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My 11S failed its mot on the swingarm bearings today so it'll be getting booked in to get them changed on Monday. Thing is it seems a fair bit of work to get to them so I was just wondering if there is anything else worth changing whilst back end is off?
The bike has done 53k miles.

Are you sure it is the swing arm bearings?
It's usually the bevel drive to swing arm bearings that wear out.
That's not quite as much work.

Cheers

That's what the guy at the garage said too. No, the Swingarm has some play side to side where it is connected to the Swingarm. Given that people have said its usually the bevel drive to Swingarm bearings is it worth changing them too whilst he's there?

It's well worth doing the paralever bearings also when apart.

SAS Tom wrote:That's what the guy at the garage said too. No, the Swingarm has some play side to side where it is connected to the Swingarm. Given that people have said its usually the bevel drive to Swingarm bearings is it worth changing them too whilst he's there?

Side to side play can quite often be adjusted out using the L/H pivot, not saying the bearings arent shot, but its quite rare, I had mine apart at 80K miles and they were fine.
I would have the back wheel off, disconnect the shock and then have a good feel of the swingarm travel, buggered bearings will be obvious if they are.

How do I do that? Take the retaining nut off then tighten the pivot (screw it in)

SAS Tom wrote:How do I do that? Take the retaining nut off then tighten the pivot (screw it in)

Basically yeah, though really it would be best to remove the pivot completely so you can clean it up and re-loctite it.

The manual says you should tighten the pivot until all lateral play is removed, then torque it to the specified torque, which is only 9Nm, then back it off and re-tighten to 7Nm. The idea is that the loctite might give you a false torque.

The tricky bit is after youve done that you need to stop the pivot from turning while you do the locknut up to 160Nm, thats pretty tight, best thing is to mark the pivot and the frame with a marker then youll see if its turned or not when youve done the locknut up.

I think what I did was to hold the pivot with the hex wrench while I used a massive pair of adjustables to tighten the locknut as tight as I could, then used a socket on a big torque wrench for the final tighten, pretty sure the pivot didnt move, BMW has a special socket with a cut out for the hex wrench.

I'll give that a go, you may have saved me a fair bit of money! There's no notchiness or anything so I did wonder if it just needed tightening but I don't have the right size hex key. Does anyone know what size it is by the way as ill buy one tomorrow.

12 mm , but you'll need a lot of heat also (hot air gun) to soften the thread lock.

Might check the driveshaft while you have the whole assembly apart.

Last year I had the opposite problem on my other bike- the K100RS.

I wanted to inspect the "U" joints on the driveshaft (good thing since the front U joint had some play and needed a replacement).

On disassembly I also discovered that the rear pivot roller bearings were missing 3 rollers- found them inside the swingarm.

nab 301 wrote:12 mm , but you'll need a lot of heat also (hot air gun) to soften the thread lock.

True..but, if the swing arm has been off before and has not been threadlocked by BMW after, then the `normal` threadlock will actually stiffen up/expand with hot air and make removal without stripping the threads difficult. ( as was the case on mine.. )

Use hot air and give it a go, carefully, if it wont budge, let all cool down and try without heat, long breaker bar/12mm, apply force carefully, don`t just smack it round.

Not trying to put you off, its actually an ok job if you are aware of the possible pitfalls.

cheers

Hayden wrote:

nab 301 wrote:12 mm , but you'll need a lot of heat also (hot air gun) to soften the thread lock.

Use hot air and give it a go, carefully, if it wont budge, let all cool down and try without heat, long breaker bar/12mm, apply force carefully, don`t just smack it round.

Not trying to put you off, its actually an ok job if you are aware of the possible pitfalls.

cheers

Correct , This is what happens if it all goes pear shaped.. But then you get to use a hammer and chisel....