Installation of grease nipple in swing arm

[Suzuki_Don]

I needed to replace the needle rollers in my GS550B swing arm. So after removing the bearings and spacers I looked up the microfiche to order the parts required. I needed to replace a number of parts as water had got inside the arm and rusted everything. When looking at the fiches I notice the GS750 from '77 to '79 had a grease nipple to lubricate the swing arm shaft and the bushes and bearings. This item was not on my GS or any other GSs for that matter.

So I did a few checks to make sure there would be enough space between the swing arm structure and the middle spacer for the grease to be able to be pumped along the shaft to reach the needle rollers at each end. Everything checked out OK.

I did not know how thick the swing arm housing would be and thought if it was too thin to thread for the grease nipple then I would need to weld a nut on the outer surface of the swing arm. I need not have worried as the thickness of the metal was about 1/8". Plenty to cut a thread in with my 6mm tap for the grease nipple.

Tapped the hole, threaded the nipple in and all ready to go. Just waiting on the needle rollers and spacers to arrive to complete the job.

The real bonus here is the swing arm filled with grease will keep any water out. As my whole problem of wonky rear end handling came about because this cavity in the swing arm had filled with water and everything had rusted.

See photos attached:


http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd105/donclifton/Swing%20Arm%20Grease%20Nipple/

 

[bwringer]

Sweeeeeet! Great idea!



For those of us in the US of A:

Here in the metrically retarded US, it's still very difficult to find metric hardware and fittings. :evil:

Here's a source for metric grease fittings in the US:
http;//www.mcmaster.com
They're on catalog page 2149, or search for metric grease fittings.

Of course, just use whatever fittings you want according to the size tap you already have -- I only have metric taps (I don't normally work on lawnmowers, Harleys, or other agricultural equipment), so that's what I would use.

If you already have inch size taps, or you're in a hurry, you can get American pipe thread grease fittings and taps in any decent hardware store (Meanards, bLowes, and Home Despot are not decent, nor are they hardware stores).

 

[GS1100ez]

we have drawers of diff sizes of metric and standard greese fittings here at work

whenever i go out in the shop (i normally work on my desk) our mechanic always makes fun of me as i always want to add a greese fitting to every thing that moves so it last longer

good writeup

 

[aquamon]

Wow, I thought of this 12 years ago!
Thank you!

 

[Suzuki_Don]

Wow, I thought of this 12 years ago!
Thank you!

Good for you.

I only put this tip here to help others that might not have thought of it. And to show how easy it is to do.

 

[Clone]

You can use SAE size grease zerks but you have to thread the hole with an NPT tap. You might need to check because I haven't done any of this for well over 10 years. But a small zerk would be a 1/8"NPT threadI am pretty sure anyway.
It would probably be easier to use metric as I think the thread is not pipe thread.

 

[Suzuki_Don]

You can use SAE size grease zerks but you have to thread the hole with an NPT tap. You might need to check because I haven't done any of this for well over 10 years. But a small zerk would be a 1/8"NPT threadI am pretty sure anyway.
It would probably be easier to use metric as I think the thread is not pipe thread.

The metric grease nipple I used has a 6mm x 1mm pitch, so is standard ISO thread. Should be in most people's tool kit.

 

[rudy]

I was looking at my 1100 alloy swinger as I was polishing it. Thought it would be a great idea to add a fitting, but in my excitement, forgot to do it and mounted the swinger. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get it next time. I put PLENTY of nice clean grease in there when I put things back together though. My Yammies have a zerk on the drilled pivot bolt which works REAL well.