak. Rear wheel will come out readily now.
Now you can pull apart the monoshock linkage and remove it from teh bike if it needs cleaning/greasing. Mine did.


You can see I left the shock attached. I managed to get it all apart with it there, but next time I would remove it. It does get in the way. If you remove it, remember to depressurise shock and remove air hose and damper linkage.

I was very relieved to find, after disassembling and cleaning my suspension linkage, that there was no rust , brinneling etc on any of teh bearings or shafts. I was concerned, as when I first bought the bike, I greased teh linkages and had some water come out. Porobably trapped in the seals.
So, remove to the bench and clean up thoroughly, removing seals etc. Be sure and thoroughly clean the bolts/shafts, and blow out the grease nipples and passages with compressed air. If the grease nipple is blocked, best to deal with it now!


Then you can Grease the bearings up and put the linkage aside.
Now you can remove the swingarm. This is easy and tricky! The pivots are behind the plastic covers low down on the frame. Just unbolt them and prise them out.

The R/H pivot appears to be adjustable, but mine wouldn't budge!
This will allow the swingarm to drop, but not too far, ad the driveshaft is now an issue. You have to slide the swingarm back a bit (after removing dust boot clamp, and sliding boot back) to expose the front driveshaft coupling/spline. There is a small hole you insert a pin/rod in to to release the driveshaft. Then the driveshaft will come out.
See the tiny hole in the front coupling?
It sits over this spring loaded pin.


So, now you can inspect your driveshaft UV joints and splines. Mine were perfect thankfully.
Clean everything up.
The front driveshaft coupling splines can be a real bugger to line up again. Once it is attached and teh pin has locked it in, slip dust boot (don't forger clamp!) back over and slide swingarm back on, holding place with swingarm pivots. The rest is merely reassembly in reverse order.
Now you can forget about ths job for a long time, with the exception of occasional greasing with a grease gun.
This took me around 4 hours all up.