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Can't move swing arm pivot


Dennis Pink

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Guidance please.  1995 BMW R1100RSL, 72,000 miles.  Wanting to do some winter maintenance by cleaning/greasing swing arm bearings.  Trying to remove the right side pivot pin, I've used a heat gun, then torch for probably 10 minutes,  wacked the head of the pin with a hammer.  Even with my cheater bar, I can not get the pivot pin to budge!    Do I need to take the left side lock nut/pivot pin out first?   Thank you for any advice!

DP

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38 minutes ago, Dennis Pink said:

Guidance please.  1995 BMW R1100RSL, 72,000 miles.  Wanting to do some winter maintenance by cleaning/greasing swing arm bearings.  Trying to remove the right side pivot pin, I've used a heat gun, then torch for probably 10 minutes,  wacked the head of the pin with a hammer.  Even with my cheater bar, I can not get the pivot pin to budge!    Do I need to take the left side lock nut/pivot pin out first?   Thank you for any advice!

DP

Evening Dennis

 

Removing the other side first might help a little but not a lot.

 

Some of those pivot pins can be pretty tight, especially if someone used red Loc-Tite  at last installation. 

 

You need quality tight fitting tools so you don't strip the hex then lots of heat so you don't tear the threads out of the alloy. 

 

I have worked on a couple that just wouldn't budge even with excess heat so had to drill a hole in the pivot pin face then use a center punch at an angle to break the pin free after heating again.  (then had to install a new pivot pin).

 

Just keep in mind there is fine line between heating that pivot pin enough & turning the paint brown on the surrounding alloy.

 

 

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Hi dirt rider - So my best bet is trying more heat?   Would you know what generates hotter heat, the heat gun or propane torch?  That BMW lock tight is something else!   Thanks!

DP 

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I get the heat gun, put it on HIGH, set it up a quarter-inch from the pin, then go make myself a sandwich. When I'm done eating and cleaning up, I head back out to the garage. Literally fifteen or twenty minutes.

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Sometimes I have found that reversing course and going the opposite direction can help. Initially it might be just a slight movement but by alternating it should become loose

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Good news, got both pivot pins out!   Using my propane torch, left side pin needed about 1 minute of heat to come loose, right side close to 3 minutes. The lock tight that dropped out looked green in color?   Thank you Dirtrider, Jim Moore and Paul De for sharing your knowledge.   Now I can complete my project, and no lock tight will ever again touch those pins! 

DP

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33 minutes ago, Dennis Pink said:

Good news, got both pivot pins out!   Using my propane torch, left side pin needed about 1 minute of heat to come loose, right side close to 3 minutes. The lock tight that dropped out looked green in color?   Thank you Dirtrider, Jim Moore and Paul De for sharing your knowledge.   Now I can complete my project, and no lock tight will ever again touch those pins! 

DP

Evening Dennis

 

Do use Loc-Tite on those pins, it locks them in place but just as important the Loc-Tite seals the threaded joint preventing corrosion & a chance of tearing the threads out at next removal.  Just Use medium strength Blue (242) Lock-Tite as that is way more easily removable next time (personally I always use 242 for reassembly) 

 

That green Thread Locker you found sounds like factory (or dealer)  Loc-Tite as the factory (or dealer) used a 2071 & that is a high strength Loc-Tite  with a temperature break-away of just about 250° (that won't come loose without lots of heat)

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4 hours ago, Dennis Pink said:

Good news, got both pivot pins out!   Using my propane torch, left side pin needed about 1 minute of heat to come loose, right side close to 3 minutes. The lock tight that dropped out looked green in color?   Thank you Dirtrider, Jim Moore and Paul De for sharing your knowledge.   Now I can complete my project, and no lock tight will ever again touch those pins! 

DP

Good job. Here's some more advice. get some wire brushes and clean every bit of that Locktite off the threads. It's easy to cross-thread those pins and you don't want to be thinking, "Am I cross-threaded or am I pushing through old locktite?" Clean them until you can screw everything together by hand. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

1995 R1100RSL

I removed the swing arm to check the front u-joint and lube the front splines.  Happy to report, everything looked good! 

Now a question; when I pulled the swing arm off the rubber boot came with it.  There is a large round, what I would call a cir clip and I have no idea how it attaches. I think I figured out the "lip" slips into the swing arm and the  flat end faces the rear of the transmission, but where does that round metal piece go?   Thank you for your help!

DP

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14 minutes ago, Dennis Pink said:

1995 R1100RSL

I removed the swing arm to check the front u-joint and lube the front splines.  Happy to report, everything looked good! 

Now a question; when I pulled the swing arm off the rubber boot came with it.  There is a large round, what I would call a cir clip and I have no idea how it attaches. I think I figured out the "lip" slips into the swing arm and the  flat end faces the rear of the transmission, but where does that round metal piece go?   Thank you for your help!

DP

Afternoon Dennis

 

The gaiter boot does in fact install on the swing arm. Be sure to grease the gaiter boot where it interfaces with the swing arm & on the transmission end where the boot mates with the transmission. (use a good "waterproof"  grease). 

 

That circlip goes inside the gaiter boot on the swing arm end to hold it in place. Just be darn sure that the opening in the circlip goes to one side or the other (NOT up & down) or you could get drive shaft contact at max swing arm articulation. 

 

 

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Dirtrider - you are my hero!  I would have never seen the little grove the wire clip fits into.  So simple and easy when one knows what they're doing!  I got some silicone grease from NAPA and applied it heavy enough on all the mating surfaces that it squished out of the edges and made sure the clip is sideways.  I'll finish my winter project tomorrow thanks to the encyclopedia volumes of knowledge here!  

DP 

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