Re: R1100S Paralever /swingarm play

[Jack Bunce <jackbunce@xxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 01:20:00 +0000, "conrad long" 
<conradlong@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> ...
>      Bob is correct; they are tapered roller bearings, both at the 
> swing-arm
> and at the final drive, at least on my '94 RS. Any side to side 
> movement is
> bad; sometimes the bike moving on the center-stand can mask real 
> results of a
> check. IIRC, they are preloaded to 7Nm with the large allen bolts. I've
> found a couple that were "notchy" at 40k miles , but never loose. Did 
> the
> bike feel "loose" when you rode it? You also hinted at a noise: ?
>
>      I've never taken the pre-load adjustment to be routine 
> maintenance,
> simply the procedure to use when re-installing the swing-arm/final 
> drive.
> ...

Thanks, Conrad.

I don't think there is any side to side play at all.  It appears to be 
more rotational in a horizontal plane.  It would be the kind of motion 
one would expect if a bearing race had worn or the pre-load (if I 
understand pre-load properly) was out of specification due to bearing 
wear.

This is not something I noticed while riding.  I only checked it 
because of all the rear drive problem posts on the mailing lists and 
web sites I frequent.

I have recently gone to a much "harder" setting on the rear suspension: 
it used to be 1/2 turn out on the rebound and a few turns away from 
full soft on the pre-load (the book recommended settings).  Well it 
finally dawned on me that the bike was wallowing occasionally so after 
changing the front rebound damping to -5 clicks instead of -6 I then 
went to 1/4 turn out on the rear rebound and 3 turns from full hard on 
the rear pre-load (my rear pre-load has 13 turns of adjustment 
available in total).  It now seems to track like it is on rails with 
really smooth side to side transitions even on my bumpy New England 
back roads.  Almost like getting a new bike!

The noise is that of something metallic hitting a stop and only occurs 
when I force the rear wheel back and forth in a horizontal plane.  It 
is not loud but is clearly audible.

..... [time passes]....

Just went out and tried some more wiggling only this time I did it from 
the right side of the bike and attempted to hold the swing arm in place 
just forward of the rear drive pivots.  The swing arm did not appear to 
move at all but the other symptoms remained.

I think the service manager got it exactly right when he suggested that 
it was probably the rear needle bearings that either failed or were out 
of spec on the pre-load.

Thanks again for the help.

cheers.... jack, '04 R1100SA, Waterford, Connecticut, U.S.A.

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