FROM POST <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.fzr250.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=990">http://www.fzr250.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=990</a><!-- m --> Thanks to KOMA 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. 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
