swing arm bushings

[dennis foley]

im am looking for a better way of removing the old swing arm bushing out of my 73 250, driving them out from the other side worked but not as good as i hoped, any suggestions would be helpful, thanks

[Keith May]

Hi Dennis,
Just got through changing the caged needle bearings in my '76 250 swingarm. The old ones were really frozen in there and dry from lack of lubrication. I soaked them thoroughly with penetrating oil, immersed for a couple of days. Then took a paint stripping heat gun and kept working the heat into them. I finally got them loose by driving through the opposite side with a make shift punch.I used a piece of 1/2" all-thread and a stack of washers held in place with a nut. I did this several times before the bearing budged. The heat gun got it hot enough to boil the penetrating oil but didn't char the paint as a torch would. Good luck.
Keith

[dennis foley]

thanks keith, i ended up cutting the first one out. it wont budge, the second came right out with a punch.

[Big Mac]

I've tackled the same problem 3 times now...each time had to bust out the needles and all to get to the outer race, then use a hardened steel cutting tool (bought from a tool supply house) mounted in a drill to grind a slot in the outer race down to the swingarm in order to get one side out. The other side then is pretty easy as you can then slide something through--like a 3/8" extension drive and a 14mm socket--that will catch the shoulder on the opposite side, so there's some bite to force the opposite bearing out.

If someone could make up some thick, hard washers or flat stock just less than the I.D. of the swingarm, then cut the sides down a bit on either side, you could slide the doohickey through a bearing on one side long-ways, then when it laid flat against the back of the opposite side bearing you'd be able to get some bite and hammer those suckers out. Any tool makers out there want to make some up?...then Al B. could sell them with a set of new 2030 bearings as a KTM swingarm rebuild set.