Swing arm bearing spacer & seals-no room

[OldHog66]

Boy am I stupid... you know how it is when you tear something apart and then reassemble months later...and some of the stuff (when coming apart) seems so obvious that you don't take notes... Well, I'm stumped.

I pressed in the new races for the swingarm, and I greased up the bearings and slid em in...but the spacers and seals are now cofusing the living sh-- out of me. The new bearings came with a set of seals (v twin).. and I have my old spacers. The seals are about 3/8" thick and the spacers fit in the "hole" in the seals...but there is absolutely no room to fit all that stuff between the frame?? I mean there is just enough room to fit the swing arm (bearings installed) in the frame, but certainly no clearance for the spacers.. wtf am I doing wrong? I don't know what my original seals were like but I think they were more O ring looking where these are rubber cups sortof... but even without the seals, there is no room for spacers.. I'm lost...

and this will likely not be the first time I'm lost while putting this thing back together!

[Rubone]

Sounds like you didn't press the races all the way in.The don't sit flush, they go all the way in to the shoulder in the swingarm.
Robbie

[OldHog66]

I did discover the races are not quite in...but we're talking about 1/16" or so.. as we pressed them flush ... but the spacers (if they go outside the bearings) are 3/8" thick (approx) and that's light years from the space I have... this just doesn't make sense..
the swingarm without bearings, has about an 1/8" clearance between the sides of hte frame which makes this whole spacer thing seem crazy... baffled!!

[OldHog66]

I'm going over to my friend's place this afternoon and press the races all the way in...and maybe that's enough? we'll know soon!!

[Rubone]

If all the parts you have are correct for the bike, and they should be since those pieces did not change for the life of that design, then the only answer is wrong assembly. The races have to be seated in order to adjust the bearing pre-load. The spacers ride directly on the outer face of the inner bearing and when assembled properly the assembly slides right into the frame. Install the pivot bolt making sure the lock tab is in place and adjust. Bend the tab to keep it in place, your done. It is actually quite easy to deal with, so don't worry, you'll get it!
Robbie

[OldHog66]

You gotta be able to laugh at yourself

The guy who powdercoated the swingarm was supposed to knock out the old races.. well he didn't ... so what i thought was the shoulder was the old race...and as it was powdercoated, I didn't notice the difference!

two steps forward and one step back on everything I try to work on!

[Rooster]

two steps forward and one step back on everything I try to work on!

Sometimess that's just how it goes.

[Robert Luland]

Oldhog66 I'm glad your found you problem. Here's something you might want to do before putting that arm back in service. I got to figure that the arm got blasted before the painter got to it. Before you asemble this thing you got to clean it out. Any greese in there is holding all that abrasive. If you havn't done it you got to clean that puppy. I put it in the parts cleaner and use a bottle brush until all that old crud is out of there. Those new bearings arn't going to last to long with grit in them. Bob L

[Robert Luland]

Sorry about that. Got one of those fatal signs.

[OldHog66]

Thanks man! We did at least do a good job of degreasing and cleaning before powdercoat...but i've been down inside the old thing with a wire brush just in case!
new races are installed!