I might have teased you in my last post that I was going to show how I fitted that aluminum '79-80 Suzuki RM250 swingarm to my '73 GT250K. But before we do so I wanted to write a little post on how to easily remove old swingarm bearings/bushings with simple tools, which you can find from almost every garage.
Here's a little backstory about the swingarm. A while ago I bought a swingarm from '80s RM/PE250 through a want to buy add, which I had written to one Finnish classic motocross forum. It didn't take long to receive an answer for my it. Seller of this swingarm was from southern Finland which meant that I had to purchase it without seen it first. He send me a few pictures of it but nothing too detailed. Once I received the shipment I noticed that it had broken bearings or some sort of bushings inside the bearing housings. For a while I had to figure out how to get them out of there. In the end the solution was pretty simple.
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| '79-80 Suzuki RM/PE 250 swingarm |
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| Broken swingarm bearing/bushing. |
Bearing housings in this swingarm have 27 mm diameter. This meant that I could use M8 fender washers (24 mm outer diameter) to pull both of the bearings/bushings out. I had to grind few of the washers to make them narrower. This helped to slide them through one of the bearings/bushings and set them behind one of them. After that was accomplished it was easy to pull bearings out with a long M8 bolt and 27 mm socket.
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Long M8 bolt, nut and fender washers.
Narrowing few of the washers helps to slide them through
bearings and inside the bearing housing. Use them to get the
first bearing out of the way.
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| 27 mm and 13 mm sockets, small ratchet and open/ring spanner. |
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| DIY puller. |
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| Ready to pull. |
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| Bearing almost out. |
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| Job done. |
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| Broken bearings/bushings out of the way. |
