Oh joy... frozen swingarm pivot bolt

Ever start fixing one small problem and next thing you know your motorcycle is in a dozen pieces? Well it happened to me. I've been toying with the idea of going through my WR250R's suspension and having the forks and shocks rebuit along with greasing everything, replacing old cables and hoses, etc and more or less getting everything back up to par or better before this year's riding season starts. To that end, I took the rear wheel to a local shop to have new wheel bearings pressed in... and just decided to have at. The rear linkage came apart easy enough, esp considering the weather outside and the fact that I'm working outside (I live in Fairbanks, AK), but then I got to the swingarm bolt.

Its stuck. Its really stuck. I've been at it for two days, and havent' gotten any movement. Hit all of the pivot points with PB blaster, letting it soak, then trying to tap it out with a hammer. Other than a time machine to make me go back to last year or whenever to pull the damn pivot and greasing it preventively, any tips or suggestions for getting the damn thing out without resorting to a sawzall? More lube, more tapping, more time? Use a bigger hammer? Dump it in the river and report it stolen?

Have you tried heating the bolt? Is the bolt steel to steel or steel to aluminum? Red locktight?

I too have a stuck swingarm on a parts bike. I had it spinning with an impact wrench while hitting the other side with a sledge. It has been soaked in every nut loosening tincture that I can find. I am afraid that I can't help.

I think outside of cutting the bolt in two places, you are SOL until you do. The problem lies in that the factory never anti-seized the bolt that runs through the swingarm, which actually means in an underhanded way, you should have done that when you got the bike.

Standard operating procedure.

ALWAYS pull the linkage and swingarm bolt apart when you get a new or used bike to have a look and grease it up. When I got my new bike in the fall, I rode it once, then tore down the rear suspension. It was fairly dry. If you ride in a lot of wet, muddy areas, do it again halfway through the season.

Get a bigger hammer and soft punch.

You have a twofold problem: the swingarm pivot bolt goes through both the frame and the engine. At the back of the engine there's a steel sleeve which is part of the spacer for the pivot bolt. If the bolt spins, then it's not seized in the engine sleeve, this is a good thing. But it's still seized in the swingarm bearing race sleeves and that's why you can't get it to move.

Thumpertalk thread on using a torch:

http://www.thumpertalk.com/topic/522065-stuck-swingarm-pivot-bolt-read-on/

If this works, then all is well. If it doesn't:

There's not enough room between the engine and the swingarm for a sawzall blade, about all you can do is cut the head and end off the bolt but that means you still have it stuck in the back of the engine.

Lay the bike on its side, doesn't matter which, although I think I'd start with the nut side. Use a center punch to mark the center of the bolt. Use cobalt drill bits for this next part, don't waste time and $ on black oxide or titanium bits. When I did this on my XR600, I started with a 3/8 drill and finished with a 1/2 drill.

Drill a starter hole lengthwise in the bolt (if there's not a hole already), it needs to go in at least a couple of inches and keep it as straight as possible. Now start drilling bigger and bigger holes in the bolt, keep going until you have a thin sleeve of the bolt left, say around .010 thick, the hole needs to be as deep as that center bushing I mentioned earlier. Now flip the bike over and drill the other side the same way.

Once that's done, you can wail on the swingarm at the pivot with a deadblow hammer until that remaining thin sleeve breaks, now you can remove the swingarm. Don't use a metal hammer, it will deform the swingarm and now you have a whole new problem. If it still doesn't want to break, you can go out a bit bigger with the hole but be very careful not to damage the bolt holes in the frame. The bearing races are hardened steel, unlike the swingarm bolt, and a drill will just skate on that stuff.

No this is not fast and it is not fun. But it's probably the only way to get it apart. When you reassemble things, be sure to use good quality anti seize on everything. In fact, some of my enduro buddies would drill a 3/32 hole lengthwise in the swingarm bolt to the midpoint of the swingarm bearing race, drill another crossways about at the midpoint of the bearing race, then tap the hole in the end of the bolt for a grease fitting. They'd grease it evey second race, that way they could get the damn thing back apart.

Dumb question....why not take it inside and thaw out for awhile?

You're not married are you?

Burp guns normaly work for me I have some home made punches that fit ove the bolt end so i don't mushroom them over. http://www.sears.com/search=air+chisel?vName=Tools&autoRedirect=true&viewItems=25&redirectType=CAT_REC_PRED&psid=21x1354532&sid=ISx20070515x00001a

I'm almost to the point of going out and buying a damn air compressor and air hammer, but not quite there yet.

Not married, but my girlfriend who lives with me would frown on me bringing the bike inside. It would also be difficult since the wheels, fork, and shock are off to get it in here by myself. Once the shock comes back, and I redo the forks, and I get the wheels back on, and I have a chance to clean some of the gunk off, I might wheel it in.

I found a used swingarm on ebay complete with bearings and a new pivot bolt for less than the price of OE bearings and bolt. If I can't get it out with heat today, I'm cutting the berkeleyer out.