One of these things........is not like the other.

[SkooterG]

Excellent photos!

On my first FJR with went 226,000 I never serviced these linkages other than when I installed my Wilbers shock at about 30,000 miles. (And even then don't think I serviced ALL of them?) And while I primarily ride in the dry southwest, I did travel quite a bit and ride in my fair share of rain.

As my 2nd FJR is now approaching 100,000 miles, I will put this on my to-do maintenance list. Are there certain linkages that are worse, or more prone to problems?

 

[Fred W]

Are there certain linkages that are worse, or more prone to problems?

Can't speak with any first hand experience of any of them being "more prone", but there are four pivots that make up the rear suspension linkage. Refer to this parts breakdown. Once you access the relay arm (which means removing the center stand and suspending the rear end of the bike somehow, you might as well do all 4 pivots.

Three of the pivots are pressed in the relay arm itself, and the 4th pivot at the top end of the dog bones are pressed into the bottom of the swingarm . The two pivot points at either end of the dog bones are made up of two, widely spaced, captive roller bearings (there are 4 of item #22) and the other two pivots in the relay arm are a single roller bearing (items #24) where the rollers are not captive other than by the plastic-like grease they used originally.

Note that there are grease seals that can be renewed if it appears they aren't sealing out the weather anymore.

 

[Bustanut joker]

When I replaced my shock at just over 11K the lower dogbone was starting to rust no sign of any lube.

When we did Bikergeeks last fall 60k miles?, it was a real mofo getting his apart. There was just enough of a lip worn into the pin to piss a guy off.

Cleaned everything up and greased,checked to see that everyting moved freely without notches and tossed e'r back together.

IIRC Jestal was the guy who installed grease zerks.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Thanks for the pics '1188. Remembered reading about the failures in the UK due to dried out / rusted bushings.

Skoot -- I would lube all the bushings in the relay arm and dog-bones. Notice in '1188s last pic, the relay arm / frame pin is a ***** to get at due to the center stand...bring your patience with you.

--G

 

[dsmack]

Thanks for the pics '1188. Remembered reading about the failures in the UK due to dried out / rusted bushings.

Skoot -- I would lube all the bushings in the relay arm and dog-bones. Notice in '1188s last pic, the relay arm / frame pin is a ***** to get at due to the center stand...bring your patience with you.

--G

I also notice that he still has his bike on the centerstand... so, the question in my mind is: Can the remainder of the linkage be successfully removed while on the centerstand, or does it HAVE to be removed first to completely strip out the linkages?

It is beyond belief that Yamaha builds these bikes with no zerks fittings in critical suspension parts. My $600 snow blower has zerks on every rotating shaft... WTF?

Happy New Year, everyone!

Ride Safely,

Don

 

[fudgejerkin1188]

dsmack,

The stand has to be removed to get the linkage out. If you look carefully you will see that the bike is not actually sitting on its centre stand its hanging from the roof of my garage with the stand about 4" off the bench. This photo was taken just before I removed the stand to get at the top mount.

 

[Donal]

Useful guide here - just scroll down to near the bottom

Don

 

[tcfjr]

I'll 'fess up to being the owner of the bike that Hal is working on.

In my defense, though, and as a cautionary tale, I'll say that from zero to 55,000 miles I had all my service done (except for oil changes, which I did myself) at my local Yamaha dealer. They told me they were performing all the maintenance checks listed in the service manual, so I assumed everything that should be done had been done.

So, the moral of this story is: if you're not in a position to do your own maintenance, find someone you can trust to do it for you. I now know that I cannot fully trust my local dealer to do everything that might be needed, but I know there are dealers around that can be trusted.

 

[Fred W]

They told me they were performing all the maintenance checks listed in the service manual, so I assumed everything that should be done had been done.

I guess (if it were me) I'd want to know if they were charging you labor for those things that were not being done. If not, no big deal. They are just not too bright about what they consider necessary maintenance.

But if so; if they were charging you for those services but never actually performing them, well then I'd have a little bigger issue with them. They call that fraud.

 

[SkooterG]

In my defense, though, and as a cautionary tale, I'll say that from zero to 55,000 miles I had all my service done (except for oil changes, which I did myself) at my local Yamaha dealer. They told me they were performing all the maintenance checks listed in the service manual, so I assumed everything that should be done had been done.

As far as I know, lubing the suspension bits are not listed as regular maintenance items anywhere by Yamaha.

 

[Fred W]

In my defense, though, and as a cautionary tale, I'll say that from zero to 55,000 miles I had all my service done (except for oil changes, which I did myself) at my local Yamaha dealer. They told me they were performing all the maintenance checks listed in the service manual, so I assumed everything that should be done had been done.

As far as I know, lubing the suspension bits are not listed as regular maintenance items anywhere by Yamaha.

It's item #9 in my '05 Owners Manual:

Swingarm pivot bearings / Check for looseness every 8k miles, Repack with lithium based grease every 16k miles.
 
There is only a single paragraph in the 1st gen FSM found at the very end of the Chassis section of Chapter 3 Periodic Checks and Maintenance that isn't very specific.

LUBRICATING THE REAR SUSPENSION
Lubricate the pivoting point and metal-to-metal moving parts of the rear suspension.
Recommended lubricant Lithium soap base grease
 
 
I would take that to mean these bearings. But I suppose one could say, no that is just the swingarm itself.

 

[HotRodZilla]

As far as I know, lubing the suspension bits are not listed as regular maintenance items anywhere by Yamaha.

It sure is...Because when I had my service plan, the service advisor had forgotten and handed me the bill. He said it was more because they had to lube the swing arm and pivots. Said it was a ***** to do, but a waste of time cuz they were lubed just fine.

Tim was an awesome service guy.

 

[rbentnail]

It sure is...Because when I had my service plan, the service advisor had forgotten and handed me the bill. He said it was more because they had to lube the swing arm and pivots. Said it was a ***** to do, but a waste of time cuz they were lubed just fine.

Tim was an awesome service guy.

+1. The Gen II FSM manual I have ('06), section 3 "period checks and adjustments", item #19 is

Rear suspension relay arm and connecting arm pivoting points

- check operation

- lubricate with lithium-soap-based grease

20km, 40km schedule

 

[rbentnail]

Rear suspension relay arm and connecting arm pivoting points

- check operation

- lubricate with lithium-soap-based grease

20km, 40km schedule

Did mine for the first time today. What a beeotch! I'm at ~54k miles and the bushings and bearings looked really clean and still well lubed tho I added a little more grease to each. There was a little corrosion on the bolts and the bore of the bushings but it all cleaned up nicely.

 

[S76]

There are 3 bearing/shaft assemblies in the pivot casting, (bushing), mulitiplier, whatever you call that thing, and another bearing/shaft assy on the swing arm. When my bike was a year old I pulled it all apart and lubed everything including the swing arm pivots. 50K later I did it again only to find everything was still packed full of grease and in good condition.

Another reason to do this sooner than later is the bolts get heavily corroded. At a year old the bolts on mine were starting to corrode. So while it is apart cover them with grease too.