Swingarm locknut tool

[Sir Trev]

Greetings all

I asked my Suzuki dealer about the peg socket that is needed to remove the locknut on the swingarm pivot and they said it was not available for sale - Suzuki don't supply them for the retail trade. So, I now have 2 27mm sockets, one of which I'll be cutting down with a ginding disc. But, which one do I try it with? The Britool or the Draper Expert??

[northwind]

Whichever one fits the nut best with it's outside diameter I suppose.

BTW, that's complete ******** about Suzuki not selling the specialist tools, they've all got a part number and can be ordered like any other part. But on the other hand, they tend to be extremely expensive.

[embee]

the Britool is probably likely to be better material than the Draper so will probably be a tougher tool.

Take the grinding very gradually, you want to try to avoid heating the material any more than necessary to avoid losing the temper and toughness. If you overheat it and it cools slowly you'll lose strength and the pegs will bend or shear, if you overheat and quench it in water it might get too brittle and they'll snap off. Rather than fiddle with oil quenching (which would all be guess work anyway), just take it very gradually and lightly dab the socket with a wet rag to keep the temperature down.
The trickiest thing doing it by hand is getting it to fit on all 4 pegs. It's easy to end up driving on only 2, which are much more likely to break off.
I've done it myself in the past when pressed, so good luck!

I've known people with suitable milling facilities to machine them from sockets, but you do need decent milling cutters.

[wheelnut]

Since the EU brought in Block Exemption, Suzuki or anyone else has to supply the same specification parts, tools or information to anyone who requests it at the same price as a franchised dealer can buy it for.

This means that If I want to set up in business as a Rolls Royce and Honda Technician, I can get exactly the same training videos, courses or specialist tools that the main dealer gets excluding dealer discounts

[northwind]

is it possible to tap those nuts off with a punch? Then replace them with a plain nut?

[Sid Squid]

The nut's quite narrow and in a recess, I'd be surprised if you could find a hex nut that would be accessible once fitted so that you could drive it, hence Suzuki using the castellated nut they did I expect.
I've made two of these tools now, one a cut up old Imperial socket, the other made by welding strips down the sides of a suitable socket, both have stood up well, such that I don't think it really needs to be that strong.

[northwind]

Hmm, good point. I'd always assumed the castellated nut is to stop eejits like me from undoing it...

[Sir Trev]

Hmm, good point. I'd always assumed the castellated nut is to stop eejits like me from undoing it...

This is what the dealer parts guy said - they would rather I brought it in for them to do this kind of thing for the safety aspect. I politely declined pointing out they are a good thirty odd miles from my house and I was well aware of how important it is to keep my swingarm done up!

The Haynes manual actually has the part number in it and I guess I could have argued the toss about it. They simply did not want to order it for me. When I said I would cut down a socket the guy said that was what most people did.

I'll have a go at the Draper. The Britool one was already in my tool box, probably from a front sprocket removal from my old GSX250 many moons ago, and the Draper one was a fiver, with the grinding wheel drill bit just 82p. Worth a try. Thanks for the tips on cooling guys - I'll take it slowly and let you know how it comes out.

.

[BoltonSte]

I used a Dremmel cutting disk on mine, so didn't really heat up.

ste

[Sid Squid]

Hmm, good point. I'd always assumed the castellated nut is to stop eejits like me from undoing it...

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[John Burt]

I undid mine with a phosphor-bronze (try brass) drift no marks and it came of easily. Hope it helps

[Sir Trev]

Well the grinding disk and dremel clean up worked a treat - the Draper socket is now a perfect fit four-peg driver. It took a bit of a tug (my socket driver is pretty short) but it worked fine.

Another silly question though - how do you chaps keep your bike upright while you take the swinger out? I can't use the rear padock stand, obviously...

[northwind]

I think suspending it from a garage roof beam or similiar (or a-frame ladder) is probably the most viable method. If you have rigid footpegs, then axle stands under them would work, or some people support the bike under the rear subframe with a big chunk of wood over whatever they have around. If you have an Abba or NWS stand you could bodge something to support the bike from the footrest brackets I think... Though that could be pretty dodgy.

If I ever put my nice clean spare on to replace my battlescarred original, I'll do the roof beam thing I think.