Sloppy bolt ..........

I serviced my bike & noticed the swing-arm had some slight movement up & down ( not side to side ) & it was coming from the top mono-shock mounting point . This is a non replaceable ( from Suzuki ) part unless you want to buy a new shock , so I decided to take out the retaining bolt & have a look . The sleeve section looked fine , but the bolt showed a very small amount of wear ,( being a sunday & the local bolt shop was closed ) so I greased the bolt shaft & refitted it slightly turned around so the wear section was no longer lined up at the top & all the movement has gone ( it was only a minute amount to start with , but that equated to more movement by the time you tried to move the swing-arm up & down at the back of the bike.................I will buy a new bolt later to replace it , but it seems a strange thing to not have any grease or protective shim there to start with .

paul wrote:I serviced my bike & noticed the swing-arm had some slight movement up & down ( not side to side ) & it was coming from the top mono-shock mounting point . This is a non replaceable ( from Suzuki ) part unless you want to buy a new shock , so I decided to take out the retaining bolt & have a look . The sleeve section looked fine , but the bolt showed a very small amount of wear ,( being a sunday & the local bolt shop was closed ) so I greased the bolt shaft & refitted it slightly turned around so the wear section was no longer lined up at the top & all the movement has gone ( it was only a minute amount to start with , but that equated to more movement by the time you tried to move the swing-arm up & down ..................will buy a new bolt later to replace it , but it seems a strange thing to not have any grease or protective shim there to start with .

Good fine Paul.
How many K's has the bike travelled?

madmax wrote:

paul wrote:I serviced my bike & noticed the swing-arm had some slight movement up & down ( not side to side ) & it was coming from the top mono-shock mounting point . This is a non replaceable ( from Suzuki ) part unless you want to buy a new shock , so I decided to take out the retaining bolt & have a look . The sleeve section looked fine , but the bolt showed a very small amount of wear ,( being a sunday & the local bolt shop was closed ) so I greased the bolt shaft & refitted it slightly turned around so the wear section was no longer lined up at the top & all the movement has gone ( it was only a minute amount to start with , but that equated to more movement by the time you tried to move the swing-arm up & down ..................will buy a new bolt later to replace it , but it seems a strange thing to not have any grease or protective shim there to start with .

Good fine Paul.
How many K's has the bike travelled?

37,000 km , but the trip to work has some nasty roads ................

Interesting one Paul. As you probably know, I recently replaced my rear shock (with an Ohlins) having done 65,000kms, and cleaned up and re-used the same bolts in all locations. I did not have the wear you are experiencing.

Ewok1958 wrote:Interesting one Paul.  As you probably know, I recently replaced my rear shock (with an Ohlins) having done 65,000kms, and cleaned up and re-used the same bolts in all locations.  I did not have the wear you are experiencing.  

I must admit , I was surprised , but there was a definite black wear mark on the bolt ...................maybe it was never torqued up properly ?

Bandit grease is applied as sparsely as Bandit paint.
I've heard of dry suspension joints before. Was there any grease at all on the shim or bolt?

2wheelsagain wrote:Bandit grease is applied as sparsely as Bandit paint.
I've heard of dry suspension joints before. Was there any grease at all on the shim or bolt?

not a trace..........................

Suspension! Thank goodness... I thought this was some new disease, like the runs!

Re-Cycled wrote:Suspension! Thank goodness... I thought this was some new disease, like the runs!

I thought it sounded better than my bolt was too small for the hole