Swingarm Play

[airheadpilot]

My apologies if this has already been covered - I did try the search function and didn't really see anything applicable.

I pulled my rear wheel last night to have a new rear tire mounted. I've been thinking that the handling was a little squirrely lately, and had been blaming the rear shock - I'm still running the stock shock at 50K miles. I've got a Wilbers on order, and expect that to be the cat's pajamas (whatever that means).

However, I noticed that, with the wheel off, I could lift the pumpkin and move the swingarm up and down slightly - maybe 5mm. So there's that much play before encountering any resistance from the shock. This strikes me as not a good thing, and I'm worried about trashed swingarm pr shock pivot bearings that have excessive play in them. Before I schedule service at the dealer I just wanted to check and make sure that this wasn't some well-documented "feature" and that I should stop worrying.

Thanks!

adh

 

[Knifemaker]

Up and down you'll get a little play...what you do not want at all is any side to side play...

KM

 

[GunMD]

Up and down you'll get a little play...what you do not want at all is any side to side play...

Agreed. The ones that have side to side play are usually pretty worn out. There's nothing I can do for them.

 

[FJRAust]

a few mm play up and down is acceptable but not ideal. Mine too has about 5 mm play up and down

It's very important that there isn't any play sideways.

 

[airheadpilot]

Actually, upon further inspection and a few tips from George Zelenz (thanks George!) I'm pretty sure the play is in the shock. I'm still running the stock shock at 50K miles, and have a new Wilbers on order, but I think this is just symptomatic of the shock internals going south.

Andrew