Stuck Swingarm Pivot on TE250

[MarkC]

I have an '06 TE250 and have been religious about lubing the pivots on the rear suspension. Until the end of the last season of riding, no problems and no detectable play.

I tore the bike apart for its winter overhaul today and noted that the swingarm now has a lot of side to side play. So...I started to deconstruct for a rebuild. All pivots and the shock came off easily.

Not so on the swingarm pivot bolt. Unscrewed the nut and started to lightly tap on the bolt. No movement. More tapping. Nothing. Wd-40 and wait. Bigger hammer. Nothing. Not the slightest movement of any kind.

Suggestions? A small thermo-nuclear detonation out in the garage (most of the walls are cement)?

Thanks.

Mark.

 

[OlderHuskyRider]

Make sure there's not a snap ring or circlip somewhere that is still holding it in.

 

[MarkC]

Part of the reason I am posting. I dont have access to a full schematic. is there a circlip on an '06 TE?

 

[glangston]

http://www.husqvarnaracingclub.cz/ohqv_manualy.html

I think a parts catalog would give you the answer. Download yours from above.

Or call Tasky's tomorrow and see if they'll spend a minute to help.

 

[ray_ray]

Not use about the snap ring but removing this shaft has been the one part I have seen give many people across all brands big issues ... As a last resort, the entire frame must be carried to a shop and let a press or what ever have at it ...

You can always try a little heat applied to the areas where the bearings are at , more WD40 , and a bigger hammer but be careful not to mushroom the end of the shaft ...

The new bike that has the FS mounted on this shaft might force owners to remove this shaft a little more often to change the sprocket and keep the removal easier than waiting the full time frame most of us do ...

 

[ghte]

No circlip, just keep at it with some heat and the pursuader

 

[Slowpoke]

I think there was a thread about this issue about 3-4 months ago, or so....
I hate to say it, but you may not have been as religious about lubing these bearings as you thought.......
There are no circlips on the pivot bolt. The bolt is likely rusted to the inner bearing bushings and your swingarm pivot bearings are likely rusted to crap and half disintegrated.
You're going to need a lot of penetrating oil and a lot of patience on this. You will need to work at it from both sides and keep tapping until the bolt moves a bit, add more oil on the freshly exposed area, tap it back, add more oil on the other end & keep moving it back and forth, adding more oil each time. Eventually it should come out.
You may need to heat the bolt up with a torch(good and hot), then immediately spray penetrating oil on the crack between the frame & bushing and on the outside of the bolt where it comes out thru the frame on each side. the penetrating oil should get sucked into the bushing bore as the bolt cools. Work on one side, then the other.
Once you can move the bolt an 1/8" or more, you won't need any more heat, just a lot of oil.

For riders that ride in any kind of wet conditions, it is absolutely critical to put a liberal coating of anti-seize on all the linkage and pivot bolts when the bike is new and then every year following, or when parts are disassembled/re-assembled.
The problem with these bikes is that they don't have grease fittings for all the bearings from the factory and they need to have the complete rear suspension disassembled and all the bearings repacked with grease or grease/antiseize mix about every 25-40 hours for the lower shock bearing and about every 50-75 hours for the swingarm pivot bearings (especially when ridden in wet conditions)
I solved this on my own bike by installing grease fittings on all the remaining pivots.

 

[MarkC]

Thanks for the input. I think the fatal mistake was the last ride of the season...very, very wet...then just parked the bike. I have the bike laying on its side with liquid wrench soaking in from the end. Will flip it tonight and soak from the other end also. The will use a propane torch to heat and cool a few times.

Beyond an entire new set of bearings throughout the linkage, I will most likely need a new swingarm bolt...I cant see it surviving the bounding its going to take to get it out!

I'll post up some picks of what I find when i finally get things apart.

Mark.

 

[ray_ray]

Put the nut back on the end of the shaft and run it up to where it is ~flush with axle ...then use a piece of wood over the nut and this will protect the axle ... The heat and lube stuff plus all the jarring will break it loose ..

 

[R_Little]

On my old bike I tapped a thread into the flat end of the shaft then put a bolt through a metal plate with a hole in it and tightened the bolt to draw it out.

I pounded on it for a week with no progress before I did that.

 

[ray_ray]

Great idea and great attitude on going a week ++ to get the job finished!

 

[glangston]

On my old bike I tapped a thread into the flat end of the shaft then put a bolt through a metal plate with a hole in it and tightened the bolt to draw it out.

I pounded on it for a week with no progress before I did that.

Approximately how large was the bolt?

 

[Slowpoke]

On my old bike I tapped a thread into the flat end of the shaft then put a bolt through a metal plate with a hole in it and tightened the bolt to draw it out.

I pounded on it for a week with no progress before I did that.

There's a good idea

 

[R_Little]

Approximately how large was the bolt?

7/16 I think.

It was SAE and whatever it was the stock hole was just the right size so I did not have to drill it out. The threads cut real easy too. Check a drill index for the correct sze.

Tap it like 1/2 inch deep and you can put huge torque on it. took 10 minutes.

Suprisingly it took very little presure on the wrench to pull it out.

I was unable to budge it with liquid wrench and pounding for hours!

 

[ray_ray]

No pics of this device?

 

[MarkC]

Update

Here is an update to my swingarm sob story. Kids, dont try this at home...

My first approach to extracting the swingarm bolt was the "bigger hammer" approach using the below implements of destruction:

Heat, penetrant and banging with increasingly bigger hammers had only one effect...I damaged the end of the bolt. Split it actually. Doh!

We (yes, asked for help at this point) then rigged up a puller to see if we could get any movement via an approach other than blunt force:

This looked promising at first, until it became evident that rather than moving the bolt, we were simply stretching the all-thread rod running through the middle of the stuck bolt.

At this point, we decided that we really needed to undo the damage done to the end of the bolt, as even breaking it free would mean the bolt was still constrained due to the swelled end. So...very gingerly, we sawed off the tip with a sawzall. Amazingly, this step actually worked without further damage.

Next up, the big ass press:

Other than making the 12 ton press groan, the stinkin bolt didn't move. At this point, we considering cutting the damn swingarm off with a die grinder. Until priced...a replacement new from Husqvarna is $1200. No thank you.

So...the final request for help: Wasco Frames in Tacoma, WA. Dick Wascher has been building and repairing motorcycle frames for 30 years. 10 minutes on the phone with Dick and it was clear he knew exactly to get the bolt removed. The sad hulk heads for Tacoma from Seattle:

Dicks shop with the Husky in the background. You could eat off the floor in this place:

And the process begins.

He thought it might take a week of systematic heating and cooling to finally break the bolt loose. It took 24 hours.

Dick pressed in the new bearings and I was back in business! Kinda, that is. Still waiting for a new bolt from Husky. Hoping it will be in this week.

So...kiddies: Lube your damn bolts regularly. I didn't. Then I used the bigger hammer approach to extraction and made a bad problem worse. What a F'ing Tard. And I stupid enough to post the details here. Idiot...

About the only good thing I did was ask for help and find a competent specialist to bail me out. Whew. Highly recommend Wasco for specialized frame fabrication or repair:

http://www.wascoframe.com

Mark C.

 

[ray_ray]

Spooky ... Mine have just developed slack and I'll be working on them shortly ... Were UR bearings totally toasted and U rode it too long? I just don't see a reasonable reason for that shaft to seize up like that ...

I'm not sure how you were hitting the shaft with a hammer but a nut should be left on the shaft to keep from butchering the end of the shaft ...But on my bike, leaving the nut flush with end of the shaft does not leave any room for the shaft to slide ... So you will need to at least remove the spacer from between the nut and the frame at least OR get a thinner nut on the end of the shaft before pounding it too much ... After it is moving, the nut can be removed ...

Very good pics and Tacoma is my old stomping grounds and GPNF also ...


UPDATE: My shaft broke loose with no issues and moving forward so far ... I am thankful ..

 

[vegtablebrain]

A titanium pivot bolt won't rust.

 

[ray_ray]

Those implements of destruction are impressive ... makes me think of Pulp Fiction ... a couple of 'hard hitters' could use these devices ..

 

[pvduke]

cool thread. pic of bike in press was awesome.