Maintenance

Since getting the LE back on the road, some maintenance tasks have inevitably been necessary, so I thought I would also document these here.

 

Swinging arm bushes

Maybe this one is one of those "learning ponts"! The swinging arm bushes seemed OK when I first reassembled the bike, so I greased them and put it back together. On my way to the MOT I must admit that it gradually began to feel a bit sloppy but of course I didn't know how it felt in the first place. The MOT tester commented that it was a bit loose - "borderline" he said. On having a closer look later, it certainly had too much play in it, so I ordered new bushes from club spares. These have been sitting in the drawer for some months, but on a sunny day in January, when as we know, the thoughts of all right-minded people turn to LE maintenance!

If you remove the back wheel, support the bike under the back mudguard, remove the bolts from the rear suspension units and the swinging arm pivots, the body will raise enough to clear the pivots completely. You need a bit of support under the engine, then the pivots can be wiggled free and out. The whole swinging arm assembly can then be pulled out backwards quite easily.

I also disconnected the fuel pipe and the wiring to the battery, just to avoid these being strained. Oh yes, I should have said disconnect the rear brake cable, though this will soon make itself obvious! I did remove the centre stand spring - not that it's necessary, but I had visions of it pinging off into a dark corner, never to be seen again!

Removing the old bush

The bushes are phosphor bronze and fairly brittle. I found the easiest and least damaging way to remove them was to break up the bush and remove it in pieces. Don't tell me you haven't got an old screwdriver in the drawer and I won't say anything to the tool police about tool abuse. This picture is of the drive side - be careful not to drop any bits inside which could obstruct the movement of the universal joint. Note that the rather dented dished washer above retains a greased felt ring, which is just there to keep muck out when it's reassembled. On mine, one was missing and the other was crumbling away.

The new bush goes in here

I gave everything a good clean up - note that I found plenty of grit and road muck in here, which wouldn't be a good start for the new bushes! I put a nice dollop of grease in there.

New bush, washer and pivot

The new bush was a nice snug fit on the pivot and I noticed that the flange is a good deal thicker - presumably the old ones were quite worn. I straightened out the worst of the dents in the dished washer.

New bush in place

The new bushes were tapped into place quite easily with a plastic-faced mallet, making sure they were driven right home so the washer is held tight. I was a bit concerned that the assembly might be too wide to fit in the rear cross-member.

Bush and "felt" ring ready to reassemble

Of course I had no new felt rings, so I thoroughly greased some soft twine and wound 3 or 4 turns around - I'm sure that'll be OK.

As expected, the re-bushed swinging arm was a pretty tight fit between the sides of the rear cross-member. Not ridiculous though, so I made sure everything was well greased and put it all back. Very pleased to report that I can feel no play at all now!

On test-riding the bike, I am really quite surprised at how much better it handles. Sure, it's no sports bike, but eliminating the play in the swinging arm was well worth doing.