Swing Arm Bearing replacement question

Hello KZ'ers
OK so I am in the process of changing out my swing arm bearings on my 1978 KZ1000 A2 and looking at the new bearings the one end of the bearing appears to be flatter than the other (see pic, the top one appears to be flat on the one side versus the other one). If so then ,...Does the rounded end go in first or not, Is there a difference in how they are inserted into the swing arm? I know two bearings go in each side. other than the fact that the lip where the first bearing would bottom out is very small,...are there any other tips to getting these in?

Any tricks to getting these in or help would be appreciated.

Jim

Is the bearing code different? are these NOS Kawasaki or just off the shelf new bearings?

Sorry not sure the answer, but good question as I have to do this myself soon. My concern is that the curved face might flatten down when the swing arm axle is torqued tight...

Driving them in is easy enough, the removal can be more difficult.

bearings are made to be installed with the face that has the writing on it up.
always press/drive on the writing.

hth,

leon

Yes, numbers out. Are they IKO from Japan? Hope you got the good priced ones off of Amazon! $9.99 piece. X 2. Plus $9.9 t ship. I just put a set in a GS 1100 Suzuki Aluminum swingarm. They are the same bearings. Freeze the bearings. I used a nice tight fitting 1/2" drive socket to put them in. Clean the opening up with a air grinder and a smooth scotch or whatever. deburr it.
And don't forget to put the collar in the inside before you put 2nd bearing in.
Here is a picture of my frozen ones with condensation frost on them, I was taking pics for ebay, I sold the swing arm. Just take your time. Have a 2nd set of hands to help if be needed.

Great. Thanks for the tips. I bought them from z1 enterprises, so I'm not sure who the pen is for them. I'm going to try to get them back in by the weekend. I'll provide an update. Getting them out was a pain in the a$$.

OK,...so here is an update. I finally got back to working on the bike and finishing replacement of the 4 swing arm bearings, 3 rear wheel bearings and a rear wheel tire change. I took it for a quick ride and all appears to be fine.

So getting the 3 wheel bearings out were no problem using the blind hole bearing puller from Harbour Freight. And three of the 4 swing arm bearings came out pretty easily. But the 4 one was a bear. I had to punch it out from the other side and then the outer shell of the bearing stayed in the swing arm so I had to grind it out with a dremel,...very carefully.

I did take some pictures of the tool I made to get the bearings back into the swing arm,..it was well worth the trip to Lowes to get a 5/16ths threaded bar, nuts and washers.



This first one shows how i used the threaded bar and washers to pull the needle bearings into the swing arm. And don't worry,...they were straight prior to pulling them,...the pic show it crooked.



This second pic shows how I used a socket to push the needle bearing into the swing are deep enough to make room for the second one. There is a little lip where it bottoms out and stops the first bearing from going to far in.

This method worked great,... the needle bearings were pulled in very easy. I also froze them over night and greased them.

A couple of other items,....

Don't use the swing arm bolt to punch out the bearings. It mangled the threads on the end and I had to get a new one,.... A $40 dollar lesson.

Also,...when I removed the sleeve I noticed that the old needle bearings made indents in it. I think this is why one of the bearings was so hard to get out. So I used my dremel again to to even out the low spots caused by the needle bearings being embedded into the sleeve. No pic sorry. I sanded off a minimal amount of metal and checked it in the bearings to make sure the sleeve was not loose. I evened out the low spots to make sure the new bearings could roll easily and not get stuck in the old ruts in the sleeve.


OK,...so it basically took two night to complete this work.

I started the bearing replacements due to needing and new rear tire. For the rear tire I did this myself. Not too hard actually. I highly recommend using the zip tie method to get the tire back on the rim. You Tube it. It made getting the tire back on the rim very easy. Basically you use multiple zip ties around the tire and it goes on a lot easier.

Jim