[av]

I finally got around to greasing my bike last weekend. My bike has been through a few mud fests (http://home.earthlink.net/~avinh3/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/woodsled_and_pumpkin.JPG) and has been in mud holes upto my swingarm :blush: so it needed some work in the grease department - boy what a job that was! :shocked: It took the WHOLE day to grease the fork seals (I also added the SealSavers), steering head, swing arm, linkage and wheel bearings. What are people paying for this type of service (i.e. greasing the steering head, swingarm, linkage and wheel bearings)? How can you be sure that the technician is doing the complete job? :confused: I must be really meticulous or I'm just slow as a dog :blush: because it took a looooong time and a LOT of work! Hopefully next time will be faster :confused: or I'm just going to pay someone to do it but how can I be sure they'll do a thorough job? :confused:

The "string cheese" as wrooster would call them are located in the connecting rod and the relay arm (http://home.earthlink.net/~avinh3/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00266.JPG), here is another picture of these 2 pieces (http://home.earthlink.net/~avinh3/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00265.JPG). Here is a closeup picture of the string cheese in the connecting rod (http://home.earthlink.net/~avinh3/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00263.JPG) and this is the closeup shot of the string cheese in the relay arm (http://home.earthlink.net/~avinh3/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00264.JPG).

Anyway, the string cheese lubricants were in really good shape and they looked like they belonged there and were there for a good reason so I left them in and just slopped the Bel Ray waterproof grease (http://www.belray.com/consumer/productpages/waterproof.html) (that is good grease!) on top of them and put everything back together.

The cleaned parts looked like this (http://home.earthlink.net/~avinh3/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00261.JPG), giving wrooster a run for his money ;) If you noticed the bolts used on the connecting rod (in the lower right in the above picture) along with the 2 bolts used on the relay arm are drilled out leaving holes in the middle of these bolts - these holes were oxydized and were full of rust/water and nasty goop! I used some Q-tips to clean them out as best I could and injected the Bel Ray grease into those holes to keep them from further rusting (since the Bel Ray grease is water proof and won't wash out) - something you might consider doing if you're working on your linkage. Didn't take any pictures of the swingarm bearings but they looked to be in really good shape too and now they're also full of grease :D

Next, to check the spokes and I'm ready for next season :D

[Fiddler]

AV-

Lookin good! I did the same thing on my '03 YZF last weekend. Even after just ten rides here in the NW my linkage was UGLY. Here's the bike broken down:

03 yz250f breakdown (http://www.nwlink.com/~glase/yzfbreakdown.jpg)

Here's the linkage after removal of string cheese, thorough dunking in the solvent tank and a spin on the wire brush wheel.

linkage (http://www.nwlink.com/~glase/03yzflinkage.jpg)

5 hours to complete the task. The majority of the time was spent cleaning the needle bearings in the swingarm. I was amazed at how much bel-ray waterproof grease I was able to pack in there.

-Fiddler

[wrooster]

av,

looks good!

just FYI for the rest of the folks contemplating doing their linkage,
here is another thread for linkage teardown info (http://www.thumpertalk.com/bike/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB10&Number=447637&fpart=&PHPSESSID=).

jim aka the wrooster
'01 wr250f

[SUnruh]

yeah, it takes a while to do a through job.
pay somebody? HA!
never.
that's the whole point: how would you know if they did it right?

remember how that old song goes: the cheese stands alone
mines alone. in the landfill.

[Fiddler]

Exaaaaactly.

Wrooster's how-to with pictures made my linkage job a reality. I was pleased though that with the dentist's tool the cheese came out almost in one piece.

I wouldn't trust this job to some underpaid tech at a dealer.

-Fiddler

[av]

Yep, had that writeup wrooster did for the linkage as well as the one he wrote for the steering column - thanks! :D

[Dirt_Surfer]

Anyway, the string cheese lubricants looked like they belonged there and were there for a good reason so I left them in.



Good Boy av! :D

[av]

Fiddler,

Were your string cheese in really bad condition? Mine looked like they were in really great shape! :) Why did you decide to remove it? :confused:

In the regreasing your linkage thread (http://www.thumpertalk.com/bike/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB10&Number=447637&fpart=&PHPSESSID=), Junior_Vet wrote:

Finally Yamaha talks about the string cheese. I noticed that they have a write up in '03 WR250F manual on page 5-56 about the orange stuff in the bearings. This is what it says.

Polylube bearings, with solid lubrication, have been adopted with the intent to make the needle bearings, used in this model, maintenance free. With polylube bearings, no grease nipple and regular lubrication is necessary. However, grease should be applied to all oil seals and collars when removed or installed.

...and Rockyracer wrote:

I have been riding Yamahas since 1980. I believe they have put the filler in the linkage bearings that you call string cheese for about the past five years. I have never removed it. When the bike is new I repack the bearings with Bel Ray water proof grease, and do it several times during the year. I have never had bearing failures, I ride about 25 enduros and hare scrables a year, and I ride every weekend. My feelings on the material between the needles is that it fills the void between the the needles and will not let dirt and water into the bearing. This is my opinion and experence, I have not read anywhere in Yamaha's excellent manual to remove the this materail from the bearing.

...so I left the polylube in since it looked so good and I'm trusting Yamaha here... :confused:

[Pit_Man]

Nice write-up,and pictures.
I'm contemplating doing this task also and was wondering if it would be possible to put grease zerks in the end of the bolts and plug the other end, then drill holes in line with the bearings?The string cheese looks like it would prevent the grease from penetrating into the needle bearing though.
Would the holes weaken the bolt?
What about removing the string cheese?
Thanks for any ideas.

[Fiddler]

AV-

The string cheese was in fine shape, but after sticking my finger in there and not being able to roll the needle bearings back and forth, I decided to pull the cheese. I also noticed on my axle and collars that there was wear already occuring even there is only 12 hours on my bike. It seems to me that the "polylube" description in the manual was more of an excuse for not properly lubing the bearings at the factory. "maintenance free?" yeah right. I will trust a load of bel-ray to prevent wear over that crap that I pulled out. Just my $.02

-Fiddler

[wrooster]

Pit_Man,

> would be possible to put grease zerks in the end of the bolts [?]

take a look at the regreasing linkage thread (http://www.thumpertalk.com/bike/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB10&Number=447637&fpart=&PHPSESSID=),
about 3/4 of the way down this subject is covered.


jim aka the wrooster
'01 wr250f

[wrooster]

steve,

we are instituting random drug testing on TT -- and you're first buddy...

> remember how that old song goes: the cheese stands alone
> mines alone. in the landfill.

:cool:

jim aka the wrooster
'01 wr250f

[av]

steve,

we are instituting random drug testing on TT -- and you're first buddy...

> remember how that old song goes: the cheese stands alone
> mines alone. in the landfill.

...and the test came back positive! :shocked: ;)

Pit_Man - There are a few problems with the zerks that I can see now that I've done my first real thorough grease job on my bike:

1) Grease pushes out the seals as covered in the referenced thread because they have nowhere to go - you'll see why below...
2) Your suggestion of using the bolts as the grease delivery mechanism won't work because the bolts go into metal sleeves (or colars and bushings as the manual would call them) which then spin on the bearings - a layered setup -> bolts spin on sleeves, then sleeves spin on bearings - so you can't even pump grease into the bolts (the sleeves won't allow it to go anywhere).
3) If you put the zerks at strategic places on the relay arm, connecting rod, swingarm, steering column, etc. and pump the grease into the zerks - the first thing the grease will hit are the seals, the bearings are between 2 seals and for the steering column, the bearings are between a race and a seal - hence the grease will just push everything outwards since everything in there fit really tightly. So as you can see, it is nearly impossible to do a good job with the zerks to grease the actual bearings, sleeves and everything else involved. There is no good way around this other than breaking it all down and doing the dirty work (it takes a looong time to do all of this work too)...

Someone mentioned just replacing the bearings when they're worned out instead of doing regular maintenance - this might be OK, but if your bike doesn't have sufficient grease to begin with to lube the bolts, sleeves, etc. then those pieces will also be worned out and rusted. On new bikes, the grease job should be done ASAP to protect all of the parts involved since there usually isn't much grease in there to begin with, then you can judge from your riding habits and terrain (such as if you ride in mud & water a lot or ride on relatively dry tracks) as to how often you should do the grease job - once a year is probably reasonable for the average rider (i.e. non racers).

Have a look at your manual in the "swingarm" section and you'll see what I mean by everything fitting really tightly and why I think zerks won't do the proper grease job (not designed for them).

The manual recommends greasing all of the seals, bolts, the steering and the swingarm's bearings (replaced if worn, rusted or damaged). As for the relay arm and connecting rod bearings, you are supposed to inspect them and replace them if they are worn, rusted or if the polylube is damaged or missing - it does NOT show that we have to grease the polylube bearings :shocked: but I dumped grease EVERYWHERE, it can't hurt :D

[Pit_Man]

Thanks for the replies Wrooster and AV. As always TOP NOTCH advice.

[av]

Reposting the links to the pictures as per wrooster's request:

the connecting rod and the relay arm (http://mysite.verizon.net/~avinh/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00266.JPG)
the connecting rod and the relay arm, another picture (http://mysite.verizon.net/~avinh/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00265.JPG)
close up picture of the string cheese in the connecting rod (http://mysite.verizon.net/~avinh/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00263.JPG)
close up picture of the string cheese in the relay arm (http://mysite.verizon.net/~avinh/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00264.JPG)
cleaned parts (http://mysite.verizon.net/~avinh/motorcycles/wr250f/misc/DSC00261.JPG)
Bel Ray waterproof grease used (http://www.belray.com/consumer/productpages/waterproof.html)

[Junior_Vet]

I left the Poly Lube (string cheese) in my bearings because I figured Yamaha knew better. NOT :( I have at least 1 bearing needing replacement because of water damage. I used lot's of grease on top of the poly lube but I don't feel that the poly lube sticks to the needle rollers like grease does allowing water to get in at the bearing surfaces. My take on it is that the poly lube is just a manufacturing setup thing. :thinking:

The rest of bearing are passible but not great. In all my years of biking, this is the first time I have needed to replace a linkage bearing.

My advice is remove the cheese and grease it up good, even if the poly lube looks perfect. :thumbsup:

[wrooster]

just an FYI for ya' all:

there is a pretty decent writeup someone did about the bearings, see:
http://www.thumperfaq.com/swingarm.htm

:cool:

and to again quote this article (http://www.oilanalysis.com/learning_center/category_article.asp?articleid=396&relatedbookgroup=Lubrication):

"While the benefits of Microporous Polymeric Lubricants are numerous, there are some limitations. [...] While MPLs generally resist contamination better than greased bearings, this does not make the bearing waterproof and will not prevent corrosion of the bearing."

jim aka the wrooster
'01 wr250f

[Junior_Vet]

there is a pretty decent writeup someone did about the bearings, see:
http://www.thumperfaq.com/swingarm.htm



Wrooster, I think the sweater in swingarm write up looks familar. Was it you?

Anyway, I missed the highly technical write up on the poly grease and won't make the same mistake again. My new bearings (just picked up today) will be having the cheese removed immediately. I don't want to buy bearings in the future. :smashpc: