SR 650 swingarm bearing replacement??

Hey all, I am currrently restoring my recently acquired 79sr650. I have completey stripped down the frame, and removed the swingarm. This weekend I powerwashed my swingarm to remove the caked grease and some rust. I tried to protect the swing arm bearings as much as possible(with the bearing caps and some duct tape), but I still got some water and a tiny bit of grit in the needle bearings.

What my swingarm really needs is to sit in solvent, and then be sandblasted to do the job right. I am thinking about removing the bearings, so I don't have to worry about protecting them. Can someone enlighten me about how difficult it is to replace needle bearings in the swing arm? Should I try to do a half-ass job cleaning up the swing arm, or take the bearings out, and soak the swing arm in solvent and sandblast. thanks

Since you've already got the swingarm off, now would be as good a time as any to replace the bearings, especially if they're the originals.

When I replaced the bearings in the 650C model swingarm that I was swapping onto my B model I didn't have quite as many store bought or fabbed tools, so I borrowed a bearing puller from a friend.
Those ancient bearings were so frozen in there, it literally destroyed that puller! :pinch:

I ended up taking the swingarm to a small local auto repair shop and let him have at it. He spent roughly 1/2 hour pounding them all out (didn't even scratch the inside of the swingarm), and another 10 mins pressing 4 new ones in.
Only set me back $45 too. Ok, plus $12 for the bearings and the $$$ to replace the trashed bearing puller I borrowed from my buddy. :whistle:

A good idea also is to check on your bearing sleeve, the shaft that goes inside the bearings. I only knocked out like 2 of my bearings, but they are a bitch to get out and you cant even cut them with a hack saw. So yeah good luck!

The only way you'll ever get the bearings out is to destroy them. Use a dremmel tool to grind then beat them to break them into pieces to remove. You'll never get them out in one piece.

RonKZ650 wrote:

The only way you'll ever get the bearings out is to destroy them. Use a dremmel tool to grind then beat them to break them into pieces to remove.

Great idea Ron!
Ya know, I never even considered doing that when I replaced my bearings, and I own a Dremel with about $60+ worth of "this-'n-that" accessories.
A person would just need to be extra cautious to not score the inside of the swingarm when doing this.

RonKZ650 wrote:

You'll never get them out in one piece.

I beg to differ. The guy who removed the bearings from my swingarm was able to remove all of them intact. Granted, they were no longer cylindrical and resembled something akin of a train wreck.
But they were technically still in one piece. :silly: :laugh:

Post edited by: RetroRiceRocketRider, at: 2006/11/23 01:28

Yeah I knocked out the rollers out of the bearings then I took my 21 or 22mm socket and tried to knock it out like that but they just went srtaight in and stopped so I only have 2 bearings in my swingarm, 1 on each side, it still works pretty good if you have a new swingarm sleeve also.

So I tried hammering them out with a punch a few days ago, I don't think they moved a millimeter, but I did successfully ruin one of them. Yeah, I hope I didn't mess up the ID of the swingarm.
Tomorrow I think I'm gonna get out the torch and see if my buddy thermal expansion will help me out. My plan is to heat up the swing arm enough that the ID will increase and maybe I can pound them out easier. If that fails, I'll be heading to the machine shop where they have a bearing press. thanks for the sympathy and happy thanksgiving.

Thanks for the input. Last night I got out the torch and heated up the swingarm OD in the area of the bearings, then took my drfit punch and started hitting with a 20oz hammer. The bearings on one side came out immediately(and the bearings still turned!) the other side was not as easy. It took about 30 hits with the punch and two heating cycles, but they came out (one still turned and the other was destroyed)