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Bearing up under the strain?
(How not to fit bearings)
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Bearing up under the strain?
(How not to fit bearings)
THE air in the garage was turning blue. "Of all the stupid, incompetent, useless, gormless, idiotic things to do! Why the hell didn't you stop me?"
It was tough on Dave Thompson (he of K4 fame) but we know each other pretty well. I had to blame someone for my own incompetence and when, standing vacantly with his hands in his pockets, he muttered, "I thought you'd do that," I decided he deserved some vitriol.
It was a Sunday morning and Thompson had 'come to visit' and lend me his miniature socket set. He had also decided to observe my efforts to insert needle roller bearings into my swinging arm'
But back to the beginning. Included in the colossally expensive collection of CBX parts I bought a few months back from GT Motorcycles were two roller bearings for the swinging arm. These turned out to be for a later model. The ones I needed for my 'Z' model were plain, hard plastic bushes.
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Duncan at GT Motorcycles duly obliged for the usual consideration (more expense but not too painful) and the previous weekend I had specially purchased a soft (rubber) mallet with which to 'tap' them in.
At this point I should explain that I am not universally renowned for my patience but I tried, I really tried. After tapping away the blows became harder as the bush edged into the swinging arm at about one thou at a time.
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By the time it was halfway in, the lip which butts up against the end of the swinging arm was showing signs of disintegration despite using wood to protect it from the mallet. Now I knew why the old ones were all chipped away when I removed the swinging arm from the bike - not through use but through being driven in at some time in the past.
The answer came from my CBX 'helpline', John Wyatt in Tadcaster. "No worries mate," he said, "those plastic bushes are bloody useless. I'll send you my needle roller bearing conversion. just nine quid to you."
What a relief. "I'll give you a plug John," said I. "How much do you normally sell them for?"
"Well, nine quid actually."
THE kit with four needle roller bearings, the central spacer, dust covers and washers arrived a few days later and John advised me to 'just tap them in' (oh no, not again) and torque up the swinging arm spindle to 26-29lbs in the frame with the washers between the dust caps and the frame.
I toyed with the idea of getting Ape Accessories' mechanic to do it for me but was determined to learn for myself. Regular scribe Brian Crichton had offered some advice. "Instead of driving them in, you could use the swinging arm bolt to squeeze them in" he offered.
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