Swing Arm Bearings

[Pierre Legrand]

Going through a 2004 CR125 I purchased and realized that I need to replace the swing-arm bearings. Says I need a press...anyone do it with just heat and tapping them out, then freezer for the new bearings and heat for the swing-arm to reinstall or am I just asking for trouble? Probably go down to Harbor Freight to pick up a 6 Ton A-Frame Bench Shop Press if needed...

[David C]

All you need is a threaded rod, a couple washers and nuts, and a one deep well socket and one regular socket.
Put one socket on one side the other on the opposite side, rod thru the middle and tighten.
It will push the bearings out.
Turn one socket around and push new ones back in.
Motion pro makes a tool that does the same thing that would be lots cheaper than a press.
Lots of youtube vids out there to show you how to.

[Pierre Legrand]

3 hours ago, David C said:

All you need is a threaded rod, a couple washers and nuts, and a one deep well socket and one regular socket.
Put one socket on one side the other on the opposite side, rod thru the middle and tighten.
It will push the bearings out.
Turn one socket around and push new ones back in.
Motion pro makes a tool that does the same thing that would be lots cheaper than a press.
Lots of youtube vids out there to show you how to.

Thanks

[mudmixer]

I just did my wife's 97 cr125 swing arm,I used a vice,socket and heat.worked well,easy peasy.heat the swing arm while applying some pressure from the vice on the socket,i used a deepwell,pressed out into a bigger socket that would accept the bearing out the other side.did the same with installing the new ones.i did freeze the new ones though. 

[Fred29]

I used a vice, sockets, a bit of grease, and OEM parts. No heat was needed. The most difficult part was getting the final spacers (washers) in place before I reinstalled the swing arm rod.

[CR250_182]

I've used a vice, press, and c-clamps, and I think the press is easiest, but the all-thread method mentioned is easiest cost effective way. Just whatever you do don't hammer them in, and be careful to go straight.

[martaz]

Going through a 2004 CR125 I purchased and realized that I need to replace the swing-arm bearings. Says I need a press...anyone do it with just heat and tapping them out, then freezer for the new bearings and heat for the swing-arm to reinstall or am I just asking for trouble? Probably go down to Harbor Freight to pick up a 6 Ton A-Frame Bench Shop Press if needed...

Depending on the state of the bearing cases hopefully should come out with the above method .. sadly mine were rusted in .. I had to use a round lolly pop type grinding stone in a drill to go through the case .. came out ok with minimal damage.

[Pierre Legrand]

49 minutes ago, martaz said:

Depending on the state of the bearing cases hopefully should come out with the above method .. sadly mine were rusted in .. I had to use a round lolly pop type grinding stone in a drill to go through the case .. came out ok with minimal damage.

Actually was surprised that everything came apart like it was supposed to...swingarm came off the frame, bearings out of the swingarm, bearings out of the linkage. Usually Murphy likes to screw with me...maybe there is a surprise out there today. 

[Fred29]

29 minutes ago, Pierre Legrand said:

Actually was surprised that everything came apart like it was supposed to...swingarm came off the frame, bearings out of the swingarm, bearings out of the linkage. Usually Murphy likes to screw with me...maybe there is a surprise out there today. 

Mr. Murphy is just setting you up for the linkage bearings. Specifically, the pair in the dog bone. He will exact his revenge.

[Pierre Legrand]

That's pretty likely given how much Mr. Murphy loves messing with my stuff. I notice that you have refined a technique to remove them in that event. What did that take...3 or 4 hours? heh...I have some of those specialized tools myself. 

[Fred29]

2 hours ago, Pierre Legrand said:

That's pretty likely given how much Mr. Murphy loves messing with my stuff. I notice that you have refined a technique to remove them in that event. What did that take...3 or 4 hours? heh...I have some of those specialized tools myself. 

It took all day. You can't drive them out with a long flathead from the opposite side. There's a shoulder inside the bone that the bearings deadhead against when you put them in. There's no "little extra" on the bearing case to bite. I had to take each one out just like removing a tire. Instead of one or two inch bites with a spoon, it's one or two millimeters with a tiny screwdriver. Drove me crazy but I got it done.

[Pierre Legrand]

49 minutes ago, Fred29 said:

It took all day. You can't drive them out with a long flathead from the opposite side. There's a shoulder inside the bone that the bearings deadhead against when you put them in. There's no "little extra" on the bearing case to bite. I had to take each one out just like removing a tire. Instead of one or two inch bites with a spoon, it's one or two millimeters with a tiny screwdriver. Drove me crazy but I got it done.

And you can be sure that Murphy was laughing his ass off...jus saying. 

[Keith72]

Threads like this are a reminder for me to go and grease my bearings more often. Been down that road too. It sucks.

[Pierre Legrand]

23 hours ago, Fred29 said:

It took all day. You can't drive them out with a long flathead from the opposite side. There's a shoulder inside the bone that the bearings deadhead against when you put them in. There's no "little extra" on the bearing case to bite. I had to take each one out just like removing a tire. Instead of one or two inch bites with a spoon, it's one or two millimeters with a tiny screwdriver. Drove me crazy but I got it done.

Well Murphy thought he would have a little fun at my expense today. But thanks to an earlier suggestion by David C, I kicked Murphy's ass. 

On 1/31/2018 at 4:46 PM, David C said:

All you need is a threaded rod, a couple washers and nuts, and a one deep well socket and one regular socket.
Put one socket on one side the other on the opposite side, rod thru the middle and tighten.
It will push the bearings out.
Turn one socket around and push new ones back in.
Motion pro makes a tool that does the same thing that would be lots cheaper than a press.
Lots of youtube vids out there to show you how to.

The Motion Pro 08-0213 Swing arm Bearing Tool worked like a charm getting all the linkage bearings out. That in addition to a 1/2" drive socket and they all popped right now. Give it a try next time...thanks David C. 

[Keith72]

18 minutes ago, Pierre Legrand said:

Well Murphy thought he would have a little fun at my expense today. But thanks to an earlier suggestion by David C, I kicked Murphy's ass. 

The Motion Pro 08-0213 Swing arm Bearing Tool worked like a charm getting all the linkage bearings out. That in addition to a 1/2" drive socket and they all popped right now. Give it a try next time...thanks David C. 

This works on the linkage and swing arm bearings?

[Fred29]

If someone can prove to me that it will work on the '01 cr250 dog bone, I'll buy it. Not on the '99 or the '02, the '01.

[Pierre Legrand]

1 hour ago, Keith72 said:

This works on the linkage and swing arm bearings?

This worked to remove the linkage bearings and swing-arm bearings from a 2004 Honda CR125r, easily. I don't know about other years but the bits of the tool are sized differently for different types of bearings. Here is the pdf describing the tool. 

[David C]

If someone can prove to me that it will work on the '01 cr250 dog bone, I'll buy it. Not on the '99 or the '02, the '01.

It's not going to work on the dogbone. I've replaced them on 04 crf250 and 03 crf450, which are exactly the same and more than likely the same as your cr.
I heated the part around the bearing and used a punch to tap out bearing. Once one is out you can push the other out like listed above.
Someone posted on here a while back that he used an concrete anchor. Just put it in a spread out arms and knocked out bearing. The part that holds your barkbusters to your handle bars might work, or buy a cheap seat of slide hammers hook the anchor to bearing race and knock it out with a punch from the inside.
Although I had no problems with some heat and punch.

[Pierre Legrand]

6 hours ago, David C said:

It's not going to work on the dogbone. I've replaced them on 04 crf250 and 03 crf450, which are exactly the same and more than likely the same as your cr.
I heated the part around the bearing and used a punch to tap out bearing. Once one is out you can push the other out like listed above.
Someone posted on here a while back that he used an concrete anchor. Just put it in a spread out arms and knocked out bearing. The part that holds your barkbusters to your handle bars might work, or buy a cheap seat of slide hammers hook the anchor to bearing race and knock it out with a punch from the inside.
Although I had no problems with some heat and punch.

On my CR125 I used the tool to press out both sets of needle bearings. The first bearing pushs the second one out into the 1/2" socket drive that I used to cup over the opposite side of the tool. 

[Fred29]

7 minutes ago, Pierre Legrand said:

On my CR125 I used the tool to press out both sets of needle bearings. The first bearing pushs the second one out into the 1/2" socket drive that I used to cup over the opposite side of the tool. 

Your dog bone is different. Mine has shoulders inside. The bearings cannot be pushed out. They can't touch each other because the "inner shaft area" of the bone prevents it. It's hard to explain. The inner diameter of the bone is exactly the same as the diameter of each bearings inner diameter. Imagine the inner part of the bone being "thicker". In other words, they cannot be pressed out.