Ok, wasn't sure if i should make a new post in the How-To section or to update this thread... so Mods feel free to move it should it be necessary. The advice given in the other thread so far was helpful, but unfortunately quite misleading. The squeak most people are experiencing requires more than just a quick oiling or re-greasing of the bolt. In most cases where 'the squeak' is occuring, it's actually due to the bearing completely seizing and a metal on metal action of the bolt with the sleeve, or the bolt & sleeve on the inside of the seized bearing. Either way, a temporary fix is definitely to just re-oil it, or re-grease it BUT it will return and it will cause more wear to occur. Things you'll need:- Garage Hanging straps, rear stand, &/or a jack. O-spanner's (size 14, and a couple of others) Other tools Grease / Oil How-to Note: Taking off fairings is not required; but if you want more light and visibility down there you might want to anyway. Put the rear of the bike up using the rear stand, and/or hang it from your garage roof; i attached the straps to my pillion peg mounts. Assuming your going to do this properly, we now need to completely remove the L shaped piece (as seen in picture below) that the suspension and bike are attached to. Start off by removing the middle bolt (labeled Bolt #1). With minimal effort the bolt should just slide out. IF it's not coming out easily... try altering the extension of the suspension by tightening the straps you used to hang the bike from the roof. Once the bolt has come out, you can either remove the sleeve now or leave it in there and remove all 3 at the end. Now remove bolt #2; the one at the rear of the L shaped piece attached to the suspension. Chances are the suspension will not move enough to be able to remove the sleeve so this one will have to stay in. Again, if your having trouble removing this bolt... try and figure out if the suspension & bike need to be higher or lower; DO NOT FORCE THE BOLT OUT! It will come out when it wants to. Remove bolt #3, and the L shaped piece should either fall out (don't drop it) or should be removed quite easily. So now you have the L shaped piece on your clean work bench, its time to remove the sleeves and inspect the bearings. The sleeves on all but number 2 should just slide right out. I'm pretty positive number 2 has some protective caps on it, so you'll need to remove them first. Once the collars are out, you should be able to remove the bearings without too much trouble. Only remove the bearings if your are intending on replacing them (and have GOT them ready to replace). At this point clean everything! I mean give it a damn good wipe down with that turp rag you've got handy. Then grease all the bearings up (new or old) keeping track of which one goes where; then put the bearings back in. Grease up the collar and gently slide it into the bearing, then grease the bolts up and get ready to reassemble it all. Make sure none of the components get any dirt/dust/sand on them as that will destroy the bearings / sleeves fairly quickly. Now reassemble in the reverse order you took it all apart, and make sure that everything gets greased really well (except for the threads on the bolts - no grease!). You may have a little trouble getting Bolt#2 & #1 back in, but with a little jiggle of the suspension and adjusting the height of the bike & suspension it'll all fit back in. Tighten everything up to slightly beyond finger tight (not insanely tight please!) and give the bike a test to see if it squeaks still. Most likely, no squeak - and the bikes suspension will seem to have more rebound in it. After doing this to mine, no more squeak; but aswell as that... the bike seemed significantly smoother mid corner as i'm assuming the suspension was encourtering resistance from the metal on metal contact. Hope this helps everyone; i know how embarassing riding around with a squeaking bike can be. Seriously not the image you want to convey whilst trying to impress that girl/guy who is eyeing you up as you get off your luverly fizzer and remove your lid. Cheers, Koma. PS. I'm also lead to belive that the extra mounting holes for Bolt #3 allow the bike to be raised by about 2-3cm. I havent tried mounting it with them yet, but when i get around to playing with the suspension next time i'll see how it goes. In theory it will mean i can keep the preload on the setting 4 like i use for commuting, but it will make the bike quicker to tip in - so on track days i can just wind out the suspension to 6 and have knife edge cornering.
Nice write up. But my squeaky problem was found to be the bolt. As soon as the spanner touched it it made the exact squeak sound. So it just shows that people shouldn't have a heart attack as soon as they hear a weird sound, and want to dismantle half the bike. Sometimes the solution is simple and in-expensive to fix. Riddle: Point in case, when my bike reached the rev range between 8000 - 8500 rpm, it would make a high pitched annoying rattle, and as soon as it went over this range nothing, back to normal. What was the problem?
Although it looks complicated, it really is quite simple to do; along with most other non-engine maintanence on these smaller bikes. My concern would be that although you have aleviated the squeak noise, you haven't eliminated the problem. Yes, when undoing the bolt it SHOULD squeak, as thats the sounds of unlubricated metal on metal. If the bearings are FUBAR it will most like squeak when undoing the bolt. If you have a spare 2 hours, id really suggest doing it properly and lubing the components up with grease.
Mine was squeaking too. When I pulled the "L" piece out and removed the seals from the ball, I found the ball joint (the one the No.2 bolt goes though) was dry, tight with some rust in it. I was able to lube it with oil and put a long piece of round steel though the ball and wobble it around to get the oil around the ball and loosen it up. All the rusty oil was cleaned out and fresh oil put in again (only needs a few drops). All the other joints were re-greased while it was apart, and it was put back together with no more squeaks. This is a fairly easy job to do. I lifted my bike back end up in the air using a small block and tackle. I also tied rope from each side of the handle bars to a single point on the roof as well for stability. DAVE
Noticed my suspension was squeaky today so I gave this a go. Do my annoyance, one of the bearings was indeed seized. When i finally got the collar out, a whole bunch of Dust, shaved metal and bearings fell out. This one is completely wrecked, take a look: I only managed to get one of the rubber seals off, the other wouldnt budge and i eventually broke it. Still in there though. I guess I'll be doing the same thing with my spares bike and swapping the L shaped bracket over. Hopefully it's not ruined like this. I'm not sure if this is repairable, any ideas?
Well, I ended up removing the L shaped part from my Spares bike, re greased and put in the the working bike. I'd suggest every FZR 250 owner checks this part and all the bearings for seizing or gritty bearings.
Being so low these bearings cop a lot of water during their life and are therefore prone to failure. Well worth pulling out and re-greasing every few years.
Had a go at this today....hardest part was trying to balance my bike while i lifted the back and tied the rope off all at the same time - on my own. Anyhow, I thought I'd update this thread with the bearing sizes (or at least what was in my bike). Bolt #2 Bearing: Type: Ball joint style(x1) Code: Nothing stamped on this one Hole diameter through middle of ball: 17mm Outer diameter of entire ball joint: 26mm (i.e. the size of the hole in the L-bracket) Inner diameter of the "ring" holding the ball in: 19mm Ball diameter: Unknown Seals: (x2) Forgot to look for number :/ Bolt #1 Bearing: Type: Needle roller bearing (x1) Code: HMK 1720 (here) Width:20mm Outer diameter: 24mm Inner diameter: 17mm Seals: SDO 17 24 4 (x2 - here) Bolt #3 Bearing: Type: Needle roller bearing (x2) Code: IKO 1715 Z (here) Width: 15mm Outer diameter: 24mm Inner diameter: 17mm Seals: SDO 17 24 4 (x2 - here) I couldnt get any of my bearings out by hand, and as I dont have a press I just cleaned them and regreased them (I still have a slight squeak). If your gunna get new bearings make sure you get new seals as well as they're probably perished and you'll more than likely wreck at least one getting them off. As a side note, I had the back of my bike about 30cm off the ground during the operation (about 5 hours total time suspended - I was taking regular rugby watching breaks haha). When I took my bike down it initially started fine however within about 5 seconds it started sounding real weird (kind of like it wasnt running on all cylinders), and wouldnt hold an idle. It promptly stalled, and wouldnt start again. After much cranking (which also sounded a little off) it finally started, but it didnt want to run, would stall without throttle, and generally sounded shonky. I still had pressure at the exhaust, and couldnt think of what I could have done to make it poop itself (I checked I didnt somehow put a hole in the exhaust exhaust or damage the EXUP cables). I let it run for 5 minutes, but still the same so shut it off and chucked it in the shed for a few hours before trying it again. It still sounded shonky when it started, but after a few minutes it came right. Anyone got any ideas what might have happened? (The oil was on the low side...maybe something with sitting on an angle with low oil?)
i got real sick of mine squeaking. it was real loud you could hear it when the bike was running. i tried the whole grease the bolts thing twice and it only stopped the squeaking for bout almost a month. so i thought lets stick this pig i went a bit extreme tho i had the bike slung up and the whole suspension and swingarm ripped off and changed ALL the needle bearings and seals (bought off ebay) including the swingarm bearings <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s --> stuffed them with new grease including ALL contacting surfaces everywhere. O boy did it work all right. i can jump up n down n the seat as hard n high as i want n its NINJA SILENT <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s --> Bit over the top i know but i dont care. <!-- s:Biker1: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/th_Biker_1.gif" alt=":Biker1:" title="biker_1" /><!-- s:Biker1: -->
Not so over the top when u consider the age of these bikes....I have all mine apart but I will just slap on the grease as Ive cleaned them up like new. How much did all the new bearings and seals cost u? ....and who did u get them from? <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->
cant member who the guy it was i bought them off but all up was round $70 nzd delivered for 6 bearings the postage was the killer. came from uk i think.
