125-200cc Linkage bearings removal.

Recently discovered my lower suspention bearing was broken. So took swingarm off, and of course, my linkage was in pretty bad shape as well. Bought an "All balls" linkage bearing kit, opened a bottle of beer and got work . Husky linkage is, as you all probably allready know, not a funny thing to remove and that because of that "bridge" between the bushings so you just can´t squeeze them out in one direction. But I found a simple way to do it without any special tools. It went quick and without cursing. This is how I did it.



Here it is, the notorious linkage!




First I took apart the actual bearing , leaving just an empty shell.


Like so. Just a an empty shell.


Then I took an ordinary washer and grinded of the edges..

Then I pressed it down the bearing (a gently tap with a hammer might help)


And it´s in!


And then simply press it out!

And it´s out!
Just repeat untill them all are out!


Done!

Btw, excuse my english!

Thanks alot Hemlin, Great pictures, its all universal and it's all good. The 2 flats on the washer is an old trick. If the washer is the right size to begin with. Thanks for sharing some of your knowledge. Some don't like to share their trade secrets and this is a simple fix to an all around problem. Thanks, this is especially useful when the bearings are paired together as in this application making this very good information.

I wish I had of known this for when I did mine
Although mine were completely dried & seized.

I had to end up putting the linkage in the Oven after it had been sprayed with WD 40 to try free it up a little and even then with a huge blind bearing puller it was an effort to get the bearings out.
I will re-grease my bearings on a regular basis now.

It sucks though the AllBalls bearing kit comes with those loose bearings held in with grease and not the caged type of OEM.

besides OEM, what bearing kit is best?

Most bearing shops do HK series Bearings, for Example HK2030 is what you would need. You can get the bearings sizes from the parts book or line. This was the way i did my rear linkage

Thanks for the info. If you didn't know that ridge was in there you could press on the bearing all day and still wonder wtf is going on haha.

Clever! Often the bearing shell just fractures, but your method seems to distribute the force well enough to avoid that.

Cageless linkage bearings are kinda the norm.

HK bearings are high-quality german bearings and can be found on amazon.

Hi Guys,

I had a problem with swingarm bearings and ended up using a car jack between two retaining walls (about 700mm apart ) and a paint stripper gun to warm / heat the area. Worked a treat.

Awesome!

Super great info to know! Had my linkage apart a while back for a clean and pack and was thinking next time I would replace the bearings. I'll be glad you shared this technique when the time comes.

great thread

Your 2007 WR 250 in your sig line does not have the ridge so you can just press away.

Thanks for the heads up.

What model year is your WR 125?

this looks way easier than what I did! great post!

so why dont one of us geniuses just machine out that pesky ridge and use a full width bearing

Troy Deck, below is a copy of another post. So am I allowed to call myself a genius?

I machined out those annoying shoulders in the linkage so in future if needed I can press the bearings straight out. I didn't do it on the forked arm of the linkage as it would leave only 2mm of material.

Fitted grease nipples slightly different from Picklito, and also in the forked arm.

Used the HK2016-AS1 bearing in the lower fork.

I didn't put grease nipples on the swing arm because I couldn't find a decent spot to access them or to prevent them breaking during use. Instead I butted up the 2 bearings together then added a seal to the outer side of both outside bearings. A bit of extra insurance against those small seals on the needle bearings.