Linkage Maintanence

[oldgrumps]

Just wondering what's needed to regrease the suspension linkage. How long should the job take and what needs to come off.

Old

[sirdabalot]

Clean as much dirt off as possible. Get a jack up stand or better, turn the bike upside down. Back wheel off. Get some spanners and Allan keys remove the dog bone linkages and the centre link assembly. Now clean these parts even more and the area surrounding the bearing in the underside of th swinging arm. Push out the bushes, noting which came from where, clean the old grease from the needle bearings, take care not dislodge the needles. Put some waterproof grease on your finger and smooth it into the bearings. Refit the bushes, wipe off excess grease, so dirt won't stick to seals, reassemble and tighten parts to manufacturers spec, or very tight.

[oldgrumps]

Thanks, do the needle bearings fall out? Is brake cleaner ok?

[steve_earle]

Change the bearings, There cheap as chips from a bearing supplier or a 2nd mortgage from beta.

 

The main thing is check the bushes that go through the centre of the bearings for wear or pitting, They are not cheap and the only supplier is Beta.  

 

The std bearing used is a HK1514RS, (15x21x14mm) RS means rubber seal, but there are 2 seals fitted externaly also.

 

I have found the std RS bearings have a thick rubber seal on one side that is pointless if it has 2 seals already, I have found the non Rubber sealed bearings (a real pain to find but they do exist) a better choice as without the rubber seal the rollers are wider and this gives the bearings better support. Most new beta's have play in the linkage. After changing the bearing type it was greatly improved.

 

On a side note, If its a 2016 model check the shock rose joint (spherical) bearings, I have found one with loads of play in one of the joints after 2 hours use from new, Must be a faulty one, I will see what Beta say with regards to warranty, I expect they will send a new bearing as Beta are good with that sort of thing.

[oldgrumps]

Excellent info. Thanks

[petorius]

Have mine apart at the moment,i greased them earlier in the year which seemed to take a lot of the play out for a while but thought i would treat it to new bearings. Going to try oilite sintered bronze bushes, very cheap.

[goudrons]

Take note of which bush came out of which end of the dogbones.

 

They aren't all the same!

One end of the dogbone's bushes have a lager ID than the other as the bolts that run through have different widths.

 

You'll need to push/pull out the bearings, a couple of sockets and a vice work well.

As said, if the bushes look worn they need replacing (again due to different widths and different internal diameters, there are four different parts and part numbers for each bone).

You can make out the bearing sizes and seal sizes from the Beta parts catalogue or just buy a rebuild kit.

 

Pack them with marine grease, it holds out water a little better.

 

To be honest, there isn't a massive difference in price between the rebuild kit and the complete dongbones from Beta, one is expensive, the other a little more!

 

I've noticed on a few later Evo's from 2014 onwards, there is a little up and down play in the swinging arm.

After hours of trying to track it down it appears it comes from the knuckle on the bottom of the shock, it causes the shock to swing a little back and forth, yet there's no real movement/play in any joints, it just seems the shock/knuckle is set right at it's tilting point.

Edited January 20, 2016 by goudrons

[oldgrumps]

Thanks I'll post when I start and run into any problems.

Cheers

[femi]

If you want to have less maintenence at your linkage throw out this useless needle bearings and put slide bearings inside. As a spacer you have to use a bushing. I took inner rings for needle bearings on mine. The inner rings are fitted with a special loctite glue.

I use this modification for about 6 months and the linkage is still close to free of play. I had about 5 mm vertical play at the rear wheel axle on the nearly new bike before I done this mod.

 

[oldgrumps]

Wow that looks interesting. What are the slide bearings made of?

[femi]

It's steel coated with bronze and on top PTFE (out- to inside). There are different coatings and materials. There are even durable bearings completely made of special kind of plastic, see igus.com

[steve_earle]

Looks like a good mod, Similar to the sherco set up £12 to replace all 4 plain bearings!!!

 

The shock knuckle is the same on all Evo's 09 to 16 with the exception of the 13 Factory that had a different knuckle and a longer shock so I doubt this being the reason for movement in 2014 on bikes.

 

I'm going to google sintered bronze bushes now as this seems a good plan.

[petorius]

I bought mine from ebay,i usually buy bearings from simply bearings as they always have a good choice although not always the cheapest.

I find bearings pretty cheap though generally, it's the seals that seem to knock the cost up.

I have also just bought new swinging arm bearings, i bought these from Beta UK in the end as they were pretty much as cheap as anywhere else, the seals however were a different matter, £6 a seal plus Vat if i remember correctly. I bought a set of 4 delivered for a similar price to one Beta item. I do find Beta pricing hard to fathom sometimes, some items seem very reasonable others very expensive.

This is the item number for the linkage bearings 201346278336 and two of the 15mm for the knuckle joint.

[steve_earle]

I've found these, they are the closest I could find to the correct size, they are 1mm wider so will have to be modified to enable the seals to go in the dogbone.

 

They are 1.69 plus vat.

 

Do they look like they could work?

 

http://www.bearingboys.co.uk/?catid=1158&att1=15mm&att2=21mm&att3=15mm

[femi]

Hi, I already tested just these bronze bearing bushes. They are very soft and deform to easy. It works but the mod with hard steel inner rings as distance bush does way better. And you don't need sealings with slide bearings. Perhaps they last a little longer but depending on your use of the bike you have to renew the slide bearings once or twice a year for 1-2 bugs each.