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Rear Suspension Pivot Pin

30K views 193 replies 25 participants last post by  Vinish 
#1 ·
Here is my pin with 18,000 miles on it , these pictures are AFTER I polished the **** out of it . It is not round anymore in the shiny sections and divots and roughness can be felt . When I dissembled the pivot there was hardly any grease visible . I ordered a new pin today for 24.00 , I figure why risk it . The needle bearings pass the visual and feel test . This pin should be made of hardened steel and not soft Chinese crap .
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#2 ·
Whauw .... Not round,
good you ordered a new one ... Safety first hey

My front tire fork pin was corroded too, same as you cleaned it, greased it, and painted the end part that comes our of the fork ...

Terrible quality I'll say ...
 
#3 ·
I'm under the assumption that those should be lubed anytime that the rear tire is removed, such as a tire change. A good waterproof grease and I mix in a bit of moly as well will help hold the wear down. The last one I saw did not have much grease in it from the factory.

Chances are that pin is not hardened steel, but a high carbon steel alloyed with some nickel. While you have it in your hand grab a strong magnet and see how well the magnet sticks, if it sticks good, low nickel, if it doesn't, high nickel content. That pin is under a lot of stress, like the whole rear of the motorcycle and you AND the stress it does see is in shear, the most destructive stress. That's not to mention the rotational stress it sees. Hardened steel is very brittle and doesn't hold up well to shear stresses. If it's hardened steel IMO that's a mistake.
 
#4 ·
Mags, I just serviced my pin also with the rear tire change. Similar to yours it shows some wear, you could feel it with your finger nail but I didn't notice that it was out of round. There was a bit of moly on the pin and the needle bearing felt good. I wiped out as much of the old moly as I could and lubed the bearing up real well with a high wax grease, this bearing is not subject to any speed so a grease that will not squeeze out should work fine. The pin slipped back in effortlessly.
 
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#5 ·
Mine did not look anything like that MAGS...and I have 26k miles on it. I've never had the rear apart(until yesterday) but all the rear suspension joints looked well lubed, nothing was dry...I refreshed the lube with Valvoline moly and put it all back together.
 
#8 ·
No doubt , but 18000 isn't a lot of miles and the pin should go longer then that IMO . I recommend you guys that can wrench yourselves check your rockers for grease and wear on the pin at least yearly , I figure the guys that have a shop do a tire change would check this , but would they ?
 
#7 ·
I think this was all due to lack of grease , like I said there was barely any visible grease . I thoroughly cleaned the needle bearing and full inspection , they seem fine . I will grease the **** out of these when I re-assemble it with a quality grease . I will service this every off season from here on in .

The marks on the pin were impregnated into the surface of the pin , hard to tell in the pictures but I was afraid the pin and needle bearings may end up binding on the divots and ultimately having the pin turn inside of the frame as the suspension works thus ruining my frame . This happened to Joe here on the forum and his bike was down for months .

25 bucks and a 3 day wait for the pin seems like an inexpensive fix , for an otherwise catastrophe if this issue goes unnoticed .
 
#10 ·
I'm thinking the same as wsp. Can somebody post a parts fiche diagram showing where said pin and needle bearings are?
 
#11 ·
Bill
The extra work to get the pin out is minimal once you drop the swing arm from the shock and lowering link. pull the plastic inner fender, a bolt from under the seat and its out. I would guess a shop would charge an additional hour to remove and reinstall a new one, if they clean and grease the needle bearings I would think that's another 30 minutes.
I agree with Mags, I'll add this to my "change the tire" maintenance, it's pretty straight forward.
 
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#12 ·
I agree , minimal amount of extra work . Problem with the pin is if it binds up on the rocker bearings it will start rotating in the frame , this is extremely BAD ! I feel mine would have certainly done this over this upcoming season , had I not inspected it , the factory is extremely greedy in applying grease to this much needed area .
 
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#16 · (Edited)
Mags
maybe someone where you work knows of a place that could check hardness of the pin. Maybe even have it re harden.
If the needle bearings are leaving the marks then the steel of the bearings is harder then the pin. So the pin should be harder. I don't think grease is the issue. No matter what kind you use its the bearings or the pin
I have only read of one pin failure
 
#27 ·
the pin broke on a vision model and the body of the bike feel down. The exhaust was a 1/2" off the ground. He road it home very slowly
 
#18 ·
Yes VJ , it looks like the needle bearings ground right into the pin . Seems to me the pin should definitely be harder then it is ... I have the new pin coming but will hold on to the old one just in case .
 
#21 ·
I considered that too , but all the guts look good , If I was over 50,000 and found this I wouldn't hesitate to do it all . Or , if the pin looked any worse then it does now ... When I fit the new pin , any issues , it will get the full treatment .
 
#20 ·
While we are on the subject , do any of you guys lube the spherical bearings ? The manual does not specifically say to lube them but a light coating of grease or Teflon oil couldn't hurt IMO .... I cleaned mine out thoroughly with brake cleaner and they look like new , hate to put it back together with nothing on it ...
 
#25 ·
Sure , I don't think this is a line wide issue in any way . I just wanted to point out to my fellow Brothers that this could be a potential issue if not maintained properly . Good on you for being proactive and taking care of your steed !
 
#26 ·
Joseph , do you lube your spherical bearings too or leave them be ? I feel they should have something on them ... Thoughts ?
 
#30 ·
I didn't know if I should or not. For the first 35,000 miles or there about I did not. May have even been a little over 40,000 I don't recall exactly. Anyway one of the times I had it apart I used some molly syn molly grease. Maybe its a mistake to do so, I honestly don't know. So when I clean and grease the needle bearings I go ahead and do both. Wouldn't be the first time I screwed something up thinking I was doing the only right thing.
 
#31 ·
Is that shaft threaded in the ends? Or is it just a round shaft? At $400 bucks, someone is making a killing. I'm sure I can make those for way less. And I can choose whatever material I want that way. I just need the dimensions of the shaft/pin.
 
#32 ·
Its just a solid pin , but its only 25 bucks ... If you buy the rocker assembly that's when it gets ridiculous .
 
#34 · (Edited)
When I did mine I replaced it with a piece of hard shafting I found on Amazon.
I'm pretty sure it was this one.
WV 25X0.2M Ametric® Metric 25 mm Diameter, 200 mm Long, Material ANSI 1050, HRC 62+/-2 Induction Hardened, Solid Steel Linear Shafting, ISO Tollerance h6, (Ametric® 1-003): Bushing Shafts: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Before you order, if you do, be sure to verify the measurements.



I turned both ends down and made bushings that took almost all the slop out of the frame but you could just cut it to length on an abrasive saw and chamfer the ends and put it in as a direct replacement for the factory shaft. Don't forget to put a grease zerk in the bottom face of the rocker while it is apart too. That means you just pump in new grease rather than disassemble the bike every 15k.

A hard shaft should never wear out. All the factory pins are dead soft. There really isn't that much load on that shaft all things considered so rather than deal with hardened shafting they oversized the shaft and bearings so that a soft shaft " might" have a chance at carrying the load.
Never works well to do it this way but it is cheap and generally outlasts the warranty which seems to be the priority with Polaris..:smile

The only disadvantage of a hard shaft is that if you have a bearing failure and the rocker assembly wears into the shafting to the point where the pin will not slide out you will have a hard time cutting the hard one out of there. Could probably be done with a sawzall with carbide abrasive teeth though. (my plan)

With regular greasing this should never happen because the shaft has been so far oversized in order to attempt to get enough area to allow the needle bearings to carry the load on a soft shaft . I didn't think it will ever be a problem but I thought I should point it out.

You could either build it now or have it ready for next time or not.
 
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#35 ·
Joe , did you just drill and tap , and add a straight grease fitting or an angled fitting , you wouldn't have a picture would you ? Did you use a standard fitting such as on a tie rod or ball joint on your car or a fitting that requires a special fitting on the gun .... Thanks for any advice as my rocker is out and I was thinking of adding a fitting also . Also did you add it centered and straight down on the bottom between the needle bearings ?
 
#36 · (Edited)
It was a straight standard zerk fitting. I think it was 1/4-20 or 28 whatever is common.
I degreased the inside of the rocker as best I could. Then packed the drill with the stiffest grease I had to help retain any chips. Same with the tap.

Put some rolled paper in from each side to cover the bearings but leave the center clear so you can dump out any chips that come free. When you are done drilling and tapping be sure to inspect the inside to be sure no chips are hanging that will break off later and be pushed into the bearing by the grease.

I usually put a magnet through to grab anything that gets by. Then clean the whole thing and repack the bearings by hand.

I'll pull the cover tomorrow or the next day and see if I can see where I actually put it with a mirror and perhaps shove a camera in and get a picture for you..
 
#38 ·
Pictures would be great! I have done the same on past bikes with good results.
 
#39 ·
Ric , I will be starting the grease fitting install tonight . I will take detailed pictures and post them up .
 
#41 ·
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Here you go.
I made one mistake when I placed the zerk. Once I installed it and the swingarm was in hooked up and the weight of the bike was on the wheel it points toward the shock more than it should. I believe this is because the rocker sits in there crooked when hooked up with the shock side higher than the link side.

It works Ok as is , but you have to push the grease fitting on then push the grease hose against the shock to be sure that the angle is correct.
Otherwise the grease will come out the side of the fitting not down the zerk and you have clean everything up and start again.

This is done in braille, by fee, l because there is no way to see what you are doing. It's quite tight in there.
I check that it has been properly greased by taking a picture with a digital camera afterwards.

When I do the wife's bike I will move the zerk (rotated towards the link a little) so that it isn't pointed at the shock as much when everything is assembled. 1/4 inch to the right would be much easier to grease.
 
#42 ·
So Joe , your saying to put the fitting rather then middle center , more off to the link side away from the shock ? So if I find the center then move it right 1/4"-5/16" I will be better off ? This is great advice , thanks for the tip !
 
#43 ·
Unfortunately I don't know if mine is centered for certain. I don't remember.
It's been a while.

I'd put a dot on it where you think you want it with a light colored paint pen.
Put it together loosely, maybe buy some non locking metric nuts just for the purpose. Put the weight of the bike on the wheel to properly position the rocker and slide a camera in there and see where your dot comes out before drilling it in.
 
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