Paralever bearing

[Chrizm]

Well took bike in today for its 1st MOT since I bought it and I got an advisery for rear wheel bearing. Had a good read about it and have come to conclusion its the paralever bearing. From spending last few hours reading about how to adjust this I have a few questions which are not quite clear to me as follows:

1. I understand I need to heat up the lock nut and allen drive bolt to loosen up the lock tight, I assum I need to remove the wheel for this?
2. Do I need to remove the rubber gaitor first as this may melt, if so do I need to drain out oil or is this section dry?
3. Ive read that this needs torquing up to 7nb, is this right? Or do I just turn it in a bit until the play has gone?
4. Do I need to fully remove the allen bolt and locknut to clear off the locktite?

I know my spelling is crap, forgive me its late....well early

 

[flatdog]

Well took bike in today for its 1st MOT since I bought it and I got an advisery for rear wheel bearing. Had a good read about it and have come to conclusion its the paralever bearing. From spending last few hours reading about how to adjust this I have a few questions which are not quite clear to me as follows:

1. I understand I need to heat up the lock nut and allen drive bolt to loosen up the lock tight, I assum I need to remove the wheel for this?
2. Do I need to remove the rubber gaitor first as this may melt, if so do I need to drain out oil or is this section dry?
3. Ive read that this needs torquing up to 7nb, is this right? Or do I just turn it in a bit until the play has gone?
4. Do I need to fully remove the allen bolt and locknut to clear off the locktite?

I know my spelling is crap, forgive me its late....well early

I can answer 1 and 2 for you.
My understanding is you don't use flame to heat it up, just an electric heat gun. Rubber shouldn't melt this way.

 

[MattW]

1&2
Yes, remove the wheel.
As flatdog says, use a heat gun. It takes quite a lot of heating to soften the loctite - the swingarm is a big heat sink and tends to conduct the heat away - don't be tempted to rush it. Give it the licked finger test. I take the bit out of a 25watt soldering iron and insert it into the hex socket of the adjustable pinion (it's a nice sliding fit) and leave it for half an hour to get some heat into it. For peace of mind there's no harm in pulling the rubber boot back - there's no oil in there (or at least there shouldn't be although you may find a teaspoon or so).

3 & 4

If you're going to adjust it using a torque wrench, then yes, you do need to remove the adjustable pinion and its locknut and fully clean all the old loctite off them (and also out of the swingarm threads). You need them to screw together in a silky smooth fashion with no resistance. Acetone is the thing for this (pure is best but nail varnish remover also works). It's a faff to do - use plastic or wooden implements on the threads of the swingarm - you don't want to damage the alloy threads. The torque is very low - make sure your wrench goes low enough).

Even if you're going to adjust them by feel (just until the play has gone) you should still clean the loctite off - you need to be able to feel how it's tightening.

Whether to use loctite again when you adjust the pinion is up to you - the book says do, but many people don't bother (makes it much easier to adjust it and take it apart to regrease the bearing periodically). I did use loctite last time but I probably won't bother in the future. If you don't use loctite you need to be able to hold the pinion in its 'just nicely adjusted' position while you beast a gazzillion Nm of torque onto the locknut. There's a special tool for this but you can get away with a hex bit in a socket wrench to hold the pinion and a big 30mm ring spanner to get the locknut started before using a torque wrench on it (the adjustable pinion shouldn't move once you've got the locknut fairly tight). Use marker pen witness marks to make sure nothing moves during the adjustment / tightening procedure and then afterwards if you aren't using loctite, use them on the tightened assembly to make sure nothing moves in use.

 

[Chrizm]

Thanks, seems straight forward enough and I think we have acetone at work so will have a look tomorrow.
I suppose the bearing comes out when you pull out the pinion so it would be a good idea to re-grease it?
Doesnt this have to be done on the opposite side also or is it only this one that ever needs adjusting?
Im glad its only this as I first thought it was the final drive bearing and Ive read what a bitch they can be to remove, didnt fancy that before doing trip in July!

 

[Steptoe]

You do not need to remove the wheel to adjust the bearing. And you may not need any heat.

32mm socket on an extension bar through the spokes, loosen the locknut, tighten the adjuster nut. Retighten locknut.

If you do remove it all don't bother applying any locktite.
That way it's a simple 2 minute job for any future adjustment.

 

[Chrizm]

Thanks Steptoe Ill go have a llok after a cig

I read your replacing the final drive bearing on ADVrider at the side of the road, may have to print that section off for future reference

 

[Chrizm]

Dont know what I was concerned about, easy really
Lock nut came off easy but thats when I discovered I didnt have a 12mm hex!
Popped Screwfix then applied some heat to pinion and it soon came loose, moving it back and forth, decided not to take it fully out as couldnt work out how I would gauge how far to put it back in so just screwed it in some and the play has gone
Now for a quick before tightning the lock nut back on and putting all back together. Doing a few other little jobs like stripping callipers and re-sealing exhaust while im at it then I might post some picks of the beak conversion I did later

Happy bunnie here, thanks y'all.

Chris