How often should I grease swingarm/rear suspension bearings?

[viking50]

I am new to the sport, I ride weekends in the spring, summer and fall, mostly woods, how often should I grease the rear suspension? A neighbor who rides often told me once or twice a season depending on how much I ride. Does this seem excessive if greased properly?

[1rkcooper]

I grease mine at least every spring but doing in the spring and fall is even better. With a small amout of mechanical ability you can drill and tap grease fittings for almost all bearings and will not have to dismantle it to grease. It is still a good idea to check the bearings once in a while though.

[BEAN329]

Ditto for me, has anyone drilled the linkage bolts and put grease fittings in those yet?

[Treebark]

I ussually check mine every 3 or 4 months depending where I ride and the type of weather it is. I've had bearings get froze up from lack of lubrication and cost me a good deal of money. I'm kind of against drilling holes in suspension parts, afraid they'd get weak and break with the amount of strain put on them. Pulling the bike apart isn't that hard and only takes a couple of minutes.

[yathump]

I am currently greasing my swingarm and linkage on my bike, i was considering letting it go until fall because of very few rides last year. Once i got inside i was happy i did it, discovered moisture in a couple areas. ?

[big t]

Do it at least once a year. ?

[yamaha.dude]

Don't leave it 3 or 4 years like some menbers of this board... ?

https://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/956396/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

If you ride a lot of wet or muddy conditions, or if you powerwash your bike, I would suggest doing it more often...

Good luck,

David

[SBG]

While all my bearings were fine, I noticed that the steering head had a slight brown film in the white grease. Not bad, but enough to make me pack enough grease to prevent any water from ever getting in. My bud said my bike had more grease on it than his did from the factory, and mentined that his was a lot worse than mine. He also has a thing for going down in larger puddles than me, while I just drop mine in the boulders.

I'd say to check the axles for scoring too.

[dale]

I bought a 01 WR426 last fall with only 200 miles, like new, and the guy said he greased the linkage. So I pulled it apart to check anyway. The steering and swingarm were well greased and everything o.k. The shock linkage had this strange looking stuff like it was injecteded then semi-hardened. The needles were completely incased and in mint condition. Is this something Yamaha uses?

[SBG]

It's refered to as string cheese and is supposed to last a long time. Leave it in their if there is nothing wrong. I just replaced it to go with the flow, but it wasn't necessary.

[wrooster]

The shock linkage had this strange looking stuff like it was injecteded then semi-hardened. The needles were completely incased and in mint condition. Is this something Yamaha uses?

that "strange looking stuff" is an oil-impregnated polymer, more specifically called "microporous polymeric lubricant (MPL)". yes, it is the yamaha production lubricant for the swingarm bearings. MPL is not field serviceable -- if it gets damaged in any way it must be removed from the bearing and replaced with a high quality lithium complex or aluminum base grease.

you can get all of the details of regreasing the swingarm, including disassembly pics, here in the 250F FAQ:

http://www.thumperfaq.com/swingarm.htm

also read this entire post and the links therein:

https://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=809135

as noted in the FAQ link above, DO NOT CLEAN THE MPL WITH SOLVENTS. doing so just depletes the oil that is in the polymer "sponge" and will cause lack-of-lubrication problems down the road. for more info on the MPL polymer itself, click on this link.

jim aka the wrooster

'01 wr250f