Center Stand - Lubrication

[Fred W]

Well, it was dandy for now... but the grease in my suspension pivots was not grease anymore. It had solidifed to a plastic like consistency, which didn't give me a wearm fuzzy feeling about how well it was lubricating those bearings. How much longer it would have remained dandy is the question. I don't feel that it was a waste of time to do.

Are you sure that stuff is not supposed to be semi-solid like that?

Yes, pretty darned sure. The FSM calls for these bearings to be serviced and greased with lithium soap based grease. The junk I pulled out was definitely hardened grease, not a plastic bearing retainer or anything like that.

 

[Canadian FJR]

"The question I've got is how do you support the bike when doing all this rear suspension work?"

Since I wanted to check all the bearings and bushings I removed the swingarm also. Once the swingarm was removed I ran a metal pipe through the frame and suspended the bike with floor jacks. I was then able to remove the center stand and relay arm. Worked rather well.

Canadian FJR

 

[John d]

Well, it was dandy for now... but the grease in my suspension pivots was not grease anymore. It had solidifed to a plastic like consistency, which didn't give me a wearm fuzzy feeling about how well it was lubricating those bearings. How much longer it would have remained dandy is the question. I don't feel that it was a waste of time to do.

Are you sure that stuff is not supposed to be semi-solid like that?

Yes, pretty darned sure. The FSM calls for these bearings to be serviced and greased with lithium soap based grease. The junk I pulled out was definitely hardened grease, not a plastic bearing retainer or anything like that.

I have to wonder why they wouldn't recommend using waterproof marine grease. BTW, how many miles have you got on your 05 since your last (if any) linkage lube?

 

[Fred W]

45k. Was over due.

 

[SkooterG]

The FSM calls for a lot of stuff I never did. BTW, on several occasions when taking my old FJR in for a valve check to the dealer (a trusted tech), I asked him to check swingarm pivot bearings, head bearings, and such. He did 'check' them but his response was 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. He said to only address those places if there was a problem. I was a bit disconcerted initially, but over the long life of that FJR I never experienced any problems from his advice.

Now he did favor regular valve checks and other periodic maintenance. And on several occasions fixed what other Yamaha dealers had screwed up. I only take my bike to him now (for valve checks - I do all other maintenance myself).

And I don't care what the FSM says, in any of those places I would use Mobil 1 synthetic grease, or BelRay waterproof grease.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

The FSM calls for a lot of stuff I never did. And I don't care what the FSM says

That's the spirit...

 

[FJReady]

Fred,

I had the same conclusion when I pulled out my front relay bearing. I thought the 'factory' grease had hardened into a non-functional state. So I was a little surprised that the new 'fresh' bearings had the rollers encased in a very similar 'hard wax' type consistency material. Although it was a little cleaner looking. Now this was on the front and rear pivot bearings only. On the side pivot arm bearings, that attach to the dogbones, the roller bearings have more of a traditional cage to space the rollers from each other. Those two bearings have approximately half of the rollers that the end bearings have. Sort of makes sense since there are two to share the load.

If you check the microfiche, you'll notice the bearings have a differnt p/n.

On the end roller bearings, the individual needles are essentially touching each other and the waxy buildup material helps keep them in location while providing just enough clearance to allow them to roll on the bearing inner and outer races. And of course the clearance allows enough space for the lithium based grease to do its job.

My theory is that the waxy cage is there to keep the rollers in place during handling/assembly. Once the inner (sleeve) and outer races are in place the wax has no function, structurally. If you pick it out of the bearing you'll discover that the individual rollers start falling out onto the bench.

So if you buy all the bearings you need to service the pivot arm and dog bone bearing joints, just pay attention to which bearings go where. I think they're the same size. But certainly not intended to be interchangeable.

 

[Fred W]

Interesting. In that case, there was no appreciable grease (other than the waxy stuff) inside my bearings. They were running dry.

I wonder if we're supposed to leave the wax stuff in there and just add grease? The FSM doesn't mention it.

After picking the wax out, I laid in fresh grease and the needles stuck in there for assembly just fine. But I could see how having the wax retain the needles when the part is on the shelf would be advantageous to the manufacturer.

As I recall, those different looking bearings in the center pivot do have something metal inside to capture the needles, right?

 

[ionbeam]

I believe those bearings are called 'grease retained needle bearings'. Standard needle bearings held by an inner runner or cage have square ends, the grease retained needle bearing usually have rounded ends. Did anyone that spilled the needles notice the ends?

 

[Fred W]

semi - rounded

Don't ask...

 

[ionbeam]

semi - rounded

Don't ask...

[/ask]

That would be one of thems those grease retained bearin's

 

[Harald]

The suspension lube and center stand are on my to do list for this winter. Reading this thread has spurred me to think more closely about the job. The question I've got is how do you support the bike when doing all this rear suspension work? Hang from the rear sub frame?

When I lubed my rear suspension last winter I had the bike resting on the sidestand. I placed a floor jack under the rear of the engine to support the bike while I unbolted the shock and removed the linkage for cleaning and lubing.

And like many others have noted, the linkage bearings were pretty dry and there was corrosion on the shafts of my 2 year old bike. Glad I took the time to lube those parts!

 

[JR'SFJR]

Disassembled it last night. One pivot was a little dry and rusty colored. 50k. I hold the front wheel with a chock from harbor freight and lift the rear with two ratchet tie down straps going to a bar mounted on the garage ceiling. Cut both front bolts quickly with a sawzall.