Relay Arm, modified for easier lube service

[RossKean]

^^^ +1

The need for swingarm service is simply too infrequent to make installation of grease fittings worthwhile. Some of those who have done a complete swingarm service at 100,000 miles have wondered why they bothered.

 

[Panman]

I like the innovation here, this is something the Mother ship could have done better on IMHO!

I found my race/sleeve brindled early even though they were well greased. Not enough movement me thinks.

 

[Donal]

Pretty close on the description Dave. I didn't use my bandsaw, however on the outer race. I think that material is too hard and the band saw blade would have raised a hell of a burr. I used a very fine grit .025" thick slitting wheel in my Dremel tool.
The front bearing gets two slits, the rear bearing gets only one as you simply slide the rear bearing inner race side to side to purge the old grease while pumping in the new. Of course you can do the rear one in the traditional manner. No zerks required.

Awesome! Great idea with the Dremel wheel. A much better choice.

In the back of my mind I was thinking the bearing race would put up one hell of a fight

in the band saw. That stuff is really hard!

I'm really impressed with the work you did.

I don't have a shop anymore, but I'm going to ask a friend to let me have-att in his shop.

Thanks to you, that part is only going to come off the bike once.

I got a great buy on a 2004 FJR1300 ABS after someone test rode it and dropped

it in the dealer parking lot. (Needs new mirror and paint on 1 fairing & the saddle bag)

The bike only has 6,600 original miles and was owned by a 70 yr old man.

The first time I sat on it, they had it overpriced at $5,800.

I bought it 2 days after it hit the deck for $2,200. Whoo hoo!

I'm going to make her look like new and ride her for years to come.

I already predict that your mod will be the best thing I ever do to the bike.

I'll be eyeing up the whole underside for possible new zerk locations.

My little Yamaha XT225 came from the factory fully equipped with zerks

in the rear suspension, and I'm totally excited to upgrade my new bike.

Thanks again for thinking outside the box and sharing it with us.

And WTF is wrong with that? I do ~12,000 miles per year and I will not be seeing 70 again (in this life)!...............

 

[dcarver]

PM sent.

 

[FJReady]

Update; prototype #1 is sold. Don, PM sent back to you.

 

[John d]

Got it in the mail today. Well done Russ!

I'm looking forward to installing it - not really but it needs to be done with 80K miles on the unserviced relay arm so far. I just need to build a pipe stand so it can be done, which is a total pain considering the stand will only need to be used once. It is nice to have the zerk modified plug and play relay arm, so that will save time there, and in the future for sure.

I'll post some pictures when done.

 

[Canadian Steve]

Very nice. I once had a Suzuki enduro bike RMX 250 It had grease fittings on shock and swing arm linkages. They used a different way to get grease in there. Bolts were drilled length wise, grease fitting at head. cross drilled at bearing surfaces. Excess grease was pushed past seals. Lubed from center of bolt no need to cut slots or drill linkage.
This is similiar to the C10 Concours. Factory grease fittings in the end of bolt heads , and bolts drilled to distribute grease. The relay arm and bearings VERY similiar. Shot of grease every oil change and as new still after 80K miles.

If I ever get the relay arm off my Gen 3, this is what I will be doing

 

[Guitardave]

Pretty close on the description Dave. I didn't use my bandsaw, however on the outer race. I think that material is too hard and the band saw blade would have raised a hell of a burr. I used a very fine grit .025" thick slitting wheel in my Dremel tool.
The front bearing gets two slits, the rear bearing gets only one as you simply slide the rear bearing inner race side to side to purge the old grease while pumping in the new. Of course you can do the rear one in the traditional manner. No zerks required.

Awesome! Great idea with the Dremel wheel. A much better choice.

In the back of my mind I was thinking the bearing race would put up one hell of a fight

in the band saw. That stuff is really hard!

I'm really impressed with the work you did.

I don't have a shop anymore, but I'm going to ask a friend to let me have-att in his shop.

Thanks to you, that part is only going to come off the bike once.

I got a great buy on a 2004 FJR1300 ABS after someone test rode it and dropped

it in the dealer parking lot. (Needs new mirror and paint on 1 fairing & the saddle bag)

The bike only has 6,600 original miles and was owned by a 70 yr old man.

The first time I sat on it, they had it overpriced at $5,800.

I bought it 2 days after it hit the deck for $2,200. Whoo hoo!

I'm going to make her look like new and ride her for years to come.

I already predict that your mod will be the best thing I ever do to the bike.

I'll be eyeing up the whole underside for possible new zerk locations.

My little Yamaha XT225 came from the factory fully equipped with zerks

in the rear suspension, and I'm totally excited to upgrade my new bike.

Thanks again for thinking outside the box and sharing it with us.

And WTF is wrong with that? I do ~12,000 miles per year and I will not be seeing 70 again (in this life)!...............

Amen!

Right behind ya!

I'm turning 56 in a month and can only hope I'll be riding at 70.

I'm already pretty busted up, but I grit my teeth and give it everything I got.

I have high hopes my newly acquired FJR won't beat me up nearly as bad as some other bikes have.

God bless you and keep the shiny side up.

David

 

[DennisJ]

Pretty close on the description Dave. I didn't use my bandsaw, however on the outer race. I think that material is too hard and the band saw blade would have raised a hell of a burr. I used a very fine grit .025" thick slitting wheel in my Dremel tool.
The front bearing gets two slits, the rear bearing gets only one as you simply slide the rear bearing inner race side to side to purge the old grease while pumping in the new. Of course you can do the rear one in the traditional manner. No zerks required.

Awesome! Great idea with the Dremel wheel. A much better choice.

In the back of my mind I was thinking the bearing race would put up one hell of a fight

in the band saw. That stuff is really hard!

I'm really impressed with the work you did.

I don't have a shop anymore, but I'm going to ask a friend to let me have-att in his shop.

Thanks to you, that part is only going to come off the bike once.

I got a great buy on a 2004 FJR1300 ABS after someone test rode it and dropped

it in the dealer parking lot. (Needs new mirror and paint on 1 fairing & the saddle bag)

The bike only has 6,600 original miles and was owned by a 70 yr old man.

The first time I sat on it, they had it overpriced at $5,800.

I bought it 2 days after it hit the deck for $2,200. Whoo hoo!

I'm going to make her look like new and ride her for years to come.

I already predict that your mod will be the best thing I ever do to the bike.

I'll be eyeing up the whole underside for possible new zerk locations.

My little Yamaha XT225 came from the factory fully equipped with zerks

in the rear suspension, and I'm totally excited to upgrade my new bike.

Thanks again for thinking outside the box and sharing it with us.

And WTF is wrong with that? I do ~12,000 miles per year and I will not be seeing 70 again (in this life)!...............

Me too but I don't get 12,000 miles a year. 6000 to 7000 is more like it for me but I plan on more in 2017. Mostly ride to eat using the Sound Rider "Cafe-to-Cafe" list of places to eat and enjoy some nice roads and scenery. That dream is based on my knee replacement surgery happening early Spring so I am ready to go when the good weather riding starts.

 

[FJReady]

I completed the mod on my 2014ES relay arm this weekend. Same process and result as the non ES bikes.

Gosh, I forgot how much fun it is removing the centerstand for the first time. Fortunately I won't be doing that much anymore. That is the point of this mod after all.

I'm still having trouble working photobucket (surprise, surprise!) so no photos. If your interested in the rework process and some photos, PM me. Its a fun winter project.

 

[John d]

I completed the mod on my 2014ES relay arm this weekend. Same process and result as the non ES bikes.
Gosh, I forgot how much fun it is removing the centerstand for the first time. Fortunately I won't be doing that much anymore. That is the point of this mod after all.

I'm still having trouble working photobucket (surprise, surprise!) so no photos. If your interested in the rework process and some photos, PM me. Its a fun winter project.

I'm in the same process right now. Sawsalled the front bolts off the centerstand. ?!@$% I can't run out of expletives for Yamaha on this. New bolts on order.

 

[Panman]

You don't have to saw or cut anything, loosen the lower Radiator bolt then the header bolts and you can move the headers just far enough to get that bolt out. But yes Mama Yama had their heads up their butt a few time's when it comes to a few items.

 

[FJReady]

John,

This may be too late to help you, but you don't need to remove the centerstand left side mounting bracket. Only the right side needs to come off. So just that one bolt head to cut off.

You do need to remove the centerstand itself from its mounting brackets by taking out the two pivot shoulder bolts. They'll need cleaning and greasing anyway.

I didn't order a new Yamaha bolt to replace the one I cut off. I bought a zinc plated 10mm X 30mm hex bolt and nut at the hardware store. That bolt isn't so critical. I put a little blue Loctite on the threads and snugged it up.

 

[John d]

John,
This may be too late to help you, but you don't need to remove the centerstand left side mounting bracket. Only the right side needs to come off. So just that one bolt head to cut off.

You do need to remove the centerstand itself from its mounting brackets by taking out the two pivot shoulder bolts. They'll need cleaning and greasing anyway.

I didn't order a new Yamaha bolt to replace the one I cut off. I bought a zinc plated 10mm X 30mm hex bolt and nut at the hardware store. That bolt isn't so critical. I put a little blue Loctite on the threads and snugged it up.

Doh! Yep, too late, I cut them both off. I wore out 2 blades on the right bolt, The left bolt cut very easily, no idea why.

I'm now dealing with trying to get the front collars out of the pivot at the frame, so the pivot can come off. Now at over a day soaking it in penetrating oil, and I still can't bang it out.

 

[FJReady]

There's only one collar there, on the right side. with the right side center stand bracket out of the way you should be able to grab the part of the collar protruding out with some pliers or vise-grips. I found that it has to come out with the long bolt in order to fully disengage from the bike's frame. If you can get the bolt out and not the collar, try lightly wiggling the relay arm side to side a bit to free it up from the frozen collar you're trying to remove. With the relay arm out of the way it will be easier to tap the collar out of the frame lug. I remember this being a challenge on my '05 many years ago. That's why I coat the collar with sticky grease at re-installation time.

 

[John d]

There's only one collar there, on the right side. with the right side center stand bracket out of the way you should be able to grab the part of the collar protruding out with some pliers or vise-grips. I found that it has to come out with the long bolt in order to fully disengage from the bike's frame. If you can get the bolt out and not the collar, try lightly wiggling the relay arm side to side a bit to free it up from the frozen collar you're trying to remove. With the relay arm out of the way it will be easier to tap the collar out of the frame lug. I remember this being a challenge on my '05 many years ago. That's why I coat the collar with sticky grease at re-installation time.

Looks like that collar on the right side is really in there. I can't pull it out. The relay arm itself swings very freely, so the collar must be corroded into the boss. I tried gently heating the boss with a propane torch but that didn't work either. I sprayed some more penetrating oil on it, so I'll wait some more. After that, the next step would be to get a bearing puller, but they don't come cheap.

 

[Fred W]

You don't need to get the collar out to get the relay arm out. I didn't even need to get the long bolt out to do that, just slide it way to the right past the header pipe.

Once you get the relay arm out you can use the bolt and nut along with some spacers, washers, etc to pull the spacer out to the left. The bolt head is smaller than the OD of the collar.

 

[John d]

You don't need to get the collar out to get the relay arm out. I didn't even need to get the long bolt out to do that, just slide it way to the right past the header pipe. Once you get the relay arm out you can use the bolt and nut along with some spacers, washers, etc to pull the spacer out to the left. The bolt head is smaller than the OD of the collar.

The bolt is completely out, but the outside collar is not moving period. The collar needs to move to the right somewhat for the relay arm to come out. The relay arm does move sideways smoothly, I assume along the two collars (parts 25 and 26 in the parts diagram).

 

[Fred W]

The inside collar is actually the inner bearing race. You should be able to pry the entire arm such that the inner race comes free of the seized collar on the outside, then it will be easier to extricate the collar from the right side frame tab

 

[John d]

Fred,

That made me think, I just went out and tapped the relay arm free with a soft head hammer. Thanks.