FJR rear suspension linkages

I look at this forum from time to time from the UK and have not seen anything about the above issue posted so to help avoid anybody having an accident over there am posting the links below.

There have been a few incidents of the rear wheel locking after the linkages broke. If correctly maintained ie linkage dismantled and greased every 12k there is not a problem but many garages apparently dont do this correctly because it is a fiddly and time consuming job.

https://www.fjfjrbiker.co.uk/index.php?topic=3203.0

https://www.biker.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=93474

https://www.biker.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=93574

So, if I understand that right, the dogbones broke on the suspension due to the bearings seizing. I just had my swingarm and rear suspension apart. Didn't notice any wear or cracks. Wonder how many miles they had on their bikes.

Btw, you have to be a member to view the first link.

f1fan said:

So, if I understand that right, the dogbones broke on the suspension. I just had my swingarm and rear suspension apart. Didn't notice any wear or cracks. Wonder how many miles they had on their bikes.Btw, you have to be a member to view the first link.

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct. The bearings seize and the steel dog bones fail in fatigue, one after the other. Some very nasty accidents over in the UK. I am surprised it hasn't happened over in the US. I assume it's to do with the weather. It seems to happen to the older bikes ridden all year. Hard to be too specific about mileages but +40K has been quoted. My linkage has been looked after quite well and serviced when required but even I had two bearings fail from corrosion.

In the links I see it on '01 and '02 bikes. We didn't get those as '03 is the first year in the US, so I'm wondering if something was changed in that model year? I have an '03, and I've had an occasional look at them, but have not disassembled the suspension for thorough service. 62,000 miles, 21K of which is mine.

Our hobby on this side of the pond is bending valves via failed cam chain tensioners.

And ticking (Altho my bike does that too)

jeremyr62 said:

f1fan said:

So, if I understand that right, the dogbones broke on the suspension. I just had my swingarm and rear suspension apart. Didn't notice any wear or cracks. Wonder how many miles they had on their bikes.Btw, you have to be a member to view the first link.

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct. The bearings seize and the steel dog bones fail in fatigue, one after the other. Some very nasty accidents over in the UK. I am surprised it hasn't happened over in the US. I assume it's to do with the weather. It seems to happen to the older bikes ridden all year. Hard to be too specific about mileages but +40K has been quoted. My linkage has been looked after quite well and serviced when required but even I had two bearings fail from corrosion.

Click to expand...

The weather? And what weather would that be?

wfooshee said:

In the links I see it on '01 and '02 bikes. We didn't get those as '03 is the first year in the US, so I'm wondering if something was changed in that model year? I have an '03, and I've had an occasional look at them, but have not disassembled the suspension for thorough service. 62,000 miles, 21K of which is mine.
Our hobby on this side of the pond is bending valves via failed cam chain tensioners.

Click to expand...

No in fact the most common year so far has been the 2003 I think. It's purely an age, seizure thing but if I had a bike of your age and mileage I would make absolutely sure I got those links disassembled and greased. Service manual says it should be done annually/ every 12,000 miles but as I have pointed out it is an awkward job and very few workshops actually bother.

We have seen failures on bikes with 30k on the clock and if they seize and break the dogbones it's a locked rear wheel every time and likely a visit by the rider to the tarmac. I hope I am wrong but I can't believe that it won't happen to somebody your side of the pond sometime!

meosborn said:

jeremyr62 said:

f1fan said:

So, if I understand that right, the dogbones broke on the suspension. I just had my swingarm and rear suspension apart. Didn't notice any wear or cracks. Wonder how many miles they had on their bikes.Btw, you have to be a member to view the first link.

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct. The bearings seize and the steel dog bones fail in fatigue, one after the other. Some very nasty accidents over in the UK. I am surprised it hasn't happened over in the US. I assume it's to do with the weather. It seems to happen to the older bikes ridden all year. Hard to be too specific about mileages but +40K has been quoted. My linkage has been looked after quite well and serviced when required but even I had two bearings fail from corrosion.

Click to expand...

The weather? And what weather would that be?

Click to expand...

Well you have more extreme weather than over here. Here we can ride all year pretty easily but that exposes linkages to all manner of nasties. One winter with serious ridng on the salt encrusted UK roads will have the linkage bearings waving a white flag. I have an 04 and have had linkage bearing fail from corrosion after a winter, this with regular cleaning too. Definitely agree this is something to keep an eye on.

jeremyr62 said:

meosborn said:

jeremyr62 said:

f1fan said:

So, if I understand that right, the dogbones broke on the suspension. I just had my swingarm and rear suspension apart. Didn't notice any wear or cracks. Wonder how many miles they had on their bikes.Btw, you have to be a member to view the first link.

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct. The bearings seize and the steel dog bones fail in fatigue, one after the other. Some very nasty accidents over in the UK. I am surprised it hasn't happened over in the US. I assume it's to do with the weather. It seems to happen to the older bikes ridden all year. Hard to be too specific about mileages but +40K has been quoted. My linkage has been looked after quite well and serviced when required but even I had two bearings fail from corrosion.

Click to expand...

The weather? And what weather would that be?

Click to expand...

Well you have more extreme weather than over here. Here we can ride all year pretty easily but that exposes linkages to all manner of nasties. One winter with serious ridng on the salt encrusted UK roads will have the linkage bearings waving a white flag. I have an 04 and have had linkage bearing fail from corrosion after a winter, this with regular cleaning too. Definitely agree this is something to keep an eye on.

Click to expand...

Regular maintenance is always a good thing to practice. Salted roads are a problem for people all over. It's hard to imagine why there are reports of this problem on the east side of the pond and not the west. At least so far.

Maybe you guys are better at maintaining the bikes and/or your dealers actually do the work they say they say they will. Here there are plenty of examples of dealers claiming to have done the linkages but in fact they haven't. Also we don't really have any hard stats on how many bikes have been affected. Might just be a small number out of the thousands sold. Just to be anal about this, if the linkages are maintained, it isn't a problem at all. However if they are neglected and start to seize, they definitely don't fail safe.

I have just serviced the rear section including removing the swingarm and suspension linkage. Its is quite awkward to do the linkage, unless you have reversed the centre stand bolts at some point. So I managed to do the linkage by placing the bike on its side stand, placed a block of wood underneath the rear section of the engine(just behind the cats on the exhaust). cabled tied the front brake for safety. Remove centre stand. Then you just unbolt the linkage, the bolt which is connected to the chassis will not come completely out, but will allow the linkage to come out - just. I then used full synthetic bearing grease on all parts of the internal linkage, re- assembled, torqued up. I expect to have quite a few years, before I need to do it again, but now I know a simple method I can make it a bi-annual task.

Andy

Andyfjr said:

I have just serviced the rear section including removing the swingarm and suspension linkage. Its is quite awkward to do the linkage, unless you have reversed the centre stand bolts at some point. So I managed to do the linkage by placing the bike on its side stand, placed a block of wood underneath the rear section of the engine(just behind the cats on the exhaust). cabled tied the front brake for safety. Remove centre stand. Then you just unbolt the linkage, the bolt which is connected to the chassis will not come completely out, but will allow the linkage to come out - just. I then used full synthetic bearing grease on all parts of the internal linkage, re- assembled, torqued up. I expect to have quite a few years, before I need to do it again, but now I know a simple method I can make it a bi-annual task.
Andy

Click to expand...

Yup. Gotta wonder what MamaYama was thinking when they assembled the bikes with the centerstand bolts that hard to remove. I just did mine, including pulling the headers and radiator to make life "easier." Next time it'll be a slam dunk, but the only bearings that really and truly needed grease when I took them apart were the ones that were impossible to get to without removing the centerstand.

Lube it or lose it.

Rancho

Andyfjr said:

I have just serviced the rear section including removing the swingarm and suspension linkage. Its is quite awkward to do the linkage, unless you have reversed the centre stand bolts at some point. So I managed to do the linkage by placing the bike on its side stand, placed a block of wood underneath the rear section of the engine(just behind the cats on the exhaust). cabled tied the front brake for safety. Remove centre stand. Then you just unbolt the linkage, the bolt which is connected to the chassis will not come completely out, but will allow the linkage to come out - just. I then used full synthetic bearing grease on all parts of the internal linkage, re- assembled, torqued up. I expect to have quite a few years, before I need to do it again, but now I know a simple method I can make it a bi-annual task.
Andy

Click to expand...

That's quite a neat way of doing it. The block of wood is pretty critical though? Me, I use a A frame set of aluminium ladders to hoist the rear of the bike up. I use two of those ratchet straps. Works but bike is a bit wobbly. I bolt the front tyre down to my garage floor too.