Paralever - play at wheel

brassmonkey001 said:

I'm not sure what would cause that damage to the pins unless the bearings actually seized solid and rotated on the pins with the movement.

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Which is exactly what mine had done. It had brinneled and locked solid.

I think its because of the tiny seesaw movement that this happens. A bearing with true rotating motion would be far less susceptible.

My brinnelled bearing:

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dOf9boKQwvNbM1nN7NBNidMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k4WQYbsdwyg/ScdT1LaKCOI/AAAAAAAABZQ/u9GojF24rsk/s800/IMG_4348.JPG" height="600" width="800" /></a>

The grooves in the inner race are formed by the constant pounding of a poorly adjusted bearing where the needles sit (as you say above, the angle of 'seesaw' is so tiny that the needles hardly move).

Then, when the poor adjustment is noticed and the bearings are adjusted tighter, the grooves lock the needles in place and the bearing can't rotate as designed. When this has happened, something has to give in order for the swingarm to move, which in my case was the inner race rotating on the pinion.

At least that's my theory anyway

The ironic thing, is that I had no idea that they were bad - there was no detectable play and I only discovered it when I removed the swingarm not long after I'd bought the bike, to get to the gearbox output seal.

Noticed my wheel had slight play, slight movement and knock, had myself thinking I'd be needing final drive bearing replaced. Only thing that gave me doubt was that I could not detect any of the movement when putting my finger across gap between wheel and final drive. I was getting the play when pulling at 3 and 9 o'clock as well as 12 and 6. Also got it when pulling bike side to side by pannier rails when rear wheel touching ground. Got a medical stethoscope out to try and see if it was any of the four swing arm pivot bearings but even then I wasn't quite sure as they all had some degree of noise but one was louder than rest which might have been down to how well I could rest the scope against that bearing area.Only way I was able to diagnose and then fix was by adjusting the pivot bearing by the final drive end of arm and to my great relief it's sorted now. Only thing then is I read this thread so I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if I've got that groove type wear on the bearing.

This looks like a good option if replacement is required http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BMW-Beve...375547?hash=item1ec73850bb:g:uIIAAOSw5UZY99m2

More customer tested Emerald Isle stuff, but not a lot of details.
Looks like a bronze parallel bush, so no adjustment when it wears, and no mention if the bush is available separately as a replacement.
There was a Chicken Shit Tapered version of this , but it was completely useless and was quietly withdrawn from sale, and although it was potentially dangerous it was never actually withdrawn.

If you wanted further info email the vendor, John Olive, a good honest bloke with a wealth of airhead experience. My dealings with him have been spot on and the quality of the products first class.

fayeslane said:

This looks like a good option if replacement is required http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BMW-Beve...375547?hash=item1ec73850bb:g:uIIAAOSw5UZY99m2

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Looks very similar to this http://www2.munichmotorcycles.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=5675 which is for oilhead paralevers

There is a bit more information in the Munich MC listing, although I doubt if the wearing bush is pure copper.
But looks like the bush runs on a hard anodized 7075 pin, so the complete assembly is probably going to have to be replaced when worn.
Given the price of a pair of OEM bearings and pins it will probably be cheaper anyway, so not a huge problem if you get decent life out of it, but it would be nice to have all the information to hand before you make the decision.
Simple, basic, marketing, and the lack of any decent information can lead to the suspicion that if you had it you might be less likely to make a purchase!
I have bought a few items from Mr Olive, and not everything has been perfect, perhaps a search on EI or Emerald Isle might be relevant here ------.

I recently replaced mine with the upgrade one available from Motorworks. It seems to be working great so far.
Mind you I did manage to blow the back off one of the inserts during final installation.
The instructions were "tighten until it bottoms out" so I just kept tightening until I heard a loud crack . Aparently I had a little too much grease in there for the initial set up and the hydraulic pressure just blew the back of the housing. Motorworks replaced it for free even though it was entirely my fault, fair play to them. They did say that it happened just once before.

Paralever bearings

Tried some of the m/works upgrades which lasted around 10,000 miles before scoring badly. This was despite greasing with cv joint grease every three thousand miles. My mate Roger tried some of the same and his lasted considerably less mileage than mine. In fact one of Roger's exploded on fitting as above and might well be the one M/works were referring to.
I'm currently using the "Nushings" as manufactured and sold by mouthfulloflake on Advbike forum. Lots of lads over the pond are using these and with impressive results so far on airheads and also 11**s
Nushings are made of lathe-turned nylatron which is industrial nylon impregnated with molybdenum, intended for bushes on suspension etc systems and therefore pretty similar applications to what we have at the rear of a paralever. Mine have been on now for around 2000 miles with no apparent wear whatsoever. Time will tell. But where they do score impressively is that immediately on fitting they tighten up the rear of the bike so that it handles better than it ever did with the original or M/works predecessors. I have Ohlins on the back and the combination is perfect (for me). I'm so far very very impressed with the nushings and at around £30 a pair (when I bought them) these are so much cheaper than any of the alternatives out there.
Because these came from the States it was cost-effective for me to buy three pairs (and get a pair free) so Rog has one pair and I'm keeping the rest! We have a long trip coming up this year so I'll take along a spare pair in the event of a problem. They weigh practically nothing and are fairly easily fitted.
I'm sure some on here will spout on about their superior knowledge of such things and the unsuitability of Nylatron for this application. Guys in the US seem to have done many many miles on nushings without any real problems. Any problems there has been seems to be the result of careless fitting. They might eventually fail but so do their predecessors. But for now they're the best modification I've made so far to my airheads.
Dave.