Proflex Swingarm Pivot Tension......

[Grisley Paul]

Can anyone offer their opinions on how much tension there should be in a Proflex swingarm.....

Had the rear shock fall out due to the lower bolt working loose the other day and whilst putting it back together found that the swingarm needed a right solid pull just to move it.....

Surely a swingarm without a shock assembly attached should just move under it's own weight and flop around ?

As the vid below shows it takes a really got tug to get it to move..... :?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYsc6qyRR8s

 

[old skool babe]

Take bolts out.... Clean them up and get some threadlock...
Do bolts up so arm can move freely.. Wait till loctite goes off and job done..


Bolts need to be just over hand tight. If you don't use the loctite they will fall out and you will be back to square 1...

Or another way is to hang frame up..do bolts up tight and release them equally till rear beam drops.
Then wait for threadlock to go off and job done..

 

[Grisley Paul]

Take bolts out.... Clean them up and get some threadlock...
Do bolts up so arm can move freely.. Wait till loctite goes off and job done..


Bolts need to be just over hand tight. If you don't use the loctite they will fall out and you will be back to square 1...

Or another way is to hang frame up..do bolts up tight and release them equally till rear beam drops.
Then wait for threadlock to go off and job done..

Thanks for that info, much appreciated......

So the swingarm shouldn't be that tight at all ?

 

[jimo746]

Funnily enough I took my rear shock out today as well and found that the swingarm wasn't exactly what you would call free-moving.
I realise it needs to be nipped up fairly tight so as not to allow any play in the pivot, but I think I'll follow your advice and strip & clean it all tomorrow and report back...

 

[hamtaro145]

proflex instructions say that the swing arm should fall under its own weight

 

[old skool babe]

Did it to mine.. And rear end moved so much better..
Got a smooth travel and at least you know it's all been done
So you can have peace of mind..

 

[02gf74]

I seem to recall reading somehere that the arm should fall slowly under its own weight so is not comkpletely loose. Ofcourse you are going to ask: what is the defintion of slowly - again I seem to remember it was when the arem took about 1 second to fall.

 

[jimo746]

I stripped the swingarm pivots on my 857 today, it made a small difference as before it needed a bit of a push/pull to move it (shock removed) but now feels as though there is less friction.
It doesn't drop under it's own weight, but it's not far off.

If you look on the idrider Proflex forum there's drawings etc for converting the pivot to a sealed bearing system, mines ok for now but something to keep in mind for the future.

 

[02gf74]

If you look on the idrider Proflex forum there's drawings etc for converting the pivot to a sealed bearing system.

if you think about it, the friction bearing is a piss poor solution on what were v.expensive bikes .... surely sealed bearing races existed back in the mis 90s