Rubber bellows g'box/swinging arm.

Last job after the drive shaft change is to get this complete and utter bastard back in place. The swinging arm side has been done, the gearbox side is proving to be a trifle recalcitrant.

Any tips before I skin all my knuckles and take a sledgehammer to the fucking thing?

PS It's a 1982 R100RS

Take the shock off and lift the swingarm up with a loop of rope or summat so that it's a tad more parallel to the surface

It is a pig of a job at the best of time but the last couple of times easing the swingarm up has helped lots

Use a genuine rubber part from BMW, not a spurious one...

Feck me, job done. I gave it one last try before disconnecting the shocks and it virtually fell into place.

What I did was: put the boot on the swinging arm side first, making sure that the edge of the boot went under the two clips at the top and bottom of the swinging arm mouth, then put the screw clip (the one like a strap) around the boot and tighten.

Then the fun bit, which this time turned out to be a complete non-event when it finally went into place:

I then put the boot on the right-hand side of the g'box boss and hoiked it with a screwdriver, a pointy-nosed pair of pliers, and an assortment of bent wires as far as possible top-and-bottom, then go around to the other side and simply carried on hoiking it around the rest of the boss.

Now that last bit seems SO easy that there seems to be little point in posting it, FFS I must have tried it exactly like that the last time, but the truth is that the last time it took most of the day, and initially it looked as if it was going to be every bit as bloody-minded today as well. As it turned out this last attempt took less than five minutes, so I'll be following this little reminder exactly myself the next time I have to do the job, with the certainty that it did work once.

Thank you both for your replies, I may well get a genuine BMW boot next time.

oops

Actually, you'll be buying an OE gaitor a lot sooner than you think

Good result though

Kenny said:

oops

Actually, you'll be buying an OE gaitor a lot sooner than you think

Click to expand...

How so? You've got me worried.

John Roberts said:

How so? You've got me worried.

Click to expand...

OE gaitors are reputed to have a much longer lifespan than spurious ones that look as good but aint.

Think of it this way - you'll be an expert at gaitor replacement by then.
~~

An old spoke with a bend in one end and a grip bent on the other makes it very easy to pull the gaitor on the gearbox.

I recently acquired a pair of needle nosed pliers with a 45 ? degree bend in the needle .

Amazing how useful they have been and made fitting the bellows a breeze.