Any Ideas?

[Top Cat]

When I lean over in a left turn I get a sqeeking noise. Like bare metal rubbing on bare metal. It only happens in left turns when I have to lean hard into the turn.
It is not tire noise.
Could this be the swingarm being dry? 25000 miles and no service to that part. It is going into the shop Monday for 24000 mile service and I have told them I want that done. They said we just check it for play and if it looks ok we don't take it apart. ::)
I told them, no I want it lubed.
Anyway, do you think it could be something else like wheel bearings? It does sound like it is coming from the front of the bike.

[Todd]

You need louder pipes












<sub>sorry....couldn't resist TC ;)

....my first thought might be the shock/spring squeaking a little</sub>

[ringadingh]

If its from the front, I wonder if its the forks, the chrome sleeve that cover the fork tube might be rubbing causing a squeek. I doubt its the bearings since they usually make a growling sound when they go bad. Also look around the headlight bucket for something loose or rubbing.

[ponch]

Just an aside, have you every serviced the drive shaft? As far as the noise goes, I don't know.

[Top Cat]

ponch, all my service is done at the dealer except for oil change and rear gear oil change. What does drive shaft service consist of?

Ringadingh, I will look at the covers to see if ther is any indication of rubbing but it seems as if thaty were the problem it wouldn't continue to sqeek through the turn.

todd, , I think you know that is not going to happen :)

[ponch]

The shaft is removed and the splines are regreased. You have to take the swing arm off, so you get to grease the swing arm pivot bearings too. Some people do it every 7500 miles, some people never do it. I think the manual says it has to be done at 7500 and then 24k.

Originally Posted by Top Cat (TC)

ponch, all my service is done at the dealer except for oil change and rear gear oil change. What does drive shaft service consist of?

Ringadingh, I will look at the covers to see if ther is any indication of rubbing but it seems as if thaty were the problem it wouldn't continue to sqeek through the turn.

todd, , I think you know that is not going to happen :)

[cactusjack]

Front brakes, maybe? I don't know if it's the same noise, but I sometimes hear a noise when turning. I am pretty sure it's my pads rubbing on the rotor. No I don't have to be braking to hear it.

[Top Cat]

Yeah CJ , I was wondering about the front brakes also. How did you determine it was the brake pads making the noise?

Ponch, I will tell them to do that while they have it apart for the swingarm service,thanks.

[voyager]

TC,

If it is your brake pads, just make a slight brake application during a curve when you hear the noise. If the noise goes away, then you've nailed the source.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by Top Cat (TC)

When I lean over in a left turn I get a sqeeking noise. Like bare metal rubbing on bare metal. It only happens in left turns when I have to lean hard into the turn.
It is not tire noise.
Could this be the swingarm being dry? 25000 miles and no service to that part. It is going into the shop Monday for 24000 mile service and I have told them I want that done. They said we just check it for play and if it looks ok we don't take it apart. ::)
I told them, no I want it lubed.
Anyway, do you think it could be something else like wheel bearings? It does sound like it is coming from the front of the bike.

It could be lots of things...

A bad ft wheel bearing (loose) causing the ft tire to tip and rub the brake pads incorrectly.

It could be a rust ridge on a rotor causing about the same sounds.

It might be goose neck bearings cocking off to a side in the sterring head.

the above are forward.

If it turns out to be the rear end and I would like to know just how the dealer checks swingarm play in detail, it could be dry swing arm bearings, dry spacers with rust gagging the swing arm, bad wheel bearings cocking the tire and doing the same things to the brakes as mentioned in front.

The swing arm has 2 seals that act as thrust washers, but the problem there is seals are not thrust washers.

The back sides of the seals wears to steel, which I am sure in 25,000 miles yours are, and this should create a slop of better than 0.138" which is a lot. More or less spec should be 0.002" which it is likely no vulcan ever is even new since there is no way to take up and preload.

With a sloppy swing arm it will ride away from every curve in a twisted road and the rear tire will go with it.

If you have some way to get the rear wheel of the ground, you can check this yourself.

With the wheel up go to the right side as you would be seated.

Grab the swing arm at the long bolt, as near as you can and pull it sharply to you.

Then push it back the other way as hard as you can.

Do that a few times and you will see that there is a shine right between the bolt area inside the swingarm and the seal backing.

The seal backing is li8kely worn to bright polished steel, and after moving this swingarm a few times you will see one edge of the spacer gleeming away as well.

Once you have the hang of this you can take a measurement of pulled up to you, then another measure of pushed fully away.

That is the total gap/slop reading.

Now to fix it is another thing all together.

There is no real and true fix and any fix is temporary at best.

This means the swing arm will have to be dropped out at the least, and should be serviced.

Then with the empty hull of a swing arm, all greased and new seals installed you can remeasure the gap.

Then depending on what the gap is then you would make shims of your own making, as 2 shims 0.001 smaller than 1/2 have the gap.

The ID would be to fit the spacers, the OD about the size of the seals OD and the thickness depends on what ever the gap is divided in 1/2 less 0.001" each.

Thick (viscosity) chassis grease may help since this grease never gets hot, and so will lube and tend to grab the bearing rollers, the spacers and etc on the spacers, and long bolt.

The spacers should be greased all around inside and out, as well as the swing arm tube inside the whole distance across.

As to the sound you hear I can't be sure of anything.

[dogdoc]

TC; my dealer wasnt too excited about lubing swing arms either. i asked him for a quote and he said they dont need lubing that much sonce they come lubed well from the factory. So good luck on getting them to actually do it. they might charge you for it but how will you know> Could the squeal be your seat when you lean over.?? my seat made a funny sound then i found the seat bolt was loose.