Odd play in suspension link

[porterdog]

Immediately after aquiring my new-to-me '06 KDX200 I tore down the suspension to evaluate the bearings and make sure I had enough grease in there. Had to replace the swingarm bearings, but everything else seemed tight.

Until I got it back together!

Upon reassembly I could easily feel a bit of play in the system when I tried to move the swingarm up and down. It was quite visible once I looked at the right spot- there was obvious slop in the pivot where the link connects to the frame.

"Crap," I thought. "Shoulda replaced those, too...." Now I'm not so sure!

This is the link:



And this is where the play is:



The fit of the pivot bolt to the ID of the sleeve is sloppy!

Neither the pivot bolt nor the sleeve look particularly hammered on, and the sleeve/bearing interface is smooth and tight, but there's ~.5-.75mm of motion possible between them. Anyone else seen this? I really think it left the factory this way...

[KarlP]

I think you gotta tighten that bolt up!

The fit between the bolt, the frame ears, and that bearing inner race is static; they don't move relative to each other. Tighten the bolt down and the frame ears will contact the bearing inner race and all is tight. (or should be)
The seals keep mud out of the bearing. They don't do anything for the space between the bolt and the inside of the sleeve because those two parts should not be moving relative to each other...

Clear as mud?

[porterdog]

I torqued it to the factory spec; woulda thunk that'd be enuf, no?

[KarlP]

I can't comment on the torque. I've never been able to get my torque wrench in there....

Try assembling just the inner race, bolt and nut in between those frame ears and see whats what. The inner race ought to just slide between the ears. Tighten the nut and bolt and everything should stop moving.

[porterdog]

Karl was right; the answer was simply.... more torque!

[quailchaser]

Had the same issue on my 03. Bearings looked good. Still had play. Replaced the bolt and bearings. Issue gone.