Swing arm and drive shaft maintenance Update

[desertdog]

Decided to do the swing arm and drive shaft lube, been thinking about it for some time, swing arm was done by dealer at the 7,500 mark but at the time they wanted another $250 to do the drive shaft. Bike now has 19k miles on it. This is an 08 Nomad.

Started Friday afternoon, read Mac's instructions several times. Then slowly started to remove the bags, mufflers, etc.

Fine so far. Get to the point where I figure Saturday I should be able to get the rest done, remove rear wheel, and swing arm, do the lube, and start re assembly. Piece of cake. (God has a way of playing with me some times).

Saturday morning, run to Kawi dealer to get rear exhaust gasket, ask about replacing the seals per Mac. The parts guys, both young have no clue what I am talking about. They kept trying to tell me the seals were the plastic dust cover over the swing arm bolt.

Got the gasket, (they are pretty sure the gasket is the correct one, if not I am supposed to bring it back), gave up on the rest, as they said they would not have them in stock anyway, would have to be ordered, and takes 2 weeks if I can find the part number for them and call them back.

I asked them about drive lube and chassis lube, get a blank look. They go over to the lube section of the store, and are out of everything. ( This is one of the largest kawi dealers in the Phoenix area).

Give up, stop at Auto zone on the way back (Kawi dealer is 25 miles from my place) Get moly lube. OK we are set.

Go out to start removing things and find I do not have several of the metric sockets required. OK back to Auto Zone to invest in some new sockets. Check to see that I have all the socket sizes I need.

Some of the various fasteners are overly tight, the rear exhaust nuts I can turn off by hand.

Ok, have a hell of a time getting the rear exhaust pipe off, but do so without screwing anything up. They really jammed it into the goat belly when putting it together. On to the Swing arm bolt.

Can,t do it, get a helper extension, still can't do it. GRRRR. Who ever tightened it really cranked on it. Finally give up, most of the day is shot, have gone exactly no place, but put on a bunch of miles and burned 1/2 a tank of gas.

Saturday evening, try once more on the swing arm bolt. No luck.
Give up for the night. Tomorrow is a new day.

Sunday morning, go to Harbor Freight, invest in electric impact wrench on sale, also get metric impact sockets, and long socket power bar. OK I am set.

Get home, hit the bolt with the impact wrench. Takes several tries but it does free up.

OK things are looking up, should be done in a couple of hours now.

Jack bike up, pull axle from rear tire, piece of cake, and here I was worried about problems.

Just need to slide the tire out, being sure to strap the bike down as its a little unstable.

1 1/2 hours later give up, bike is not high enough to work tire out no matter what I try. Harbor freight jack is about 3 inches too short. Damn it.

Get axle back thru wheel with much effort, and let bike down off jack and on to kick stand.

Back to the drawing board, need to figure out how to get the bike up in the air more, I don't like how unstable it seems as it gets in the air on the jack.

At the rate things are going I should have this all completed within a couple of weeks, and with the amount of money spent on tools, it would have been cheaper to have it done.

When I figure out the next steps I will let you know how it turns out.

So much for simple projects.

[mikeyger]

You sound like me! it seems the things that you thought would give you a problem don't but then the smallest things such as the right tools give you a 'fit. I am going to do mine when i need a back tire I just bought a harbor frieght jack and need to make sure it will go high enough now that you had this problem. Maybe someone has a solution Good Luck.But 250 extra to do yhe driveshaft and they were already in there is crazy!

[cactusjack]

I'm curious which dealer you went to? It doesn't sound like Kelly's in Mesa where they have older, experienced parts guys. Which Harbor Freight jack do you have? I have the yellow one, and have had no problems getting it high enough to remove the rear wheel. Did you try lifting as high as possible and then pulling the wheel from the bottom out to one side? Since the crankcase sits on the jack arms, you need to block the frame with pieces of wood or a jack adapter to make it stable.

I just did this same procedure this past week, with the added work of replacing the rear tire.

[ringadingh]

Sounds like you had a fun weekend working on the bike. Many times Ive things go wrong, a bolt breaks, thread strips, cant find the right sockeyt, etc. or have to run around the stores tring to find the right tool.
As for your jack not going up high enough, is it at its maximum limit, or it just wont lift any higher but still has some travel left?
Mine has done that and I found that you need to top up the hydraulic fluid in the jack. If you look on the side of the bottle jack there may be a rubber plug. Pry out the plug and add an ounce or two of fluid. Sometimes you have to repeat this a couple times. If you overfill it the fluid will start coming oput of the jack onto the floor. You can use automatic transmission oil in the jack with no problems if you don't have hydraulic oil.

[pastorgumby]

Dang! I feel for you... and a good reminder to just pay a pro to take care of things that I have no business messing with. Best wishes!

[ve3hzz]

DesertDog, I feel your pain, in-fact I think most do.
Not sure of the height of the Harbour Freight jack, but if its similar to mine, (they all seem to look the same?) Then once you raise the bike ALL the way as high as the jack will go, you can't simply roll the tire out the rear beyond the fender. You would have to remove one of the bag brackets (Nomad) and then slide the tire all the way to the right and then tilt it down at an angle. It's a little tricky, but you can do it. It will take some finesse to do this, but it can be done.
I am not sure of the gasket you're referring to? Do you have a leak? Or simply doing a lube? As for the differential, unless you NEED to take it apart (due to a leak) you can simply drain it and refill as when it's on the bike. As for the axle and the swing are bolt, the moly lube would work for that and a little on the spline of the driveshaft. The ujoint is factory lubed and no zerk (grease) fitting to grease it. Also when you remove the driveshaft (if you do) make very sure you put a rag below the bike to catch the pin from the driveshaft spline as it will fall out and may shoot across the floor. I know Gadget's explanation says this, but PLEASE be very careful of this point as it can ruin the whole thing from one little pin!!! Also if you have the TABS on the frame here is a way to get some height and make it more stable. On the front of the bike frame you can use a hockey puck. On either side of the front you could round one out to match the frame curve using a half round file. On the rear you can cut a slot into it to match the tabs in the frame that are for the centre stand. This will help to stabilize it.
And I agree while they already had it apart an extra 250 seems excessive for that service. I'm sure you will get it done and then the sense of accomplishment you will have can't be taken away!!!!

Scott

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by Scott (ve3hzz)

DesertDog, I feel your pain, in-fact I think most do.
Not sure of the height of the Harbour Freight jack, but if its similar to mine, (they all seem to look the same?) Then once you raise the bike ALL the way as high as the jack will go, you can't simply roll the tire out the rear beyond the fender. You would have to remove one of the bag brackets (Nomad) and then slide the tire all the way to the right and then tilt it down at an angle. It's a little tricky, but you can do it. It will take some finesse to do this, but it can be done.

Good point. I was assuming he had removed at least one of the bag rails and muffler, which is part of the swingarm/driveshaft procedure. Scott's right, you will never get the bike high enough on the jack to roll the tire out from under the fender.

[desertdog]

Dealer I went to is Ride Now Power Sports in Glendale, they took over from who and were it used to be on Bell.

I have the yellow Harbor Freight Jack. I am wondering about the hydralic fluid. I will have to check on that. The tire is a 180 on the rear up from the stock so its bigger. I did try to tilt the bottom, but I need a least 2 more inches for it to work.

The gasket is for the rear exhaust, you have to remove the rear exhaust to get at the swing arm bolt.

I have the bag brackets off. I have everything stripped off it but the shocks and fender at this point.

I will have to come up with some way to make blocks work too so its more stable.

Thanks for all the suggestions and words of encouragement.

I usually enjoy wrenching on my own bike, but sometimes what should be a simple project seems to get complicated and expensive in a hurry.

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

Dealer I went to is Ride Now Power Sports in Glendale, they took over from who and were it used to be on Bell.

I have the yellow Harbor Freight Jack. I am wondering about the hydralic fluid. I will have to check on that. The tire is a 180 on the rear up from the stock so its bigger. I did try to tilt the bottom, but I need a least 2 more inches for it to work.

The gasket is for the rear exhaust, you have to remove the rear exhaust to get at the swing arm bolt.

I have the bag brackets off. I have everything stripped off it but the shocks and fender at this point.

I will have to come up with some way to make blocks work too so its more stable.

Thanks for all the suggestions and words of encouragement.

I usually enjoy wrenching on my own bike, but sometimes what should be a simple project seems to get complicated and expensive in a hurry.

Ride Now..I should have guessed. I won't do business with them after some experiences I had with them when I owned my Suzuki.

Is the problem you are having because the 180 tire is wide and won't slip between the drive gear and the swingarm? Try deflating the tire.

I just installed a 160/80-16 on mine and it is taller than the 180, but narrower. I had no problems at all getting it in there, so maybe you do have a problem with the jack itself. Does it raise high enough that the locking bar will go into the highest slot? I hope that made sense.

[desertdog]

Jack goes high enough to just clear the highest slot with the locking bar. Deflating the tire may work, I did not think of that.

Tomorrow I will modify some of my blocks to help get it higher and more stable, then try to deflate the tire also.

Should be interesting.

Next issue will be to get the drive shaft off the transmission drive I am guessing, based off how everything has progressed so far.

I will watch for the little pin.

How difficult is it to re install the drive shaft after everything is put back together??

[ringadingh]

I never realized that some of you guys had to remove the bag rail so the rear wheel would come out. I use a Canadian Tire jack, which looks like a Harbour Freight unit and Ive always been able to get the wheel out on the RH side of the bike when the jack is all the way up.
However when I installed my car tire I couldn't get it back under the bike because it was both taller and wider, I finally got it under, but from the LH side of the bike. It cleared the final drive a lot easier from this side. If I remember correctly I had the bag rails on the bike when I did the car tire as well.

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

Jack goes high enough to just clear the highest slot with the locking bar. Deflating the tire may work, I did not think of that.

Tomorrow I will modify some of my blocks to help get it higher and more stable, then try to deflate the tire also.

Should be interesting.

Next issue will be to get the drive shaft off the transmission drive I am guessing, based off how everything has progressed so far.

I will watch for the little pin.

How difficult is it to re install the drive shaft after everything is put back together??

It's not hard. Once you get the swingarm pivot bolt out, you slide the swingarm to the rear, exposing the U-joint on the drive shaft. Peel back the rubber boot. Shift the bike to neutral, and rotate the driveshaft until you see the little hole in the side. Using a small nail, insert it into the little hole to depress the lock pin, they slide the shaft off the transmission output gear. S-L-O-W-L-Y...follow the driveshaft with the tip of one finger behind it, aligned with the hole. Once the spring-loaded pin clears the u-joint yoke, you are free. Having your finger on top of it will prevent launching into space.

[ve3hzz]

I've got the CTC jack as well, the first one they sold not the recent one. There is a difference, and I don't like the redesign of the latest one. I do remember removing my tire once without taking anything else off. I was just changing a tire. I had to still wiggle it to the right to seperate it from the hub, and then tilt it to the left to get it past the fender. Now to do this I have to remove the trailer hitch or it won't clear. When I did the swing arm lube I had removed the left bag, bracket and exhaust as well as the exhaust to goats belly on the right rear. I had to remove the jack bottle from the jack and pull the screw and emptied (not much in there) the hydrallic fluid and filled it. Once that was done it worked fine, but I've had it for a few years so can't complain.
I think with one of the adapters someone on here makes, it would give a slight increase in the height and that may make all the difference in being high enough?
Oh and putting the driveshaft back on is easy. The pin sits on a spring loaded and once you put the pin in the driveshaft spline end you just have to put it on and it locks into place no problem. You can ensure it has by pulling it back to ensure it has indeed locked into place.

[Cajunrider]

I'm due for swingarm and driveshaft maintenance. I had it done at 12,000 miles and not since. Mine had plenty of grease on both from the factory. I paid a local independent MC shop a little over $200 to change the rear tire, pull and grease the swingarm and the drive shaft. I was well pleased. I don't have a lift and don't have very much patience with problems.

[desertdog]

I work from home so spent part of the morning doing ph calls etc.
Went to WalMart to get Hydralic Jack oil, (they did have it in stock), topped of the lift.

Took two pieces of scrap 2x4 and cut a groove in them so they fit the frame, then jacked up the bike, placed 2x6s under the wheels and kick stand to get enough clearance to slide the 2x4s on the lift under it.

I deflated the tire, and jacked the bike up. The 2x4s made a hell of a difference, they really stabilized it so even up in the air its not rocking. Gave me plenty of height too.

Pulled the axle and the tire slide right out with room to spare.

Pulled the final drive, then the swing arm. No problems. Pulled the drive shaft, the little pin stayed in its hole, but dropped out freely when I turned the gear over. I tested and the spring is in there and is ok.

Did the lube, much simplier than I thought, and re assembly went much smoother than I expected. I had to play a little with the drive shaft to get it to seat, probably because of working from the side and not getting it aligned at first. But eventually it slide right over the pin and seated.

Everything seemed to have a fair amount of grease, other than the front gear, where the drive shaft connects to the transmission. That was almost dry. I lightly lubed it making sure that it did not interfer with the pin.

Torqued the swing arm bolt to spec., but I think it screwed up my torque wrench even tho the wrench is rated to 150#. It won't release even when I back it all the way down to zero, I should be able to make the head snap, but I can really crank on it and no release.

Guess its off to Harbor Freight for a new one tomorrow.

I re installed the rear tire, that took a little horsing around, but got it on and everything connected.

I think I will wait until tomorrow when I have a new torque wrench so I can check all the bolts before I start to close it up.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. Next time I should be able to do it in a few hours without hurrying. :)