Swingarm bearing play -how much is safe?

When i lifted the back of my 09 WR300 onto the bike stand last weekend I noticed there was some verticle play in the lower linkage bearings. possibly around 5-6mm at the rear end of the swingarm. With 60hours on the bike since new. Ive never noticed it before so I cant recal if this s normal or not.

Any opinions fellas?

cheers
S

I will gently lift up on swingarm watching the spring.If my swingarm moves more than about 1mm before the spring begins to move it's time for me to replace some parts.There should be no freeplay down there.

its normal for most all link type suspensions to go clunk some. its the nature of the beast. if you want one with this many moving parts and acute angles totally slop free it'll bind more often than not with the grades and types of hardware these use.

put her up on the center stand, remove the rear wheel, plastics et. al., or even the sub frame since it takes 2 mins to do that... have a buddy SLOLWY lift the swing arm and watch how much things move at each pivot, one at a time. you can lightly "pinch" with or place two fingers on all the pivots and gauge which one is the issue, if there's even an issue. start at the top shock eye, then the bottom at the clevis. when those are gone you will know it, and, are the most prone to failure 10:1.

Excellent, thanku for the replies. I guess no need for panic but I will check it out. Thanks PVduke for mentioning the shock mounts, this is something I hadnt thought of looking at. I have visually seen the play coming from the lower linkage but didnt check the shock mounts.

I had the same situation as you did, after replacing all the bearings, and it was still there. I noticed it mainly in the bottom shock to frame mount. After retorqueing everything, I got a little of the play out of it, but not all.

i just said that....

i just said that too!!

*

and please use the correct torque on the links and shock pivots/ends. it makes a diff!

???!!???



done make me come up there and roost up all yer pretty lil ferny ferns ta pieces in that jungle ya call a trail network mister man!

my 12 wr 300 has no play at all. I stay on top of greasing the lower shock bearing and swing arm bearings where it mounts to the frame. I race hare scrambles and usually re grease them every couple races with a couple weekend rides thrown in..

5-6 mm is too much play imho. Find the source and replace the part. Bearings are pretty cheap.