Swingarm movement ?

Hi folks, I recently Mot'd my twin cam R1200RT and the Mot tester commented on play on the final drive and suggested I keep an eye on it.
I checked further. The final drive appears sound. There is no play there. However I have side movement on the swingarm, between the fixed bearing stud on the right and the adjustable on the left. About 1.3mm.
Took the swingarm off and cleaned and re greased the bearings and they appear ok. The bearing studs appear ok, though I haven't got new ones to compare side by side.
Having refitted and retorqued everything there is still this gap. Adjusting the left bearing stud doesn't seem to change anything.
Is this sideways movement/ gap normal or acceptable? Am I likely to develop any further issues? Otherwise the bike runs ok with no handling problems!
Your thoughts are appreciated,

with thanks,

Mario.

All back together now. Everything was retorgued and the movement in the swingarm is somewhat reduced.
It is worth taking the final drive and swingarm off every now and again to clean out and grease the bearings and the final drive and gearbox splines.
Regards to all...

GORILA said:

It is worth taking the final drive and swingarm off every now and again to clean out and grease the bearings and the final drive and gearbox splines.
Regards to all...

Click to expand...

Really? Not for me. The items have VERY simple VERY reliable bearings. Over 100's of thousands of miles on RT's I've never needed to. I do believe they can have issues, but (IMO) that is when i would consider ripping into it.

Also, glad you have yours all back together too.

From memory i think 1mm of lateral play is deemed acceptable. I had to have one of mine rebuilt once, not due to play but 'rumbly' pinion bearings.

They are two simple sealed taper roller bearings (see my post on about page 5 about issues I had !) You should have no play in the swinging arm. The torque suggested by mr BMW should be enough to take the play out and not put the bearings under a binding load. If it does not - then something is not right , and needs correcting. Can you adjust play out of the swinging arm by "slightly over tightening" the adjustable side ? - I would be surprised if answer is no . This will do no harm , but don't leave it like that.

My conclusion was that bearings were not installed correctly at factory - they were not fully seated , and over time (miles) the bearing(s) walked slightly - opened up a gap , water got in .... etc etc.

Hi, thanks for your thoughts on this. I've just returned from a 6 day trip to Snowdonia and the bike performed brilliantly. I still have this slight movement in the swingarm but it doesn't affect handling in any way. When I had it apart, I cleaned the bearings and packed them with grease. I'll leave it 'as is' at the moment but keep monitoring it. If it becomes a problem, I'll renew the bearings and pins with new.

Regards to all...

Finally sorted! I took it apart again and rechecked it. I found the thread of the subframe was damaged about 2/3 of the way in. This was preventing me from seating the pin far enough forwards against the bearing, thus creating the gap which gave the movement in the swingarm.
God knows how I managed to do that!
My local independent mechanic had the appropriate tool (tap) to repair the thread.
Thought this may be of interest to other ham fisted, sausage fingered, home mechanic tinkerers!!!

Glad you're sorted and it underlines Mr Eastwoods mantra "man's got to know his limitations".