damn swingarm won't re-install

[eurobykz]

So months and months ago I had purchase new shock for my 2004 Girly.  It took me months and months to get around to installing it.   Frst I had to insulate my garage, and of course by the time the garage was finished, spring has (more or less) arrived in this rather northerly part of the world (-1C and flurries today, yuck!).   But it it definitely time to get tigger back in business!!   

I've read all (?) the posts here about shock removal and installation and there are some great pointers and suggestions.   Many thanks...   Here's my story of woe...

After disconnecting the top mounting of the shock, the swingarm still wouldn't move sufficiently to allow access to remove the shock without disconnecting the header pipes.  And those look like a royal pain and might require disconnecting rad, oil cooler etc...   What a horrible design! 

So as suggested by a few posts here, I removed the swingarm!!   it was dead easy, took all of 5 minutes.  Cleaned it up, installed the bottom mount of my fancy new shock and went to re-install the swingarm...   

4 hours later, after much cursing and banging my head against the underside of the seat assembly at least 437 times, I'm no closer.   

There are two little spacer washers that fit between the frame and the swingarm.    It seems completely impossible to get the swingarm to slide into place without knocking the annoying little spacers out.  I'm really tempted to chuck one of the little spacers into the river...

I've thought about (gently) prying apart the bottom part of the frame - I literally only need an extra half-mm to get the damn thing in place...   Not sure how I might do that but there's surely a way to do so...


Does anyone out there in the tigger-verse have any wisdom for me?   Is there any little trick I need to know about? 


Ian

[cba191]

It was a pita, but after some patience and some beers to help relax a little, I finally got it.  I did use a floor jack and a 2x4 to lever it up into place.

[eurobykz]

do you mean you used a jack to spread the frame a bit to fit?   My problem is that there is negative 0.5 mm of clearance - the swingarm starts to go in nice, but the bushings stick out a tiny bit on each side of the swingarm (and I pulled them and the spacer and cleaned 'em to make sure there wasn't a it of grit or anything on the edges that were keeping them apart.  With the swigarm out of the bike, I tried putting the little washers flush on both sides and there's actually almost a half mm of clearance - so the spacer& bushings are just ever so slightly longer than the swingarm is wide...     Meanwhile the damn spacer washers fit into a tiny shallow little recess much less than the thickness of the washer - the recess is insufficient to hold the stupid washer in place when the bushing drags on the edge of the damn washer.   

So buy a wee spreader jack and try to open it up a hair?    Or take the spacer out of the swingarm and shorten it by a half a mm...

[cba191]

I didn't spread it at all.  But the jack helped to just ease it in.

[rf9rider]

Loosening the rear engine mount bolts will give you an extra bit of clearance.

[Bixxer Bob]

Off topic slightly, but you didn't need to remove the swingarm or the headers.  It IS a PITA but doable.  I found once the battery box was removed so the shock can be tilted forward it will drop out the bottom.  There's a bracket on mine that sticks out and got in the way, but the trick is to slip the end of the bracket between two coils of the spring then rotate the shock to "screw" it out.

[Sin_Tiger]

Off topic slightly, but you didn't need to remove the swingarm or the headers.  It IS a PITA but doable.  I found once the battery box was removed so the shock can be tilted forward it will drop out the bottom.  There's a bracket on mine that sticks out and got in the way, but the trick is to slip the end of the bracket between two coils of the spring then rotate the shock to "screw" it out.

and you have the cheek to laugh at Steamers taking the carbs out for an air filter change 

[eurobykz]

Thanks for the thoughts BixxerBob, but I'm not sure if that strategy would have worked on my bike - the problem was getting access to the side of the swingarm to knock out the spacer for the lower shock mounting - too late now in any event. 

I wonder how critical it is to have both of those little spacer washer thingies...

[Bixxer Bob]

Ahh, if it won't tap through, getting the spacer out involves a home made puller. there's a thread on that in here somewhere.  Needs a bit of threaded bar you can get from any good hardware shop, some big washers, a couple of nuts and a socket or two.

[eurobykz]

it's really funny - I don't need a puller - that bushing or spacer slides right into the swingarm and right out (on the RHS only) as easy as pie...  The problem is that the exhaust pipe is in the way of getting any tool in there with the shock in place...   

After taking the suggestion of rf9rider, I loosened the engine mounting bolt and the frame opened up just enough so that I got it all in.  Thanks!!!

Now the only stupid problem is that I was so pre-occupied with all this that I made the dumbass mistake of not putting the new chain on the front sprocket first.    aaargh

The other new bespoke wilbers shock that I bought for my MG Breva went in in about 20 minutes total.  I love my tigger, but...

[Bixxer Bob]

I'm still not understanding why the exhaust is in the way.....  I never had any problem knocking mine out.  Now,  did I do it from the left or the right???  Hmmm..

[eurobykz]

what year is your Girly, I think they changed a bunch of things on the later ones.  Mine is one of the last with cast wheels and the old swingarm.   My understanding is that some of the early 2005's with cast wheels and the new swingarm were actually sold as "late '04's"    Bottom line is it was a total pita to get the old shock out and the new one in, but it's done.  I should be riding shortly.  The other problem is it started snowing today!!  almost easter...