Best grease for FD needle roller bearing... Moly again?

Bendy toy · Nov 24, 2017

The old MZ and many Brit bikes had bonded rubber bushes in the main swing arm. That moved through a wider arc than the BMW rear paralever.
This is one for a scooter swing arm. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/192347773669

Correctly sized these will last but if not they are dirt cheap They press in with a long bolt and thick washers.
They won’t handle a wide arc of movement but the paralever is only a few degrees.

MZ 250s run by dispatchers were thrashed for silly mileages. One bit that never failed was the swing arm rubber bush bearing.

BTW, suspension side forces are minimal on a bike.

beaver · Nov 24, 2017

Not if you've only got a one sided swing arm.. quite a lot of side load there...

beaver · Nov 26, 2017

Having put it all back now... the inside face of the needle bearing does not actualy have a seal?... anything getting between the arme and the bevel casting can in theory if there were no grease, get straight into the needle rollers... thats not a great design!!

Kenny Rodkiss · Nov 26, 2017

The inside face of mine has a rubber lip seal. Did you replace the needle roller bearing? Defo a seal on mine, you can just about make it out here,

Compared to the other end which has no seal fitted but is dirt is kept out by the "gasket ring"

Kenny Rodkiss · Nov 26, 2017

Ahha! See what I found at the back of tool drawer,

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You think that spline grease would do for those small movement bearings?

Bendy toy · Nov 26, 2017

beaver said:
Not if you've only got a one sided swing arm.. quite a lot of side load there...

The wheel only has a single deep groove bearing to handle all wheel loads o how hard can it be? And any redesign could easily have thrust washers. The two bearing/bushes at the trunnion as suggested will take the full suspension loads of a small bike. On the BMW, its shared between the trunnion and swing arm. Costs and reliability would still be massively better less than the over engineered setup we have to contend with.

Rubber bushes are probably not suitable at the swing arm because the movement angle is a much wider arc. It's border line for rolling bearings but polymer bushes with thrust washers would be fine. They all existed when these bikes were designed.

beaver · Nov 26, 2017

Kenny Rodkiss said:
The inside face of mine has a rubber lip seal. Did you replace the needle roller bearing? Defo a seal on mine, you can just about make it out here,

Compared to the other end which has no seal fitted but is dirt is kept out by the "gasket ring"

Yes, I'm sure your right.. just covered in grease... but maybe getting on a bit also... all that said, from doing the back end, the needle roller was the only one re-usable... so replaced the fronts and the double row roller... the needle unit had retained its grease so I guess it's working....

Best grease for FD needle roller bearing... Moly again?

Bendy toy

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beaver

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beaver

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Kenny Rodkiss

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Kenny Rodkiss

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Bendy toy

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beaver

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