Swingarm bolt stuck

[JorisBoris]

I searched the forum a week ago for this so i hope this is not a repost.

It started when i wanted to grease my bearings because I knew the bike wasn't really well mentained by the previous owner... Its a 2006 450 so i'm beginning to think the bolt has never seen sunlight for almost 10 years.

You know whats coming next: it's stuck

I tried everything so for the people who will comment "just hit it with a hammer!" I will hit you with a hammer !

I built some kind of puller to apply a lot of force and then heating it, i sprayed a whole can of wd40 and some other non brand penetrating oil on it in 10 days.

Here are some pics of my homemade press setup

You can tell from the iron bending that thing is applying tons...

We are now building another bigger press which is my last hope.

Is there anything i can do except for an industrial press from a machine shop or something ?

[GuyGraham]

Heat and 'PlusGas' are your friends - google 'plusgas'. WD40 et al are rubbish in comparsion

Heat cycle it by heating it with a blow lamp and allowing to cool as this helps to break the bond of the corrosion

Soak it with PlusGas (or similar) repeatily overnight

 

Then try to get it out when it is hot, not cold

It will be seized where the bolt passes through the engine, or possibly the bearing sleeves will be corroded to the shaft

 

It will come out

Shock loads are better than constant loads ie blows with a hammer is better than your current set up of just using more and more constant force

 

Your puller isn't that strong - the angle iron needs to be much beefier to prevent flex. I doubt it is apply that much force in reality

you would be better off with a long bolt through the swingarm bolt, and a collar butted up against the frame with a hole big enough for the swingarm shaft to fit through. then just tighten a nut on the end to try and pull the swingarm shaft through it. This way all the tensile force applied goes into the bolt instead of being wasted in bending the frame work. abit like a gudgeon pin puller used for extration of the gudgeon pin on the piston

Edited November 1, 2014 by GuyGraham

[revelc]

Kroil has freed up some very tight bolts for me after allowing it to soak a few days.

An air hammer is also best for driving it out. Stop by a mechanic shop and pay someone to drive it out with one. Don't damage your swing arm or frame.

2014 WRR-Totalled

2012 WR450F-Stolen

2012 WR450F-Third bikes the charm.

[offrd beatr]

Possibly try a slide hammer on the head end of the swingarm bolt. You can weld a stud to it and grind it off after it comes out. Hitting the thread end will destroy the threads but a swingarm bolt is a lot cheaper than a swingarm or frame.

[FORMA MOTO]

Gallons of PB blaster, and an inpact hammer on the axle. 

 

Then, heat on the swingarm: it's probably not stuck in the frame, but in the swingarm

[JorisBoris]

Thanks for the replies, my last setup didn't work either so I gave up, put it back together and went riding... I know it's stupid of me and I do feel bad about it, so don't judge... But I was verry frustrated and the bearings will be replaced anyway.

Last things I may try are the slide hammer and treading the inner side of the bolt and pulling it out.

Thanks for the advice

Edited November 1, 2014 by JorisBoris

[bobpara]

Did you ever get this out?

I have the same exact year bike and the same exact problem

Rather than open a can of worms, I left it and walked away

I bought the bearing and seal kit over the winter and I still want to do it though

 

Any luck?

[bobpara]

When you guys say 'air hammer' are you talking about an 'air chisel' with a different piece on the end?

[fdme]

When you guys say 'air hammer' are you talking about an 'air chisel' with a different piece on the end?

An air hammer is probably what you know as an air chisel. It can use a chisel or a bunch of different other sets can also fit. They are interchangeable as long as the shank size is the same size diameter. A rivet gun would work as well. In this case you would want a punch set of some sort. Btw AeroKroil is the SHIT for removing stuck and corroded hardware. It gets into the tiniest spaces and seems to work especially well if you heat it up with a heat gun as well. I use it almost daily at work, when paired with a rivet gun or "air hammer" you can bang anything out. Edited January 5, 2015 by fdme

[andyb2004]

All of the above sounds useful. What I would add though is to get a piece of sturdy steel tube (I cut a short piece off a scaffold tube) and lay the bike on its side with the tube against the frame over the bolt and the other end on a good solid floor (e.g. concrete or a steel plate, and something you don't care if you damage it!).

Now when you hit the other end all the force is applied to the bolt rather than absorbed by the frame flexing etc.

This made all the difference when I came across the stuck pivot challenge.

Other thing I would add is to use a hot air gun/paint stripper rather than a blow torch as it should deliver enough heat but probably safer.

Good luck.

[bobpara]

This is one of those jobs that I have been sort of working up to.

The bike still runs OK, but I know it needs doing

 

Everything you say confirms what I was afraid of up until now

Basically, its going to be a biotch of a job

I could tell last fall when I gave that swing arm bolt a few taps it wasn't going to be easy

 

Someone made a point of a piece of pipe and laying bike over on side

....a lot of things get down to work holding

Laying bike on side allows kroil to drool down in there too

I'm surprised it had to get that far.....that's pretty stuck!

Basically I'm psyching myself up far a nasty job

 

I think Kroil is the best also

I've tried other penetrating oils like Howes and PB blaster

But I agree, I think Kroil is the best

I think it gets down to viscosity, the stuff is thinner than PB blaster or Howes

[fdme]

I think you might be pleasantly surprised by it coming out easier than you thought, by laying it on its side like someone mentioned and getting a solid piece of metal for a punch and a nice and heavy sledge hammer with some kroil soaking nicely. Give it some good solid manly wacks

Edited January 6, 2015 by fdme

[JorisBoris]

Hey guys,

So I finally got my drivers license, this means i'm going to ride the bike a lot, even on streets where i don't like things to break. so i need to replace those bearings ! After the winter i'll tear it down completely and bring the frame to a press somewhere in a industrial metal shop or something... i'm not going to get frustrated over again good luck with your bolt though

[DRZ04]

Joris since you are going to ride it for now what you might try is to periodically lay the bike over on its side & spray the bolt down very heavily with Aero Kroil and give it time to penetrate. Then keep spraying it down while laying it over on its side and do it again. If you have patience and the time this will work as long as you keep repeating the process. You should do this to both side. Hopefully when you are ready to pull it apart it will break free. The Aero Kroil will evaporate so you will need to keep spraying it. Good luck.

[JorisBoris]

Thanks for the tip ! I'll be servicing my bike somewhere next week, fluids, filters, battery for the winter,... There are a lot of bike shops around so while i'm at it buying stuff i'll ask around and look for someone that can help me out.

I know penetrating oil does a good job, but I don't know where to get Kroil where I live... And you can't believe how stuck it is ! when I push that thing loose in a press, you will hear reports about an earthquake in Belgium ?

[bobpara]

The first step will be to try standing vertical and an air hammer, who knows, I may get lucky.

If not, tipping it over on the side or laying completely flat will be another story

Alot more work in that I'm going to need to remove gas tank

treat it like a gigantic piece of metal in a arbor press 

Work holding is the key

 

I get it, thanks for the info!

[ar2stroke]

Had many of these, the best approach is to spray it with penetrating fluid, and use a bronze drift punch. Do not hammer on the threads as it will mushroom it and will make it worse.

 

Using a bronze drift punch, let it take the abuse and see if you can rotate it with a wrench. Eventually it will free up.

[woods-rider]

I had the same issue with my 2006 when I tried to grease the swingarm bearing in 2011.

 

After trying penetrating oil, heat, and a hammer, these are the steps I took to get it out.

 

 

I tried rigging up a press, but this just bent my wrench.

 

I tried a MUCH bigger hammer and rigged up a peice of hands-free aluminum to hit... but no dice.

 

 

Then I tried an air chissel with a socket on the end to make it act like a hammer, but this got me nowhere.

 

 

 

So, I rigged up the press again that I tried earlier, but this time I woudl also pull it from the other end. I tapped the bolt, used some aluminum spacers that would rest on the frame before touching the swingarm bolt, and tightened in a beefy G8.8 1/2" bolt. I would tighten this bolt a bit, then go tighten the press, then back to the bolt. I went back and forth until my crescent wrench was bent and the aluminum spacer was mangled. The swingarm bolt didn't budge.

 

And finally... the last resort. Swingarm bolts are suprisingly cheap on eBay!

 

Edited January 8, 2015 by woods-rider

[bobpara]

OMG ! Woods Rider!

What a gnarly dirty dig!

Thanks for showing the progression and what I may expect!

 

I'm banking on the fact that the thing is going to be laid on its side or even flipped over to do the cut with the fiber wheel that you show 

So at the first sign of resistance that gas tank is coming off

 

Wow, this has a really good chance of being a nasty fight!

[offrd beatr]

I think ya just needed a bigger hammer!! Nice work!