renewing swinging arm bushes

tibsy · Post by **tibsy** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:46 pm

can any one recomend someone who can remove/renew swinging arm bushes?
bike in question is an 1953 18s.
if so any idea of likely cost?
thanks, tom

lawrence · Post by **lawrence** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:35 pm

Tom, most classic repairers would do it for you. It takes an experienced person about an hour so I guess £40.00 to £60.00 plus parts plus vat would be approximately right.

It is really easy to do though and little skill is needed. Basically clear the appropriate area on the bike (I vaguely remember that you have to take the chain guard off). Take of the end caps, they are held together by a spoke and nipple. These can be improved as I will mention in a mo. In the member that holds the swing arm there are two cotter pins. This is about the only area that a problem can arise. They should not be ‘bicycle cotter pins but instead have a scallop cut out of them.

In theory you loosen the nuts of the cotters and tap them in a little way to take the scallop to the swinging arm pin. The pin then pushes out quite easily and should not need force, at least only gentle force. I didn’t know this the first time I did it and spent ages hammering the cotter pins to try and take them fully out . This wrecked the cotter pins, the pin and hence the bushes. If you have the correct cotters they cannot be removed until the pin is taken out.

The second time I did a swing arm I KNEW what type of cotter pins AMC used so drifted them out a little way as per correct practice. They didn’t seem too happy but I tried to drift out the pin anyway. It moved with quite some resistance until it cleared the first bush in the swinging arm whereupon the end of the pin belled over like a copper rivet. This makes it impossible to push it out either way! Eventually when I got it all out I discovered that a previous repairer had simply hammered ordinary bicycle cotter pins in to hold the pin in place. They needed to be removed completely before pushing out the swinging arm pin.

THE MORAL IS ‘FIND OUT WHAT SORT OF COTTERS YOU HAVE BEFORE TRYING TO PUSH OUT THE SWINGING ARM PIN’. The correct ones should go back and forwards against the swing arm pin relatively easily.

Once you have the pin out, simply drift the bushes from the swing arm and replace the new ones with a draw bolt or squashing them in with a vice. The easiest sort are the complete steel encased ones as they do not need to be reamed afterwards. You will be surprised how easy it is. Keep all the old bushes and pin as you will be able to use them for all sorts of things.

Stop press: Latest AMC update!
Improve the whole lubrication on the swinging arm and PREVENT THOSE OILY POOLS ON THE FLOOR (well some!) by taking off the screw that you normally remove to squirt oil in and replacing it with a standard grease nipple. It is the same thread and just screws on perfectly. Then mix some grease with engine oil until it is loose but just firm enough still to be fired from a grease gun, sort of like stiff treacle or golden syrup. Do not put this mixture on toast, it does not taste as good as treacle. Similarly do not be tempted to inject the swinging arm with treacle, it doesn’t work (well I don’t think so, I haven’t actually tried it ;o). Inject this into the swing arm until it oozes out both sides. Repeat every five hundred to one thousand miles, again until it starts to ooze out. This is recommended by Jampot Spares, mind you they have a vested interest as they sell the nipples at about 80p each whereas the screw is only approx 40p.

Lawrence Edited by - lawrence on 02 Jun 2007 10:50:15 PM

Colin F · Post by **Colin F** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:13 pm

quote:Originally posted by Lawrence Howes

Tom, most classic repairers would do it for you. It takes an experienced person about an hour so I guess £40.00 to £60.00 plus parts plus vat would be approximately right.

It is really easy to do though and little skill is needed. Basically clear the appropriate area on the bike (I vaguely remember that you have to take the chain guard off). Take of the end caps, they are held together by a spoke and nipple.

Are you sure that you can get the pin out with the primary chaincase in place??
I seem to think that the primary side needs to be removed![:(]
I will stand corrected if anyone knows better. [:)]

MikeM. · Post by **MikeM.** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:12 am

Tom, you may find that you might only need to replace the swinging arm spindle, check for wear on the drive side of the spindle this tends to wear through lack of lubrication. Yes you will have to remove the chaincase to get at the drive side of the swinging arm, that is unless you know of a better way of getting at that side of the arm.

MikeM.

tibsy · Post by **tibsy** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:48 am

hello everyone,
i have removed the complete assembly (fork bridge and swinging arm) from the frame.
lawrence, mine does not have "cotter pins" retaining the tube?spindle?(what ever you call it, it appears to be an "interferance fit" only.
the wear does indeed seem to be "drive side" mainly,
i will attempt to drive the spindle out or pull it using stud and spacer to see extent of wear but given the general condition of everthing else i am expectng the worse, hence the reason for asking if anyone can recommend someone (befordshire area so i dont have to bother with p+p).
tom

tibsy · Post by **tibsy** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 2:47 pm

UPDATE-
have managed to get it apart using stud/spacer method,
spindle corroded at both ends, very bad drive side.
hoping a new spindle will suffice

lawrence · Post by **lawrence** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:08 pm

Well done Tom. I am going to have a look and see if you do have to take the primary off ;o)

Lawrence [}:)]

lawrence · Post by **lawrence** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:15 pm

Ooops!
Well done Colin. Make that three hours then. Just goes to show what a good thing it is to have experts on the site to monitor the eejits [:I]

Did you manage without removing the primary, Tom?

Lawrence [}:)]

tibsy · Post by **tibsy** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:08 pm

the primary chaincase was not in situ when i removed the swinging arm so i dont have the answer to that.
tom

Biscuit · Post by **Biscuit** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:12 pm

Using Tom's method, ie removing the fork bridge, means that the fork/bush replacement could be achieved without removing the primary chaincase. Models with the fork bridge ie up to 1956 do not have the cotters.