Topic: removing grease zerks on my swingarm

[DavePhipps]

OK I've been working on the bike and have found that the swingarm spindle is full of old solidified grease. Are the grase zerks removable? If not how do I get the old grease out?

[72500john]

if they are the same as my 72 500 they are pressed in. a good set of vicegrips with some twisting and pulling should get them out. replaced mine with screw in 1/4 28 thread type.

[MoTo-BunnY]

if they are the same as my 72 500 they are pressed in. a good set of vicegrips with some twisting and pulling should get them out. replaced mine with screw in 1/4 28 thread type.

Yeppers....same here. Actually, on my '73 CB500, the one side just fell out repeatedly. I just pulled the other old zerk out with vise grips too, though a press would be a better choice I suppose.

When I had HondaMan rebuild my swing-arm, I took the opportunity to tap and install zerks too. I used metric ones though (as I had already had enough of my bike's APO* and his reefing in SAE stuff into metric threads......the horrors)



* APO (a**hole previous owner) Thread - Your Worst Stories . . .

[fishslayeryo]

Did the same as Moto-Bunny per Hondaman's book. Put them in a vice and used some pliers to work the old ones out, tapped for new standard zerks. About a 15min job and any regular grease gun now works like a charm.

[cookindaddy]

I had no trouble getting standard north american Zerks with a metric thread at my local auto parts place. Fortunately the threads in the swing arm were in good shape so no re-threading was required.

[MoTo-BunnY]

I had no trouble getting standard north american Zerks with a metric thread at my local auto parts place. Fortunately the threads in the swing arm were in good shape so no re-threading was required.

I think you must have a later style of swing-arm as mine were never threaded to begin with? The old zerks on my bike had no threading on them at all, one at each end of the shaft thingy. I know there are the ones with just one zerk in the center, too.

Yeah, I got my metric zerks in an assortment pack at the local parts store, no big deal-at "Baxter's" chain store here in the PacNW.

[MoTo-BunnY]

Real zerks on the swing-arm shaft totally rock, by the way.....  No more having to balance pushing up against the old zerk with the grease gun at the same time trying to pump the handl (because the old zerk has no retaining groove in it to hold the grease gun on) and trying not to tip the bike over, getting grease all over the place, AND still not being sure if any got into the zerk itself.........NOT fun....

[fishslayeryo]

Likewise, my 71 factory grease fittings had no threads, they were just pressed in. Pull em, tap em, thread in new zerk...easy cheap and useful mod:)

[cookindaddy]

Sorry, you are right, I did not mention the bike, but it is in my tag line. Mine is a 78K 750. They were definitely thread by this time and yes, having a fitting that matches my grease gun is great.

[orange550]

just did this last week on my '74 550. Original Zerks were pressed in. Vice grips and a little twisting action... they came out easily. I drilled and tapped for 1/4" 28 thread modern Zerks. Installed straight thread 1/4" Zerks. Pumped in the grease, until the old dried up grease "popped". A few more pumps of new grease and it came out of the dust caps. No way I could of done it using the old JIS Zerks. BEst mod I've done. Easy peasy.

[72500john]

sory but i guees my original reply was alittle off on your question. short of pulling the swingarm. i guess you could try pumping new grease in until the old greas works its way out. but it looks like honda designed this system to have a entrance for the grease but no exit.  my memorie is not the greatest and my expierence with these bikes not as good as some otheres here. but i think i remember hondaman post about drilling and tapping an extra hole midway in the swingarm for grease. maybe a driled hole there will give the grease an exit point and afterwords putting a grease fitting there.

[DavePhipps]

This slight rebuild is becomong a PITA. Swingarm went together well but found my zerks are fooked. Got new shocks and found the clevis is tapped for a different sized bolt.
I wonder what else will go wrong.
Time to go buy some tapping bits this afternoon......sigh.

[ChuckG750f1]

Anybody know what year transitions to threaded zerk from pressed in style?  I would like to deal with this on my '76.  Thanks.

[DavePhipps]

Not sure about year, heck I didn't even know some were screw-in.
The easest way to tell is if a wrench fits on it, otherwise it's pressed in.

[ChuckG750f1]

Thanks.

[DavePhipps]

One last question. Self tapping zerks or normal?

[MoTo-BunnY]

One last question. Self tapping zerks or normal?

I haven't seen the self-tapping ones but since I had just freshly tapped the hole already, they would have been redundant and unnecessary. I think they might be more for dirty and/or messed up threads? Self-tapping wouldn't be strong enough to actually do all the threading by itself.

I would buy the correct tap (or even a set, I use mine all the time) and do an accurate drill and tap and install the normal zerks.

I don't know if you have ever done threading before but just take your time drilling straight and true with the correct size bit. The tap usually says on the side what bit to use or even go the next size down to make the threads nice and tight, once tapped, since you will be doing it by hand (I assume). Make sure it is all lined up really well as any wobble in your drilling or tapping technique will make for looser threads. I did both of mine, start to finish in like 10-15 minutes but then again I have have done it many, many times before.

[MoTo-BunnY]

The image above, is using a different type handle than I used, by the way. I used a smaller T-handle ratcheting tap handle that works awesome, like this:

[img width= height=]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7103/7030707943_682509b1a3.jpg[/img]
German made too! REAL nice quality.....the ratcheting allows you to tap in tight places.

http://www.amazon.com/Schroder-4-006-0-Ratcheting-4-Inch-Wrench/dp/B001DZ6YSS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1333151829&sr=8-4


Oh-also make sure you use a good tapping fluid (Tap Magic or similar. I just use Marvel Mystery Oil usually for light stuff like this) and again make sure you are 90° to the hold when you tap it or you might get this.... (see below pict.)


Good Luck!!

[fishslayeryo]

Definitely "normal" zerks and tap and thread yourself. Here's a note I saved from one of Hondaman's post on this forum. If you got to a decent hardware or auto store you should be able to pickup everything you need.

Hondaman quote:
"You can drill & tap the bolt ends with an Irwin tap-and-drill kit from Ace Hardware (#10 drill, 1/4-28 tap) and install North American 1/4-28 thread straight fittings on these early arms easily. After drilling and tapping, carefully pick out the chips inside with a small wire before installing the fitting (I do these almost every week!)."

I got the 1/4" zerks with 28 thread pitch as stated above, looks like this installed.

[MoTo-BunnY]

While one CAN install the 1/4-28 zerks, I'm not sure why you would when you can just as easily use 6mm metric zerks instead and keep your bike all metric?  I mean it just seems really odd given that it's not hard to get metric taps and zerks so why wouldn't you?

(A kinda small issue sure but I keep my metric cars and bikes metric and my SAE car (actually RV!) SAE but maybe that's just me....)   

[DavePhipps]

This won't be my first time tapping a thread, but the last time was over 15 years ago. My main issue is lack of depth perception in close quarters. I've got esotropia (Marty Feldman eyes) so kepping the drill straight is a challenge.
Thankfully the hole is a small one.

[MoTo-BunnY]

This won't be my first time tapping a thread, but the last time was over 15 years ago. My main issue is lack of depth perception in close quarters. I've got esotropia (Marty Feldman eyes) so kepping the drill straight is a challenge.
Thankfully the hole is a small one.

OK-I didn't mean to assume so but I wasn't sure and just kinda went over things for anyone reading that hadn't, just in case. It's not something to just jump into without knowing the fundamentals.

Yeah, keeping the drill and taps straight when doing this by hand can be a challenge for anyone! 

[Flying J]

the threaded zerks may be the one in the center of the swing arm and the press in ones are on the ends. Thats my guess. Here is a post on "how to"
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=103522.0

[LesterPiglet]

Damn, nobody said nipple yet.   

[MoTo-BunnY]

the threaded zerks may be the one in the center of the swing arm and the press in ones are on the ends. Thats my guess. Here is a post on "how to"
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=103522.0

Earlier bikes (like my '73 CB500) don't have a zerk in the center of the swing-arm (unless someone added on later).



Also, this is a great, concise post on what we have been talking about-thanks for pointing it out!

Swing Arm Bolt Grease Zerk Replacement