Left/right play in swingarm on Hawk250

[Ichrisbot]

I was making a few adjustments on my bike while it was up on a stand and noticed the play. The rear wheel and swingarm can wobble about 1" left to right. Is a certain amount of play normal, or is there a part that's worn out and I should change?

I was also playing more with the tire clearance from the chain. The bike has been riding well, but I notice the back end feels like it pulls slightly to the right under hard acceleration and kind of favors to the right when riding a wheely. It's slightly aligned pointing to the right, but if I adjust it any further towards center the knobbies really start smacking the chain. Any thoughts on that?

[SpudRider]

You should not have any lateral movement in the swingarm. I strongly encourage you to remove the swingarm, and inspect the bearings, et cetera. You should also inspect the wheel bearings.

[BlackBike]

riding a wheely.... That's a two-wheeled vehicle not a unicycle r.wheel bearing shot?

[Ichrisbot]

Ok, I think I'll pull that section apart and see what I can find. Hopefully the bearings are easy to come by, and while I have it torn apart I'll go ahead and throw my shinko tires on.

[SpudRider]

Here is a link to the Swingarm Maintenance Tutorial, which is posted at the CSC website. All bearings and bushings should be intact, and each should be greased before re-assembly of the swingarm.

https://www.cscmotorcycles.com/Articles.asp?ID=310

[SpudRider]

Here is a link to the Rear Wheel Maintenance Tutorial, hosted by the CSC website. After removing the rear wheel, remove the bushings from the hub. Then remove the rubber dust seals from both sides of the hub. Insert a finger into the hole, and rotate the wheel bearing on both sides of the hub. The bearings should spin freely, without any notchiness. If either bearing will not spin smoothly, it should be replaced.

https://www.cscmotorcycles.com/Articles.asp?ID=290

[lee47512]

Have you checked your main lug sometimes it actually is the simple things. If you have an air impact hit it once to see.

[SpudRider]

Indeed, it's best to first verify the swingarm bolt is properly tightened. However, you should always inspect the wheel bearings, and grease the bushings as well.

In case you are not familiar with replacing wheel bearings, you might enjoy reading the following thread.

http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=16320

[Ichrisbot]

I only checked that main lug with a wrench, so I couldn't get much torque on it. It didn't budge, but I'll have to borrow an air-wrench and give that a try.

And thanks for posting the CSC links, I didn't think to look there! That's another nice benefit to the TT250 I guess.

[TXDSRIDER]

You will be surprised to see the hawk actually uses sealed wheel bearings.

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by TXDSRIDER

You will be surprised to see the hawk actually uses sealed wheel bearings.

That's great. Do you have any photos of the Hawk's swingarm bearings? I might be wrong, but it appears the CSC TT250 uses bushings surrounded by rubber in the swingarm. If this is true, and the Hawk employs sealed wheel bearings in the swingarm, the Hawk has a superior swingarm.

[Wolftrax]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

That's great. Do you have any photos of the Hawk's swingarm bearings? I might be wrong, but it appears the CSC TT250 uses bushings surrounded by rubber in the swingarm. If this is true, and the Hawk employs sealed wheel bearings in the swingarm, the Hawk has a superior swingarm.

The Hawk uses bushings as well. Apparently grease is the rarest of commodities in the East as my Hawk was shipped with a bone dry swingarm assembly.

[dpl096]

The overall added expense for a set of bearings would have been minimal at the production point.... I prefer the bearings as well.

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by Ichrisbot

Is a certain amount of play normal, or is there a part that's worn out and I should change?

A certain amount of flex from the bushings is normal, but not play. I've not found China bushings to last, so I've replaced them with Japanese bushings where I can. It involves removing the existing bushings, measuring them and then searching for identical measurements online.

I once took a wasted quad swingarm bushing to a Yamaha dealer, and he happily brought out the parts bin that contains all of the bushings he had. We found a match, which was a swingarm bushing from a Yamaha PW80 dirt bike; it was much better quality, and it was a $7.00 solution (at the time). I've shared that part number on this forum several times, and many forum members have had good success with that Yamaha bushing in China quads.

I'm saying all of this to encourage members to share similar info as they find it. If you decide to go on a search for new bushings and you're successful, please tell us.

[Mudflap]

More often than not I've found the swing arm pivot bolt left loose by the factory or owner. Some seem to think because there is no bearing in there that the inner bushing sleeve is supposed to twist on the bolt. It's really designed to twist the rubber and not twist on the bolt.