Topic: Installed bronze swingarm bushings - dust cover required or no?

[markreimer]

Hi all,

Last night I pulled my swingarm. My local Honda dealership installed new bushings last spring and about 8,000km later or so I had substantial play in the arm. I pulled it and found steel bushings and the collar was gouged. I replaced with the 'top hat' style bronze bushings and put a new pivot collar in as well. This is the style bushing I used:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37521603@N00/7002067945/#

My question is, do I still need to put the dust caps on? I presume yes in order to maintain the proper width when bolting the swingarm back into the frame, but I wanted some second opinions.

Also, one of my zerks is open and I poured a lot of grease into the swingarm. The other seems clogged. I've read about pulling them and tapping for modern zerks, but is there an alternative means of cleaning out zerks? I'd rather not pull the bolt out right after installing and drill/tap if possible. Thanks!

[H2Eric]

The dust caps are essential to keep out all the grit from wearing out your nice new bushings prematurely and as you say you need them as spacers anyway.

[markreimer]

Great! I installed it with the caps on, pumped a ton of grease into the zerks and am off to the races. Thanks