Check your rear suspension

Not sure if this has been posted before but my TE310 turn 1 year old on Sunday so I decided to pull the rear suspension off and re grease it all and I am glad I did. The bolt that connects the link arm to the frame was rusted in and I needed to tap it out with a hammer and punch. The bearings and seals are ok but there was signs of water entery in most areas. I have now grease them up with a good quailty grease and also put grease on al the bolt shafts as thet were all dry. This will stop the rust problem. I also found the rear shocker had a rattle in it so I took this to the local dealer and the report back form Husqvarna was the noise was normal form the Sachs shocker it is the soft dampner ball and is a result of old oil and or low pressure so I will be checking that out. So my advice to you all is grease up the rear end on a regular basis to prevent damage.

Great advice! Cheers mate!

I thought once a year would be enough to strip the rear suspension down but on my annual tear down this year the bottom shock bearing was totally knackered and had to replace it, advise a strip every few months to clean and repack with grease.

I did mine at 6 months and the lower shocker bush/bearing were rusted out and stuffed, also all the other bolts were rusty and bearings dry. Lubed with waterproof grease and replaced the bearing and bush (can't get the bush from a bearing supplier so needed to go genuine) It seems the factory doesn't put much grease in there?

How many hours or miles are you folks putting on the bike? Doing something every X months doesn't mean much if one person is putting on 60 hours a month and another is putting on 15 hours a month.

I do approx 10 hours a month which is all racing although this will rise during the summer months with a bit of practising.
My bike has about 1200 race miles, is just under 2 years old and is the 2nd time I have stripped the swingarm and linkage. The swingarm bearings were all fine, just cleaned and repacked, the linkage on the lower frame was quite dry and required a little de-rusting, cleaning and repacking. The lower shock bearing was in bits, the bush was seized and scored beyond repair, gen Husky bearing kit is £23. The remaining two bearings on the triangular link were good although these are much better protected by the steel flanges to protect the seals.
This isn't a moan by the way, all bikes need the linkage bearings servicing, just a heads up to those who like me thought they could get away with once a year need to re-think, takes no more than a couple of hours do strip, grease and refit and if you add up how much it costs to replace the swingarm and linkage bearings...... then you'd be moaning!!!

Cheers
Trevor

Mixing a small bit of anti-seize with the grease will help a bit. Also, if you run in any water or muddy events, that has a big effect on how often these need servicing. I found it helps a lot if I give a squirt of WD40 to all the pivot & rotating points immediately after every wash, or wet ride. It helps get that water out so the grease can do its job.
If your rear suspension was dry, it's probably time to check your steering head as well.

The 630 linkages have zerk fittings. I squirt some bearing grease in there now & again. I haven't taken mine apart yet, but I'm sure I probably should. Maybe I'll do it when I change tires, I'm due for some new ones here pretty quickly.

Yep. I went a year before repacking, and it was about a year too late. On the shock - Les at LTR knows about all the strange noises that can emanate from the Sachs shock and has a fix for them as well.

I do it once or twice a year-
MOST important and too often mistaken is thinking the bike was greased properly upon set up when new only to find it wasn't. Simple part of initial set up by the purchaser/rider should be done. Unless you KNOW positively that your dealer does this when the set them up (most don't and rely on factory grease which is usually very light).
I use Belray mixed with MOLY

Wow that looks pretty severe.
It is an annual service item for sure.
You aren't too heavy handed with a pressure washer are you ??

SAM511

I need to tackle this soon, you all are making me feel guilty!

My suspension makes a wierd dead squeeking sucking sound. I have probably 30hrs on bike. 2011 TE310. Any Ideas.

Yep, needs grease.

For whatever reason, the bearings on this yoke piece seems to always go out first \ need grease as compared to all other suspension parts...

Thanks for the feed back my bike has done 2300 km so about 190 km a month and I use a 1400 kpa pressure washer when I wash the bike so I think I will make this a twice a year thing. I will be taking the shocker to a suspension shop tomorrow to get his opion on what to do so I will let you all know. As far as the lower shock bearing my was fine so I just regreased and will put the bike back together.

I'm hoping to get to mine this weekend. I'll take some pics.

It'll be the first time I've taken a rear end apart.

I wonder if the 310's linkage can be drill and tapped for zerk fittings? Anybody done this? Or would it comprise the integrity?

I just did mine (09 wr300) this evening, wasn't too bad. Have been wanting to clean up the linkage for a while now. Everything looked pretty good. Will do this every couple months since it only took about an hour...............

I seem to remember forum member Slowpoke did a very nice job doing this. I'm pretty sure there's a thread on it somewhere...