pulling swingarm sleeve & bushings from 77 kz400-d4

How do you pull the swingarm sleeve
www.cmsnl.com/products/sleeve-swing-arm-shrt_33034013/
...out? Do you drive both sleeves and spacer out from one end, or use a tool (90-degree dental pick?) to try to hook the spacer and pull it out?

Just to verify that's what I'm seeing, when I shine a light through where the bolt ran, I can see a faint line about 1 and 1/3 inches in (is the sleeve about 1.3 inches long?). But it doesn't feel like I can get a tool in to pull-out the sleeve.



I've got some PBBlaster on it for tonight.

I would do it this way:







www.sl-garage.de/112021_300sec_hp/0112_h...33_va3_xabolzen.html

I was going to pull them and measure first :huh: . My suspicion is that the brass bushings are probably worn, but maybe not the steel sleeves. These are getting really hard to find. I don't see any z1 or allBalls kits either

I think I could just press the whole thing out from one end, if I can find a something like a socket to use as a bearing press. But it needs to be narrow enough to fit inside the brass bushing, yet have a big enough hole in the middle for a strong bolt.

Not looking great. If I'm going to replace, can I upgrade to the 1978 KZ400's needle bearings ($4 at Z1enterprises) and smooth sleeve (42036-1017)? It looks like my '77 sleeve and the '78 sleeve are both 22mm OD.

Now I understand the wisdom in your picture, Sriocco: you were tapping the brass bushing, not the sleeve. Those bushings are really in there.


If92046-1115

Sirocco, what size tap did you use on the bronze bushing? ID is 22mm. I have an M22 tap (looks too small) and M24 tap. The M24 looks like it might be too big?

Also, where the bronze bushing flares-out, did you have to grind that off, so that your puller sleeve could press against the swingarm?

Reading another post here, it looks like the HK2216 needle bearings in the 1978 Kz400 had ID 22, OD 28mm, so if the 1977 KZ400 bushings also had 28mm OD, then I guess the M24 tap would work.

I'd have to make a trip to buy an M24 bolt. I'm also wondering if I could take some 3/8" USS washers (OD= 25.4mm), and grind-off 3mm from two sides. So if it's turned sideways, it could fit down through the 22mm ID bushing into the center of the swingarm, where it's 28mm wide. Then it could be turned sideways and pulled up against the back of the bushing. Then use a 3/8"-fine bolt to pull on it. I'd need a sleeve outside... something slightly larger than the bushing OD 28mm. Maybe a short stack of 1&1/8" wasahers (31.75mm ID) or M27 washers (31mm ID) if my hardware store has them.

I got a M24 washer (28mm OD, exact same as outside of the bushing) and ground the "ears" off it so that it could be inserted sideways through the bushing's 22mm ID. It didn't have much metal left after I ground it, so I backed it up with two 3/8" USS washers (25.4mm OD), also with two sides ground off so it was less than 22mm wide. Once I got it in past the bushing, the M24 washer wouldn't quite turn sideways in the bore of the swingarm, so I removed it and hand-filed down its outside edges a tiny bit... Call it 27.8mm OD.

As a drift, I inserted a 17mm socket on a socket extension down through the other end of the swingarm, and started pounding. This worked better after I attached a breaker bar onto the socket extension, because I could hold the braker bar at a comfortable spot, letting me swing the hammer harder without worrying about hitting my hand. It took about 4 full hammer swings (like 18 to 24 inch arm swing) for the bearing to budge, then 10 more swings to come out.

For the second bushing, you can just drop-in a couple of M24 washers (filed a tad) and use a bigger socket. No need to grind the ears off.

In the picture , there's the two 3/8 and one M24 washer. You can see how chewed-up the inside of the bushing was from me going at it with a screwdriver... Not helpful. If doing again, I would recommend pushing with washers first, so that you don't chew-up the inside lip of the bushing. Also, I think I'd use four 3/8 washers instead of 2, because they bent quite a bit. I did not want them to pretzel, and work down into the bushing, and deform the swingarm bore.

BTW, this was after shooting PBblaster in there for 2 nights. Not sure if it made a difference: the bushing surface didn't look wet.

Now i am a little confused about your sleeve and bushings Setup. My first solution write up was for the inner brass (or steel?) bushing removal but your Problem was more located on the outer sleeve removal (brass?). Okay, it´s history now and you get all parts out and can continue with your swing arm rebuild.
Any way, thank you for your feed back, a good Job you have done!

Here's a picture of the bits from the swingarm on my '77 kz400 d4 (may not be original swingarm or bearing). The inner sleeve is steel, and the outer bushings are bronze (though it's hard to tell from the color).

The steel sleeve was all one piece on this KZ, and I was able to press it out from one side. I think I used a small socket on a socket extender to pound it out from one side out the other. It came out with about as much effort as removing a typical press-fit bearing (which seemed wrong, since I think the sleeve is supposed to pivot snugly but smoothly inside the bronze). On some KZs, this steel sleeve is 3 pieces: two shiny hardened steel sleeves at the ends, plus a spacer section in the middle. But I think the three pieces could be pounded-out to the side in the same way. (note: after I cleaned-up my old steel sleeve with a nylon wheel, it now jiggles loose in the sleeves... so that tightness was just seized-up rust and crud).

I tried inserting a drift (screwdriver) into one side of the swingarm to push-out the bronze bushing on the other end, but all it did was chew-up the inside edge of the bronze bushings. What worked for me was grinding three washers down to 22mm wide so I could stick them sideways through a bushing into the area between the two bushings, then flip them 90 degrees so they were flat against the back side of one of the bronze bushings ; then I inserted a 16mm socket through the other bushing as a drift, so it pressed on the washers pressing on the bearing, and I pounded the snot out of it (wear eye protection!). The picture shows the socket passing through one of the new bushings. I really beat-up the end of my socket extender before I added the breaker bar.

The M14 washer ($0.59, shown on the right) has the perfect outside diameter (I had to file mine slightly). But the hole is too big, so it's too weak to pound on. I reinforced it with two 3/8" USS washers ($0.13 ea.), which are a bit too small outside diameter, but stronger. They bent like Pringles anyways, so I'd recommend maybe using 3 or 4 of those.

Once you have one bushing out, you can drop in a M14 and 3/8 USS washers to remove the second bushing (no need to grind the washers down to 22mm). So whichever bushing you think will come out easier, do that one first.

EDIT: Since I'm replacing the sleeve, I guess I could have sanded the old sleeve a bit, and used it as the drift to push out the bearings.

Now i have understand your washer trick. Good Job SpecialGreen and stay away from Covid19.