I meant to grease mine sometime soon. But, I didn't get to it soon enough. I had to cut my ride short last saturday because my swingarm bearings went bad. I felt the "clunkety clunk" in the rear while going down one hill. When we stopped I shook the back rack and saw the swingarm was loose. It wasn't fun to have to tell my riding group that I had to go because of a mechanical problem (especially with honda enthusiasts in the group). Riding it with bad bearings can ruin the swingarm, so I couldn't keep going. It happened at about 1500 miles. I have done a lot of mud riding in the past. I think that has a lot to do with the bearing life. When I put near bearings and seals in, I am going to make sure to use water proof grease. I am also going to regrease the drive shaft while I am in the rearend.

************************Oops, never mind********************

 

I have not but I think I am going to.I mentioned doing this a long time ago and everyone just kind of made fun of me for getting too crazy doing this much p.m. I probably don't get in the mud as much as some of you but I don't want to have a ride ruined because of something I could have prevented.I guess I would just use lithium based grease there. BTW....thanks for the heads up on the motor mount.......I did have a question though..........mine had a LOT of movement.Is there a rubber bushing in there or is it natural for them to be that sloppy? Also,is there and alignment issue there??? I mean that was a significant amount of movement and looks like it could affect the front drive shaft alignment???
02 650 camo

 

Don't use plain jane grease. Make sure it is waterproof. That swingarm housing gets water in it (the ujoint area, not the wet brake area). Some people have tried to devise ways of keeping grease in the driveshaft splines with plastic washers and stuff. Others have been thinking about devising a way to grease the bearings with a zerk.

I was too too LAZY to take the swingarm off yet. It isn't overly easy. Everyone needs to do theirs. Some at 1000 miles, some at 3000, depends on mud and water riding that you do. Better safe than sorry.

I hope my swingarm is OK.

I do not know how much misalignment the front drivesahft can take. The front driveshaft has a coupler that can take some misalignment, but obviously not too much. My driveshaft has no play in it. Some people's shafts have play and are leaking. Maybe theirs was never aligned right from the factory, maybe their loose motor mount caused it. I don't know.

My front diff doesn't leak like Kissofdeaths does. But, my transmission is louder than his is. They aren't all created equal.

 

http://www.allballsracing.com/

I believe All ***** makes a Sealed Replacement setup for the Rear Swing Arms? Definitely better then Stock.. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] ~coop

www.MarylandATV.com

Prairie 700
TRX 2-something-R
V-Force --- SOLD
And a bunch of other toyz!

 

White marion Greas is the best to use, It is waterproof, and its good stuff!

 

Mine only went once at the 8000km mark. Now I don't use a pressure washer at all. Also I never greese my swingarm bearings and sometimes they just get loose and others time they just wear out.

 

My housing had a lot of mud in it, probably the seal was bad before I got into the mudhole. The rollers were all fallen inside the housing. The seal was mangled. The housing looks fine. The rubber plugs all look intact and waterproof.

I ordered new bearings from Ronayers before I saw the post about the sealed ones. I might give them a call and see what they have.

Does anyone think a bushing would be better? If it were a bushing, you could drill a hole and grease it.

 

Well, the arm is $315 at ronayers (cheaper than a dealer, I am sure). If you were to have the dealer fix this, you could pay 3 times this amount for the total bill including bearins and labor.

Also, the good folks at www.allballsracing.com have a bearing kit for the Prairie for much cheaper than I got the parts from ronayers, but it is exactly like stock.

I don't think allballsracing is an appropriate name for them, especially since they told me the kit they sell has tapered roller bearings in it, not ball bearings.

 

Does anyone think I should regrease the u-joint in the driveline while I am here? It is not loose, stiff, or rusty. The driveshaft is rusty, but the ujoint is greasy and has not rusted. The driveshaft splines never got rusty.

I took my rearend apart and there is dirt in it. It is my fault. I dissasembled everything now I am going to clean it in the kitchen sink (no worry, I'm single).

The rearend is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. That wet brake design is awesome.

I hope I am not just talking to myself in this post. Maybe so, everyone is watchin that Dyna kickback post.

 

If you are talking to your self we are still listening, I don't see greesing hurting your u joint.... I would.