Paralever Pivot Bearings

[Mzokk]

Having kept a good eye on my rear paralever today I found a bit of play at the rear wheel at the 9 o'clock 3 o'clock position on my 2002 r1150 gs with only 11.5k miles. In the first instance I was going to loosen the locknut and re-torque the preload on the bearings. However, I was wondering.

1. Should I try to remove the bearings for inspection first and regrease them?

2. The other problem I have is that the bearing preload nut is supposed to be set @ 7NM my small torque wrench only goes down to 8NM and I would imagine at the extreme low end of its range its not too accurate. Should I torque it to 8NM check that there is no play and back it off a bit?

3. Is a hot air paint stripper ok for melting the loctite on the locknut?

4. Does the reassembled Locknut really need red Loctite. Would the blue stuff do in case re torqueing the bearing is only a temporary solution?

I'd be greatful for any advice.

 

[bmwrich58]

I recently did my pivot bearings on my '02RT1150 in October.
First of all yes,disassemble the bearings and check for wear.

9 times outta 9 the outter pivot bearing will be the culprit. Grooves found in the race,needle bearings very loose in cage if not worn out,grease all gone.

Since I had done this job,I asked others on different web sites if they had found the outter bearing to be bad also.
All reported "yes" the outter bearing "shot". Inner bearing still "OK".

I replaced both bearings anyways,"cheap insurance".
With the outter bearing being bad and a little wear mark on the pivot pin,I replaced the pivot pin but only on the outter bearing side.

Yes, a heat gun like the one's used for strippng paint will work. At least it did for me. Heat up the swing arm area also around the the pivot pins. "Slowly" apply "release force pressure" as not to strip the the threads as you are still applying heat.

8Nm is fine....the quality of our "store bought" torque wrenches isn't nowhere like the one's used at NASA...and besides we're not building a rocket anyways!!!!

Upon reassembly,I used Blue Loctite. Dealer mechanic said he doesn't use any thread locker,but tells customers to keep an eye on the pin for any movement.
Piss on that,I used thread locker, and marked the pin with paint just to make sure there is never any movement...!!..

So far no pin movement and all play is gone!!!

 

[Mzokk]

Many thanks. Looks like I'll replace the bearings. As you say "Cheap Insurance"

 

[boxer]

1. Should I try to remove the bearings for inspection first and regrease them?

Yes. 12GBP each. Inspect the pivot pins for wear and remove all traces of the old Loctite.

2. The other problem I have is that the bearing preload nut is supposed to be set @ 7NM my small torque wrench only goes down to 8NM and I would imagine at the extreme low end of its range its not too accurate. Should I torque it to 8NM check that there is no play and back it off a bit?

I'd tigthen to 9nm to seat the bearing, back off and retorque to 8nm then check for play before Loctite hardens.

3. Is a hot air paint stripper ok for melting the loctite on the locknut?

When I did mine I brought a cheap 1500w gun, looking back I don't think it was enough. I suggest you try a 2kw gun. I'm using a flame next time.
I think Mick Fagen - of this board - suggested that the Locitie has melted when you can smell it.

Does the reassembled Locknut really need red Loctite. Would the blue stuff do in case re torqueing the bearing is only a temporary solution?

Ok, the blue will probably do. However. IMO, probably isn't good enough when it comes to the bevel box dropping off . Try and get the 2701 in 10ml bottles. I used 2701 and marked the pivots with paint too.

 

[Mzokk]

Many thanks for the advice. Doing a bit of pondering at the moment as to how to torque up the locknut without moving the preload nut? Any Ideas?

Just a thought 11.5K seems pretty low mileage for these to start going west? Or do I look forward to doing this annually?

 

[Steptoe]

I haven't used locktite on mine when i re-assembled the rear end.

Just marked it, and check if it's moved.

It hasn't moved in 6k miles, that includes the off road on the tank traps , and not gentle riding .

Also just regreased the bearings ( with Marine grease).

if you keep checking regularly for play, you only need to re-adjust them and get rid of the play. Its if they're left with play for any length of time that they get fecked .

 

[Mzokk]

That seems fair advice Steptoe. Think I might buy a replacement set and adjust and lube the original bearings. The purchase of the bearings thus ensuring the originals never fail and increase the collection of unused parts I have for nearly every bike I've owned that I bought "just in case"

 

[Grizzly]

Don't Inspect Them - Just Replace Them!

Hi Mzokk,
Several points which may or may not help:-

Fistly, just go for replacing both bearings, don't waste time inspecting them - I don't think the factory greasing or torquing is that great, so once you've replaced them properly they'll probably last a lot longer.
When I changed mine, I got some tips from an article on the South African BMW-Motorad web-site. this article showed how easily this job could be done without all the BMW "special tools" - i.e. - to knock out the old bearing shells from the bevel box use a socket with a body of the correct dia. and fit this to an extension which has been inserted through the opposite bearing or bore and tap bearing out with this - does that make sense??.
Also this article stated that the "rumour" is that BMW no longer recommend using loctite on the inner adjustable pin. The reason for this is that, if neccessary, this pin can be re-adjusted/re-torqued without fully stripping out and cleaning off of the loctite, - remember all loctite must be removed from all surfaces on the male and female threads so that any torque pre-load setting is accurate - use cellulose thinners or nail varnish remover( no comments please!!)
This brings me to the last point, which also answers your last worry on maintaining correct pre-load while torquing locknut. What I did was fit and torque the fixed pin with some loctite on it. The adjustable pin was then torqued to the correct pre-load torque ( some mechanics probably prefer to do this by "feel") with no loctite, as per article, and then I marked the pin position using a permanent marker with a line on the swing. arm and a line on a screw face. I then torqued up the locknut and checked both lines were still in line - it worked fine, but if the pin had moved slightly, you'd have to slacken the locknut again, set the pin marks out slightly to allow for any expected movement and re-try!. The alignment marks can then be used in future to re-assure you that no slackening-off has taken place due to the lack of loctite! - remember, any of these pins would have to slacken a considerable distance just to get noticable play - never mind anything falling off!!.
I did mine this way about 25K ago and it's never moved or needed adjusted so far.

Best of Luck, Cheers..................Grizzly

 

[(RIP) sherpa]

CAUTION!!!!

Not wanting to put a dampener on things but -

My 2003 bike went into dealer yesterday for replacemwnt of final drive due to paint problems under warranty and after technician had loosened and removed bearings and then spent at least 1/2 hour cleaning the loctite from the threads and making sure all was pristine he put the outer bearing bolt back into the swingarm without the final drive in place to check all was well.

Spun the bolt in easily until almost home and it went tight, his brow darkened and a bead of sweat appeared!! The bolt had picked up on the threads of the alloy and stripped 'em on the way out so now BMW warranty are replacing the swingarm as well

BE CAREFUL!!

Sorry to put a dampener on procedings but I don't imagine the swingarm will be cheap!

Sherpa

 

[Mzokk]

Just an update!

I inspected and re torqued my original bearings to see how it went before forking out for a new set. The bike only had 5k on it when I bought it at the end of June and I recon it had been ridden fairly gently judging by tire wear. I got 7K out of the original and could have got maybe another 1k but had a Scotland trip two up coming up. I couldn't believe that the original bearings would be shagged.

1.I took off the rear brake calliper and brake pipe retaining loop and cable tied the calliper to the rider’s foot peg out of the way.

2. I took off the wheel and the exhaust silencer to give me a clear view of what I was doing and I wanted to reseal it to the Y piece to reduce overrun popping.

3. I undid the shock lower retaining bolt to give more movement in the swing arm if necessary (and I wanted to grease it as its in an exposed location.

4. I applied heat from a heat gun to the floating retainer until it was pretty hot and removed the locknut. This shifted very easily and IMO was nowhere near 160NM on also it did not appear to have any loctite on it?

5. I heated up the floating pin a bit more and removed it. It did have loctite on it.

6. I checked the pin it had no faults and judging by the amount of grease on it there must be plenty in there.

7. I cleaned the remnants of loctite from the threads of the pin and the casing using nail varnish remover re greased the pin an reinserted it

8. I torqued this to 10NM backed it off a bit and re torqued it to 9NM.

9. I bunged the rear wheel in and give it a shake.........no movement in the bearing YIPEE.........decided not to strip it right down.

10. Marked floating pin with nail varnish (rimmel coral gold). Put a dab of Blue locktite on the threads of the pin and spun on the locknut. Horsed it up to 160NM (lot tighter than it was when I took it off)

11. Floating pin did not move..... marked locknut.

12. Paranoid (wondered whether the locknut pulling against the threads loosened the floating pins tension on the bearing?) so re-fitted the wheel ..............still no wobble.

13. Took out the shock lower mounting bolt (had been soaking in wd40 as it was tight) greased it and reinstalled it.

14. Resealed the silencer and reinstalled it.

15. Refitted the rear caliper (after cleaning it)

16. Took the bike for a short run. No exhaust pops (but probably wasn't hot enough!

17. Checked rear wheel for play........None


Hope that this has sorted the thing for a while. If it starts to wobble again in the next few weeks I'll post an update.

Couple of observations. Why loctite in a pin that is held VERY firmly by a locknut. Though i can see the point in Loctiting the locknut........which didn't appear to have any. I'm pretty sure I'm the first to tamper with it since it left the factory.

Thanks again for everyones advice

 

[bmwrich58]

13. Took out the shock lower mounting bolt (had been soaking in wd40 as it was tight) greased it and reinstalled it.

I "Blue loctite" my lower shock bolt. Don't want that one commin' out on me!!!

 

[Mzokk]

Yip I put blue loctite in the threaded hole. I also blue loctite me calliper bolts. One of my other bikes is a MZ660 single. If you don't loctite things on it they fall off.

 

[bmwrich58]

If you don't loctite things on it they fall off.



Hardley Davidsin has the same issues!!!!!!!!

 

[skywalker]

Loctite 2701 must be used on the fixed pivot and on the adjustable pivot.Blue loctite is low strength and not suitable for this application.Seen a few pivots come loose.
Maybe some of you weren't aware that back in 1995 there was a recall regarding this very subject.The bikes originally had blue loctite applied to these specific areas but under certain conditions ie going off road,these could and in some cases did come loose, hence slightly increased torque settings plus higher strength loctite

 

[Grizzly]

Should You Loctite The Adjustable Pin??

Hi Skywalker,
The article I refered to in post above was published by BMW-Motorad on thier S. African web-site but isn't on it now.
However, while reading a print-out of it, I noticed it originated on the Adv Forum - and bingo! - it's still there at:-

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11349

So any of you interested can read through it yourself - I found it a very straightforward way to do the job - much simplified!!.
As I'd mentioned in the post above, it raises the point about not using Loctite on the adjustable pin?. This totally contradicts what your saying Skywalker? - I'm not in a position to say which is "correct" or "official" - only pointing out there seems to be two totally opposite points of view - does anybody know for sure the latest BMW guidance on this??
Anyway, Merry Christmas,

Cheers...........................Grizzly