Swinging arm bearings knackered

[Rong]

Whilst changing the FD oil last week I noticed a fair bit of side to side play on the FD shaft. Took it into Lind, Norwich today and they discovered that both bearings were shot, in fact 1 had started to disintegrate! So £250 lighter and a claim off to BMW as the GS is a '04 plate with less than 20K on the clock!

Anyone else had the same problem (did a search but didn't find anything)

 

[swissrob]

what was the 250 for?

 

[diversion74]

Ouch.
I'm going to get mine checked for exact same reason.
Noticed side to side play when I took Shock out for rebuild.
Posted but no replies yet.
Mines also an 04 plate with around 28,000 miles. Do I have a case for a claim?
I was hoping they might just want adjusting but maybe not.

Andy

 

[nunesaf]

Whilst changing the FD oil last week I noticed a fair bit of side to side play on the FD shaft. Took it into Lind, Norwich today and they discovered that both bearings were shot, in fact 1 had started to disintegrate! So £250 lighter and a claim off to BMW as the GS is a '04 plate with less than 20K on the clock!

Anyone else had the same problem (did a search but didn't find anything)

Hi,
I replaced those very same bearings (though I have a 1150) with 45k. It was just as precaution but one of them was not in mint condition. They can fail for several reasons (I don't know them all) but if they are not torqued\adjusted correctly they will not last as much as they should
The 250 sounds a bit on the high side. Each bearing may cost around 25... there's labour involved buttttttttttttttttttt... 250?

 

[Pukmeister]

Er, sorry but I'm confused between your posts title and content.

FD Shaft (driveshaft), or swinging arm casting??

 

[diversion74]

I'm talking about the swing arm (pivot bearings?).
Where the swing arm is clamped between the frame.
Hope it's not going to be £250 though!
Andy

 

[Rong]

The bearings in question are the ones that the FD casing pivots on at the frame attachment points (as per Andy's post).
Regarding the cost, the materials were £71 the rest was for labour - the bike was in the workshop for 3 1/2 hours, I know coz I was there!
I could have done this work myself but I wanted to make sure that the dealer notified BMW about the state of the bearings and I mean they were really shot. The ones on my '91 plate R100RT are in a lot better condition than these were.
What really gets me is that according to the bike's history, it has been regularly serviced at main BMW dealerships and the last one was carried out 2K miles ago in November last year, why didn't they pick up the defect like I did?
Anyway I await the outcome of my claim........

 

[Zigo]

Check your bearings!

Changing the swingarm bearings is a fairly simple task. The adjustment is on the left side bearing, torque to 7NM. The only problem is turning the large 30mm lock nut without disturbing the hex adjusting screw. Made a simple tool for this. Check out this link to the Motorcycle Info Pages: http://www.motorcycleinfo.co.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric.obxaszqugbllbuna&pageId=332637. It's important to check these bearings for lubrication when servicing the bike. It's a 30min job, but I suspect that most workshops don't do this.

 

[Rong]

It's important to check these bearings for lubrication when servicing the bike. It's a 30min job, but I suspect that most workshops don't do this.

Which is why I'm a bit miffed that, despite regular BMW servicing, they're knackered!

 

[ebbo]

It’s a great pity BMW haven’t fitted grease points as they did on the old Airheads, a quick squirt of grease every few months and the bearings can last for ever.

 

[Slowdown]

Is greasing the bearings (possibly with Moly grease???) just a case of taking the caps off and dabbing in some new grease with a q-tip type device?

Or should the bolts comeoff/out to allow access to the bearings proper?

Or are they 'sealed for life' like the final drive???

 

[Rong]

According to Lind, they are sealed for life and in my case they died before becoming teenagers.

 

[diversion74]

Called in to Rainbow today to ask for a price to replace the bearings as this would be the worst case scenario.
They said they didn't check them during service as it wasn't very often they needed adjusting or replacing.
Asked for a price and was told £120 all in.
Much better than I was expecting after Rong was charged £250.
Mine is also an 04 with 28,000 miles on clock but seeing as I bought it second hand I can't say whether the previous owner rode it offroad or not.

Going to book it in before they change their minds on the price.

Another plus for Rainbow then.

Andy

 

[Rong]

Yes I too was told to expect a likely bill of £120 (no firm quote) but that turned into £250 as the work involved was more than they originally thought!

 

[diversion74]

Cheers for the heads up.

I will make sure they write down the price in the book when I book it in.

 

[swissrob]

Regarding the cost, the materials were £71 the rest was for labour.

Ah i thought the claim had gone thru - didnt read your post properly i guess.....

Regarding the tool - i suppose a ring spanner isnt deep enough to reach the nut thats why a socket is used? I ask as 7nm is nothing at all - u can tighten that nearly with your fingers

 

[MattW]

Ah i thought the claim had gone thru - didnt read your post properly i guess.....

Regarding the tool - i suppose a ring spanner isnt deep enough to reach the nut thats why a socket is used? I ask as 7nm is nothing at all - u can tighten that nearly with your fingers

The inner socket head adjusting screw is tightened to 7Nm in order to accurately preload the bearing, the outer locknut is tightened "stupid Nm" (can't remember of the top of my head - 60?). The tricky bit is to hold the adjuster at 7Nm while applying huge torque to the locknut - this is why the special socket exists.

There are workrounds which don't require the use of the special socket - Steptoe has posted to that effect I think.

 

[swissrob]

The inner socket head adjusting screw is tightened to 7Nm in order to accurately preload the bearing, the outer locknut is tightened "stupid Nm" (can't remember of the top of my head - 60?). The tricky bit is to hold the adjuster at 7Nm while applying huge torque to the locknut - this is why the special socket exists.

There are workrounds which don't require the use of the special socket - Steptoe has posted to that effect I think.

Ah! cheers 4 that ill be in the machine shop tomorrow then and put the socket on the milling machine

 

[MattW]

Ah! cheers 4 that ill be in the machine shop tomorrow then and put the socket on the milling machine

If you've got a spare socket, then go for it, but I have read of ways around it that don't require the special socket - might be worth a search first.