Getting penetrant between the spacer and bolt is going to be a challenge. Pouring it in the grease fitting hole will certainly lube up the outside of the spacer, and pouring it from each end will douse the bearings, but a great deal of patience and a lot of penetrant will be needed to get to the problem.

I am a bit late to the show, but there is a penetrant called KROIL that is bar none the best there is. It has saved me untold grief working on vintage firearms and older vehicles. The problem comes when people expect it to work quickly...it doesn't. It can take several days to do it's job. I spray it on the part I want to loosen and if the part has some movement, I move it back and forth trying to exceed the movement limit little by little both ways at first. Perhaps I may even "shock" the saturated part with a dead blow hammer all the while continually soaking the part and moving it little by little if I can. I will do this several times a day if needed and the part is really stuck. I have removed barrels from 80 and 90 year old firearms using these methods and rarely has KROIL let me down, but sometimes I have continued this process for over a week. You can't rush what may have taken Mother Nature and man many years to screw up. Heat is a final resort in some instances, but only a last resort. It can do strange things to metal that you want to save. I think in your case I would have done the KROIL process first and got things freed up as much as possible and with some assistance put the frame/swingarm in a hydraulic press and pushed the pivot out. You may have to use an arbor on top of the bolt. Just remember, a frame will only take so much force before it begins to bend and or twist. Good luck....
Rick H.

Ah, lucked out. Tried a rig with a car jack on top and a bike stand below, pressing up on my workbench. The spindle bolt didn't give, but the workbench started to lift. LOL
Lots of penetrating oil didn't seem to make any difference. The 2 x G-clamp method didn't work - even started to bend a heavy duty CrV spanner I laid over the threaded end. All that's left now is to try to spin the bolt so fast that it breaks free of the inner spacer that's corroded itself to it. At the moment, I've put lots of penetrating oil down the grease nipple hole, and am leaving it overnight to try again tomorrow.

Realistically, it isn't going to come out. So my choices will be:
1) Buy a new swingarm, and cut out the existing one in the meantime. Will also need a new pivot bolt and swingarm bearings and seals.
2) Struts (lazy hardtail)...

Building a custom bike is on my bucket list. However, I've never ridden a hard tail before, and I've heard lots of bad things about them. They do look cool, though. This could be the frame to make it happen. Don't know yet. At least I got the headrace bearing races out.

Hi how you doing .. this is my kz build . how it more or less was when I got it altho, I had taken the four foot high sissy bar off and the vetter fairing before that pic . i built mine with zx9r 1995 front end and zx9r wheels . I also fitted a gsxr 600 swing arm from 2003 .. of Couse a lot more mods then listed .. one thing people make the mistake on with kz resto mods is not enough ground clearance so watch that esp if you like to ride hard .. im looking forward to seeing more of your project as you move on with it .. im just starting another one .. I bought a bare frame from a breakers yard and just fitted a zrx1100 front end in the process of finding all my other bits .. keep us updated with your project

Thanks for the tips guys.

Plenty of things to try then! Got lots of time to work it out, and part of the fun in projects is thinking of creative solutions, so I'll work something out. Worse comes to the worst, I'll get another swingarm and cut out the existing one. Seems a bit last-resort, but if needs must, no big deal.

There is a tubular sleeve between the bearings that's likely corroded and stuck to the shaft. That's why you can rotate the shaft but can't get it out. If the swingarm has a grease fitting I'd pull that out and squirt some PB Blaster or similar in there and give it a chance to work. Worst case cut off the swingarm and buy a replacement from ebay. They seem reasonably cheap.

I've just got hold of a KZ550 LTD frame, with the swingarm still attached. I noticed that there is a swingarm shim missing (going between the swingarm and the frame) on one side, and as a result when you grab the swingarm, it can be rocked a bit. So the swingarm has to come off, to put a new shim in there, and (now) to replace the swingarm bearings.

I've looked at the blowup diagram and it's a standard, very simple swingarm pivot. The nut comes off on one side, and then there's nothing to stop it from being drifted out. However, I've run into a problem. This pivot absolutely defies me, and doesn't want to move. I guess this is probably because a lack of grease has caused it to rust to one or both of the bearings. I've hit it with lots of PlusGas (a good UK equivalent of PB Blaster) and with the blowtorch on both sides. So I moved to the hammer and started bashing away, with a block of wood to protect the threaded end of the spindle. Didn't work. I didn't have a bigger hammer, so I moved over to a big brick, and have been bashing away with all the strength I can muster, and also trying to squat while hitting it (moving body weight vertically to add force to the blows).

I've stopped because I'm now pretty scared, with the amount of force I'm using. The swingarm now creaks (it didn't before) when moved up and down, so I suppose a bearing is damaged. What worries me is damage to the swingarm and the frame. At the end of the day, if I destroy the spindle it doesn't matter, I can get another. But I don't want to damage the frame or swingarm - that would be stupidity.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? Am I good to go, with even more brute force and ignorance until it comes out? What do you think about a little dab of arc-welder to both ends, to heat-shock some of the rust free?

GSXR 600 swingarm dropped right into my frame.

In fact,this is a list Leon made when I was looking for a suitable swingarm;
97-03 gsxr 600 (no upper brace)
92 gsxr 1100 (no upper or lower brace)
those should install much like the gs arm.

these will take some modification but have been used on kz's in the past (and present)

99-07 busa needs upper brace removed(possibly lower brace added)
03-04 zx6/636 needs the pivot machined narrower
01-05 fz1 needs the pivot machined narrower

The Whale brand chain tools I got right from Japan. Back in the days where price did not matter to me. I was addicted to motorcycles and racing them back then. I would give up buying food so I could buy more motorcycle go fast parts!!! I would hit all my friends houses for dinners 4 or 5 nights a week so I didn't starve!!!

I did find a pretty decent priced chain tool that works on 630 sized chains. BikeMaster part number 01-630. That is a Tucker Dist brand part. Your local dealer should be able to order it for you too!!!! Tucker used to be one of the largest distributors for motorcycle dealerships. I have been out of the industry for like 15 years now so I don't know how big they are now compared to like Parts Unlimited. The retail price I saw on Ebay was anywhere from 104 dollars to 126 dollars. It looks like it does both cut and rivet chains. So you don't have to buy two different tools.

I used to ride my bikes as hard as I could. Every time we went out riding it was basically a race., not a cruise for miles at the speed limit. I used to like the 10 or 15 mile top end runs down Highway 41 topped out in 5th or 6th gear. Then peel off down the twisty side roads and rode them just as hard as we did on the track!! I had two clip master links come apart as I went through the gears. Both times I bent every valve in my motor as it revved off the tach face. I was very lucky both times I lost the chain, it never put a hole in my cases!!! When it happened on my GSXR750 besides tearing the top end down. The end of the chain destroyed the tail section, the inner fender, the chain guard, and the engine chain cover!!!! All big buck parts on the Limited Edition GSXR!!!! Plus it gouged the hell out of the swing arm too!!!

I WILL NEVER EVER PUT A CLIP TYPE MASTER LINK ON ANY MOTORCYCLE I RIDE, OR BUILD!!!!!
END OF QUESTION!!!!

The Bikemaster chain tool kit part number 01-630

Many "rivet links" have a hollow tip in the pin and a relatively cheap chain tool can be used to flare out the pin. If you have the old style pin where you need to peen over the actual pin that requires a heavy duty type chain tool, sometimes specific to the type of chain being used. One alternative is to remove the chain and peen over the link with a hammer and punch. You'll have to remove the swingarm to reinstall the chain, but that's not too bad and it will give you a chance to grease the bearings in the pivot!