Squeaky Rear

[Nutsinatin]

Hi all, after a little advice.

My K9 is coming up to 30,000 miles and it's developed an intermittent squeak on rear shock downstrokes. From what I've read this means my rear linkage bearings need greasing, however looking at my Haynes removing the bearings destroys them, I have a 15,000 mile old ZX10 rear shock if that matters, so my questions:

Could this be the issue or is there anything else I should look at first?

Can I lubricate the bearings or do I need to replace them?

If I need new bearings do I go OEM or are there better options?

Thanks for looking and your impending advice!

[tom_e]

Could also be the rear wheel bearings, I had a squeak when I sat on mine and thought the same as you the rear shock needed greasing at the linkage points but I took it in to have some new tyres and the mechanic said the bearings were done and replaced them and I've had no squeak since.

[Bibio]

at 30k ALL the rear swingarm/linkage bearings will be fubar along with the sock if its still the original.

[Jayneflakes]

Pressing the bearings out may cause damage to them, but if you are doing this, you are probably going to be replacing them anyway so it wont matter. Greasing them is a simple case of stripping down the moving bits, giving them a clean and slapping in a load of lovely fresh grease, a job that should not take more than an afternoon.

I would recommend doing this slightly fiddly job in the warm, so either take your bike into the living room and do the job in front of the gas fire while watching the telly, or put the heater on in the garage and save trying to do things with cold fingers.

I replaced all of the bearings in that part of my bike a while back and when I did so, I also fitted grease nipples to the twin bearings that the dog bones run on. It was a simple job and took about an hour to do both of them, I can now grease these in about thirty seconds and only need to strip the whole lot down to service the rocker bearing and shock bearing. Happy daze.

I used bearings from Suzuki when I replaced mine, but I warn you that they are not cheap. I did look into finding other places for bearings, but could not find them in the exact configuration I needed. However, others may have had more luck. If you have not done any greasing down there, it is likely that the bearings are going to be a mixture of dust, grit and rusty water and thus a probable cause for squeaking. This is a place where preventative maintenance is much better than waiting for a problem to develop.

[Nutsinatin]

Could also be the rear wheel bearings, I had a squeak when I sat on mine and thought the same as you the rear shock needed greasing at the linkage points but I took it in to have some new tyres and the mechanic said the bearings were done and replaced them and I've had no squeak since.

Ta, rear wheel bearings are okay, only had the rear off 2000 miles/a month ago and they looked alright then, given the wheel a tug and they feel alright for now.

at 30k ALL the rear swingarm/linkage bearings will be fubar along with the sock if its still the original.

My socks are fine I change them daily (well most days anyway!) ;) The shock is a ZX10 one and it's 15,000 miles in and is starting to wear but has some life in it still. I'm hoping it will make it through next summer but I think it's going to need refurbing before then.

The bearings may well be pretty toast, it's starting to feel like the rear end is sliding about when it's not and tyres are pretty fresh and up to pressure, is this a symptom of shot bearings?

What do I want to replace them with OEM or are there better out there? Bike is about 70% commuting 30% fun and if this is how long they last I'm going to be replacing them again in about 18 months.

Pressing the bearings out may cause damage to them, but if you are doing this, you are probably going to be replacing them anyway so it wont matter. Greasing them is a simple case of stripping down the moving bits, giving them a clean and slapping in a load of lovely fresh grease, a job that should not take more than an afternoon.

I would recommend doing this slightly fiddly job in the warm, so either take your bike into the living room and do the job in front of the gas fire while watching the telly, or put the heater on in the garage and save trying to do things with cold fingers.

I replaced all of the bearings in that part of my bike a while back and when I did so, I also fitted grease nipples to the twin bearings that the dog bones run on. It was a simple job and took about an hour to do both of them, I can now grease these in about thirty seconds and only need to strip the whole lot down to service the rocker bearing and shock bearing. Happy daze.

I used bearings from Suzuki when I replaced mine, but I warn you that they are not cheap. I did look into finding other places for bearings, but could not find them in the exact configuration I needed. However, others may have had more luck. If you have not done any greasing down there, it is likely that the bearings are going to be a mixture of dust, grit and rusty water and thus a probable cause for squeaking. This is a place where preventative maintenance is much better than waiting for a problem to develop.

I've learnt that when removing parts or checking how worn something is always have the spares ready after the first time I ever checked brake pad wear and there was no pad left!

I'll have to see if I can use the old man's garage so I can hang the rear end from the roof beams again (no space for an abba stand in my shed) so it'll be warm enough.

It's just another bit of maintenance to learn, so I'll know to do it next time. What sort of intervals should I be replacing/greasing at. I'm doing about 20,000 miles a year so is this a six month/yearly job to grease or just replace every 18 months?

Tell me more about your grease nipples, depending on how often I'm going to need to grease the bearings is this going to be worth it or am I just better off stripping down the whole rear end each time at this frequency, any pics?

Ta all for your help!

[Bibio]

look for a decent low mileage swingarm on ebay as long as it comes with the knuckle and bushing. expect to pay £150 for a very good one. bearings will cost you £200 upwards and are a right currant to get out.

with a spare swingarm ready to go in you should do it in a day unless the front exhaust bolts are seized. its a surprisingly big job.

[andrewsmith]

I agree with bibio have a second set stripped cleaned and with new bearing in

Did my curvy this way and it speeds the work up massively.
To do the bearings takes a good hour to two hours, if you don't need heat to remove them

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk

[Toooldtodie]

I've got a squeaky rear, but put it down to a poor diet and cheap lager!

[Nutsinatin]

I've limped by for the last few weeks by getting the other half to bounce on the bike and spraying about half a tin of GT85 into the bearings which kept them moving, but this morning I was brave and took the rear apart. The verdict was, swingarm pivot bearings are fine, no corrosion, minimal play. The swingarm rod bearings for the shock mount, left side fine so just repacked, right a tiny bit gritty so cleaned and repacked. All good so far.

Shock linkage bearings, well... front spacer had seized to the bolt but bearing was fine so quick clean and repack and polished sanded the corrosion out of the bolt and spacer, center left bearing fine, quick clean and repack. Centre right bearing was moving but the spacer showed signs that it had been seizing, gave it a clean and rust just kept coming out. However after repacking and working the grease in it was fine, same story for the rear shock linkage bearing, but not as rusty.

After reassembling bike feels way better and much more rear grip, I've ordered replacement linkage bearings and spacers to fit soon as although it feels good now I don't imagine there's loads of life left in the current ones but it would be nice to get them through winter so the new ones get an easier ride. It took three of us 4.5 hours to complete but saved me a bit of money as my 30,000 mile service is coming up in three weeks.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll try and look after them a bit better now!

[Littlepeahead]

I can offer no advice. However on Tapatalk Nutsinatin's replycame up as

Squeaky rear... I've limped through the last few weeks getting the other half to bounce on the....

And I wondered what on earth this thread was about!

[emoji12]