Replacing wheel, sprocket carrier, swing arm bearings etc etc.

[Nic]

I've started a new thread regarding doing some work to my K7.
The plan is to check and replace if needed front and rear wheel bearings, sprocket carrier bearings and swingarm bearings/grease.
Because I need new tyres I figured I'd go over everything that can impact the ride, I'm not too worried about steering head bearing and grease so I won't be looking at that right now.
I also decided to replace the chain and sprockets even though I'm not sure if they need changing, I'm gonna do it anyway, cleaning off the old chain with all that goop from the spray lubes, I'm not inspired to do it, rather replace the lot. While I'm at the front sprocket I thought I'd put in that Clutch slave dust cover mod. I imagine there will be quite a bit of cleaning back there and yes, I'll attend to the push rod so as to look after the seal on the R/H side, the dreaded one.
As some will be aware, I ordered all the bearings from Wemoto and now know that they sell either All Balls or Slinkey Glide bearings, now we've all heard of Slinky Glide right Well maybe not, anyway I decided that I would not use them and bought Koyo brand bearings.
Most of what I need is still in the post and some not even in the post yet but today I received the Koyo sprocket carrier bearing and thought I'd start this thread off by showing you a pic comparing the All Balls to the Koyo.

The one on the right is the All Balls, you can plainly see the Koyo has bigger balls, need I say more.
So now it seems obvious why the All Balls dies prematurely.
More to come as the work commences once ALL the parts are here.
So far I have the Carrier bearing and seal, the clutch slave dust cover and front wheel seals.
I bought another oil can and just received 1 litre of Castrol VMX 80W.
The tyres should be here tomorrow or Friday. The wheel bearings I bought from some place that now tells me they are out of stock so how long I wait for those is anyone's guess, don't you hate when you think you are buying something only to find out AFTER you give em the dough, they don't Fu#%#^* have them.
Also something strange going on with the chain kit as well, no idea when that will arrive, so far tracking says " shipping information received " great, Oz post doesn't even have the thing even after I emailed the bloke after hearing nothing for some days, he says sorry, he's been away and will "Express" it out asap, the next day I get tracking number, that was 3 days ago.
Originally I rang my usual bearing place but they had nothing, this is why I've had to buy online, go the 21st century. Wait til it's all cashless, that's another story.
So the whole thing is dragging out big time, I thought while I wait, I'll start the thread now just to  show the diff between the two Carrier bearings.

[Nic]

Tyres arrived in the post today along with a small bag of lollies, love that, swallowed em up straight away
Angel GT 1s, $495 posted from Motorcycle Tyre Warehouse, best price I could find, front is from 2021, rear is 2022. I'd forgotten how much meat is on a new tyre 
Chain kit should be here tomorrow, still no word on the wheel and swingarm bearings  They may not need replacing but I don't want to start the work without all the parts, may need to ride the thing.
I'm hoping the whole lot won't take more than a good days work. Need a sunny day to soften up the tyres, that might be asking a bit much down here.

Some time later: Well I decided to start work even though the wheel and swingarm bearings aren't here, spent most of the afternoon cleaning the muck around the front sprocket and fitted the clutch slave seal, oh I hope to do it all in a day  hardly. I took out the carrier bearing, it was toast and stubborn to get out, got it out in the end without cracking the alloy carrier.
The muck you get on you, man I hate working with muck.
So tomorrow I'll see if my home made bead breaker works on the rear tyre.
Need to check the rear wheel bearings. Then it's off with the swingarm, hoping I can get away with just a greasing. If so I can put the rear end all back together and just do the front tyre and check wheel bearings.

[Tony Nitrous]

Angel GT 1s, $495 posted from Motorcycle Tyre Warehouse, best price I could find, front is from 2021, rear is 2022.

Did you go for the 50 or 55 rear, not a huge difference but I do prefer the 55's.

I have a pair of Angel GT2's that I might be taking off soon. Not sure yet if I'll use them elsewhere or post them up on here.

[Nic]

Did you go for the 50 or 55 rear, not a huge difference but I do prefer the 55's. I have a pair of Angel GT2's that I might be taking off soon. Not sure yet if I'll use them elsewhere or post them up on here.

Hi Tony, went with the 50, I have been tossing up whether to get the 55 because the 14 doesn't exactly fall into corners but I went with what I already have because I didn't want to have to stuff around working out the speedo, at the moment I know that 110kph is really 100kph, it wouldn't really be a big deal, I have this GPS speedo that I can clamp onto the handlebars and then you just ride around taking notes on the differences but with the 50 I have it all sussed. So with the 55, you say the 55 isn't a big diff but I bet you can feel it? Yes?
Also if it's a big deal, I have been thinking of dropping the front 1/2" or so but really, I don't ride in a way that it matters.

[Hooli]

I tried a 55 & went back to the 50, I didn't like how unstable it felt on the 55. Horses for courses etc & mine drops into bends fine.

As for the swingarm, the worst I've ever seen is slightly rust coloured bits in the grease on the left hand side but the bearings were fine & just needed greasing. It always seems to be the left, I assume condensation dribbling down while the bike is on the side stand.

[Nic]

Rear tyre is on, what a joy that was, the zip tie method isn't the go with such a wide tyre IMO, I've done it with vintage 4.25 tryes and it worked a charm.
So the bastard's on, the rear wheel bearings feel good, the carrier bearing is in, the carrier has never looked so nice since new I'm sure. The cush rubbers, there's the slightest bit of play in there. Looking around for shims, I have enough of what looks like a good thickness for 2 shims, I need 10.
The chain kit is coming today, now I need to take out the swingarm and grease the bearings, then I can put the rear end all back together requiring only the front tyre to do, feeling hopeful the front bearings will be good. Love changing tyres, the only good news I have in that regard is my home made bead breaker did the job well.

[Nic]

Well I dunno if it's that the rear tyre killed my enthusiasm or what but I was looking at the swingarm thinking what to do first and then I saw this
I wondered why the manual said to undo the brake hose, man I'm not into bleeding the brake, they couldn't have secured that poxy bracket with a couple of 6 mil bolts, or screws? Instead a hack job of rivets WTF, I've had enough, I'm not takin the swingarm out, looking at it I can see me going off for sure, I'm just not in the mood after doing that tyre.
I'm gonna clean all this horrendity off and call it quits, shaking head now.
Yes yes I know, I need to take a break, and that's exactly what I'm doing, maybe I'll make my own poxy bracket, grind those rivets off and drill n tap etc? I don't know how thick the swingarm walls are tho, maybe that's why they use rivets? The sidewalls you would think would be the same as the top n bottom and they put a bolt in the top. I know I could make a much better bracket than that Friday afternoon special. Hell, does it even need to be there.
I would like to grease the swingarm, it's not just that bracket, you can't see what's what up where the pivot bolt goes, I can see things falling out endlessly as I try to line it up for the pivot bolt. Need more of a break obviously.  While typing this the chain kit arrived. I'll go wash the muck of the swing arm n see how I feel.

[Nic]

Right then, after a break I got back into it and the swingarm is off. It looks like it was greased yesterday, it was good to give everything a good clean and it's also good to know the state of things. I don't know if that chain slipper has ever been cleaned, I got the bike with 61 thousand Ks, and I've put another 10 on so it was pretty nasty.
Slide out the bolt and just slide the swingarm out, noooo, I had to persuade it out side to side with a big rubber hammer. To my glee, there's nothing that looks like being a drama putting it back in. The shim is not there so no need to worry about that falling out when inserting the SA back in. Seeing as how tight it was I'm not gonna feeler gauge the thing either.
As for that brake hose bracket, I just cut it and bent one side back to get the hose outta there, not sure what I'm gonna do there yet, I know you're all dying to know.

Oh and don't look at that stupid poster thing about party'n and such. There's no parties around here, certainly not today although changing your own tyres will require a nice Scotch n coke later on, or two.

[KiwiCol]

I was going to suggest you just cut that bracket if you're not inclined to bleed the rear brakes, but then I see you went & did that anyway.  Just bend it back once you put the arm back in.  The hose will stay in there & basically only you will know the bracket has an unofficial opening to it.

You bike lift cum work area looks interesting, wanna put up a couple more shots of that? 

[Nic]

I was going to suggest you just cut that bracket if you're not inclined to bleed the rear brakes, but then I see you went & did that anyway.  Just bend it back once you put the arm back in.  The hose will stay in there & basically only you will know the bracket has an unofficial opening to it.

You bike lift cum work area looks interesting, wanna put up a couple more shots of that? 

Sure mate, but first, I thought I'd post a pic of the Friday afternoon bodge, I did as you said but with one magnificent refinement, I put a bit of plastic tubing over the join, you don't want your hose getting mongreled by where the two sections join, still a bodge tho and no idea how long the tubing will last but I couldn't just leave the ends of the bracket bare. I'll post a couple more pics of my 70s style bike ramp soon.

[Speedy1959]

What a bloody good write up Nic.. Well done!
I did a swing arm out job recently..
My bike did have the shim but what helped me massively to re insert the swing arm was to loosly attach the shocks then us a car juck under the square section cross bar on the swing arm and gradually pump the jack little by little..
It went surprisingly easily..
Great write up and photos mate, well done.
S.

[Nic]

What a bloody good write up Nic.. Well done!
I did a swing arm out job recently..
My bike did have the shim but what helped me massively to re insert the swing arm was to loosely attach the shocks then us a cer juck under the square section cross bar on the swing arm and gradually pump the jack little by little..
It went surprisingly easily..
Great write up and photos mate, well done.
S.

Well I like that mate, thanks a lot, I expected to get flamed because of my frustrations and what not. I do have a habit of going off  In the end you take as long a break as you need, you know you'll end up doing it but that bloody tyre almost did me in and I've done a few but never a 190.
To get mine to line up I just had to tap it a few times with the rubber hammer. My rattle gun wouldn't undo the pivot bolt, I used a socket and an old fork tube from a Z1 kwaka, came undone easy, don't have a torque wrench for heavy stuff, just the old arms. Pics of my bench coming up.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Well done mate, great write up. one job I haven't done yet, bikesjust clocked over 50,000km in 20 years, I've put the last 16000km on it.

Agree with those nasty AB bearings, I've got a set of them in the rear wheel and sprocket now, a set of proper NSK on the shelf, hoping to rectify that soon.

Re bleeding rear brakes, dead easy really, plus then you'll know that the rear fluid is good. Note that the rear caliper has two nipples (like the poster), need to open both to get all fluid out.

Do you reckon you can leave the brake hose in the bracket if just re-greasing the pivot bearings?

[Nic]

Well done mate, great write up. one job I haven't done yet, bikesjust clocked over 50,000km in 20 years, I've put the last 16000km on it.

Agree with those nasty AB bearings, I've got a set of them in the rear wheel and sprocket now, a set of proper NSK on the shelf, hoping to rectify that soon.

Re bleeding rear brakes, dead easy really, plus then you'll know that the rear fluid is good. Note that the rear caliper has two nipples (like the poster), need to open both to get all fluid out.

Do you reckon you can leave the brake hose in the bracket if just re-greasing the pivot bearings?

Thanks Eric, Yes I spose you could, but I needed to get the arm well outta there to do some serious cleaning.

[Nic]

Pics of the work bench/ramp etc. Thanks for the interest.
The ramp is on wheels and slides under the bench once the bike is up. It's a bit scary putting the bike up there. You can push it up with the help of another, er indoors helps me, she loves doing it too.
Or, you can walk it up with the bike running, even scarier, it's best if you have someone on the other side just incase you lose it over that side. I'd love a real lift but can't come at the cost.
In pics 4 and 5 you can see one of my wheelie stools, really comfy, I have one for each side, they are on wheels and the exact height you want for working on the bench. They have 4" foam under the towel. Bloody beautiful.
The "strut" is just for a bit more peace of mind, it comes away via a take apart hinge, it is in place when the bike goes up, comes out for the ramp to go back under and then is put back in it's place.
The "stand stop" pic, the centre stand usually sits on a piece of steel sheet so as not to chew out the wood but I found that when you went to take the bike off the stand it would slide on the steel so I put a stand stop there because you need the space in front of the bike to get the bike off the stand, if it slides on the steel then you need to grab the rear wheel and pull the bike back, without the stop you'd never have a life.
When you click on a pic, be sure to expand it fully.