I just took the dust cap off the swing arm pivot and it looks pretty clean but there's only a nut in there, I was expecting a grease nipple or even to simply put some grease in there. Some forum searches only talk about lubing but not how to. What I mean is do these two tasks, involve jacking the bike up or can they both be done on the centre stand?

In order to lube the bearings you will have to take out the axle you see when you remove the dust cap. Ideally you would take out  the swingarm so you can properly clean and pack the bearings with grease. The whole thing can be done on the centre stand.

thanks,

Does the 'linkage' refer to that item between the rear wheel and the shock? and if so I presume that can also be checked and torqued while on the centre stand too? What does greasing this linkage involve.

At 26,000kms with almost no wet whether riding, do you think that this is something that really should be done now as preventative maintenance? Or should I leave it longer, everything looks pretty good.

Those zerk fittings have gone the way of the dinosaur.
I wanted to install one in the SA, but my 45k miler with a lot of wet and dry and outside parking for 15+ years turned up looking mint and greased and lovely, I skipped it.
However I also stupidly tried to remove those bearings with a drift punch to powder coat it on my current bike and shattered it. They can be wiggled out with your finger. The needles splattered all over my driveway. I left it lying there for a month or 2, and they never even looked like they were wearing when they were sitting in the driveway with me driving and walking over it.
Then I got a Yamaha seca 2. This one had a carb float pin that I had to cut and remove cos it was stuck in there and chewed up.
The needles from the shattered GS SA were a perfect fit in the seca's carb float tower. Talk about blind luck.
Cool.
Buddha.

Needle bearings are pretty easy to grease, but it does get messy. You'll want to wipe out as much of the old gr ease as possible (rag around your finger and keep rolling it around in there). Putting fresh grease in is pretty much the same process, but without the rag.

If you get REALLY ambitious, you can add some grease fittings. But that involves getting the needle bearings out.....

You could actually put a zerk fitting in it without even taking it off the bike. Theoretically.

2 ways to do it.

The way that is a bit better for strength but much more dangerous. You take off the airbox and drill the right size hole in the top of the center part of the SA. Will help if you had a SA spare to measure where there is no bearing as well as the thickness of the wall. You should be able to get all the metal shavings out with a magnet and a little pick. Then you tap it for the zerk fitting and screw it in.

Alternatively, you could drill down the center of the bolt and tap that head for a zerk.
Or find an older bike that has the same bolt and a zerk fitting in the bolt. However older bikes have the drilled hole go clean to the threads. Where the thing is far smaller in diameter and they sometimes tend to break off there.

Cool.
Buddha.

I'm not understanding any of this

Both of those ideas I posted are well explained with pics on XS650 sites.
The original bolt for an xs is fitted with a zerk fitting.
The modification is to drill the SA and put in a solid bolt, cos these bolts snap off @ the neck where the threads start.
Cool.
Buddha.

I never lubed the swing arm bearings on my GSs for 80k miles over 4 years on my 97 and 100k miles over 11 years on my 02 and never had a problem with them riding year around here in NE Ohio.

Those bearings are never going to wear due to lubrication problems as long as they stay lubricated. The most likely way to screw up the grease is to expose it by trying to take it apart.

That bearing is designed to spin at thousands of rpms for a long, long time. It never makes more than 1/4 of a circular arc, and does it very slowly. The lube from the factory will last forever in this kind of duty cycle.

The real risk is more about supporting the bike's (and rider's) weight and wearing grooves in the race. I would imagine this risk is minimal. Truthfully a bushing would be a better, although higher-maintenance, choice here.

Looks like experience of the collective is that this is a lifetime-service part requiring no maintenance.

Quote from: user11235813 on August 30, 2016, 03:55:03 AM
thanks,

Does the 'linkage' refer to that item between the rear wheel and the shock? and if so I presume that can also be checked and torqued while on the centre stand too? What does greasing this linkage involve.

Same as the swing arm bearings, remove the axle that goes through it and pack them with grease. Again ideally you would take them apart and clean them thoroughly. This too can be done on the centre stand.

I recently took apart the rear of my gs because I was replacing the chain (I like endless chains thus the need to move the swingarm). I noticed that the linkage bearings of the lower connection thing (I've seen it being called the 'knuckle'?) were greatly worn. They are very exposed and because of being blasted with water and sand all the time they do go bad even though they barely move. Mine were grinding with sand and the needles were rusty. I cleaned them up but I should replace them or the little axles that go through will start to wear down too eventually.

Quote from: mr72 on August 31, 2016, 10:40:09 AM
Those bearings are never going to wear due to lubrication problems as long as they stay lubricated. The most likely way to screw up the grease is to expose it by trying to take it apart.

The most likely way those bearings will fail is extetnal contamination ie: pressure washing!!


ue to pressure washing!

OK I'm convinced, thanks. What then is the 4K miles service "Lubricate rear suspension linkage and swing arm bearings" all about then?

Have I mixed up the pivot bolt with the swing arm bearings? are these two different things?