Help removing stuck swing arm bolt

[Dirt bike bob]

I have an 02 kdx bike i was trying to service the linkage and swing arm bolt on. This bike is pretty rough around the edges and I suspect the swing arm has never been off this bike ever before.

I'm really having a hard time with this seized swingarm bolt. The bolt is actually spinning free, and I can see the bushings that are barely visible to the left and right of the swingarm are spinning when i turn the bolt. I just can not get the bolt to pull out or make any progress at all after a week of working on it.

I have sprayed it with penetrating oil for days now. I've beat on it with a brass drift, a hammer, 3 lb sledge. Used an expensive snapon air hammer with both a pointed punch, and an actual hammer bit, with no luck. The pointed punch mushroomed out the opening of the bolt. Used a dremel to grind the mushroomed portion neck down to size.

Used an 8lb maul hitting a punch into the bolt.

Tapped m10 threads into the head of the bolt and used the deep socket technique as a puller, no luck.

Used a slide hammer on a bolt threaded into the head,,, no luck.

I'm about to buy a 20 ton shop press from harbor freight to put the whole bike into and try that....

Do you guys have any other suggestions, I'm really not wanting to use a sawzall to cut the bolt.

The other 2 pictures show the other projects I have waiting for me- a broken case for the sprocket cover, and a welded on front sprocket.. can't wait!

Thanks!

[kdxdazz]

Did you lay the bike on its side, spray with penetrating oil, leave it sit for a few days , tap with a hammer then lay to the other side and repeat, the bearings will be rusted to the bolt

[bufftester]

Scratch that, you can't get the engine off if you can't get that bolt out. Heat and penetrating oil on the bearings and try to drift it out.

[Chuck78]

The area where it passes through the cases is opened up in the middle, versus being just the shoulder diameter of the swingarm pivot Bolt on the left and right ends. When the swing arm bolt gets a lot of moisture into it, the middle of the shoulder gets rusted, and then does not want to pass through the one end of the case that the entire bolt has to slide through upon removal. Lay it down on its side with the threaded end facing up, and use some really good penetrating oil like Kroil or Free All etc, soak it repeatedly. If that fails, try and flush it with solvent and blow it out for quite a while with an air compressor blow nozzle, then try and funnel some evapo rust into it...

[Dirt bike bob]

I did not lean the bike over, so I took your advice and leaned it over and filled the recess of the bolt with a mix of acetone and atf. Let it set for several days like that.

No luck with freeing it up, so I did use the 20 ton press. It wasn't easy but that got it.

I didn't take a Pic of it in the press, but I did use an engine hoist to position the front of the bike while wrestling the back half into the press.

Once I got the swingarm off, I had really good luck using a ball joint press (giant c clamp tool) to remove the bearing shells.

Thank you guys!

[Dirt bike bob]

Forgot to attach these pics on my last post..

[billie_morini]

What an ordeal! But, dirt bike bob won!

[KDXGarage]

Wow! Congratulations on getting it done.

[pumpguy]

The things we go through to play this game ...................

[Chuck78]

The things we go through to play this game...

Correction, in your case & many others, "the things we go through buying used bikes that have had neglectful owners!"

Quite often, when buying a bike that's, say, 20 years old, you're buying a used bike with 17 or 19 years worth of deferred maintenance that needs caught up on!


Although, for some of us who ride challenging technical terrain, or are just accident prone perhaps, this is a costly hobby with constantly smashing bikes up and having to repair them and replace plastics, 2-stroke pipes, etc....

I really would like to build some sort of cage type pipe guard or at least some framework to brace the largest protruding right hand portion of the expansion chamber this winter so that when I slam the bike down, it no longer will bend the head pipe section into misalignment....
I never dents it anymore due to the pipe guards that I run, but they still get bent on hard slams!

The Pro Circuit Platinum 2 I feel is by far the best pipe in terms of tune for both the KDX200H & KDX220R, but even though it's made out of the same gauge metal supposedly, it does seem to bend out of alignment slightly easier than the FMF Gnarly Desert pipe, although it does not dent as easily as the Gnarly Desert pipe strangely enough. The FMF Gnarly Woods pipe somehow is much stronger than either of those, probably because it protrudes less and has a smaller circumference around the largest portion of the chamber, making it more resilient to denting as it is more of a constant curvature whereas the larger Gnarly Desert and Platinum 2 chambers have more flat and vulnerable sheet metal that protrudes further out away from the bike on that side.

2-stroke pipes get expensive if you're riding technical terrain and hard enduro!!!

[billie_morini]

Correction, in your case & many others, "the things we go through buying used bikes that have had neglectful owners!"

Right on! I don't know how many hours I've spent removing splooge (leaked and never cleaned fork oil, engine oil, transmission oil, & battery acid) from the 2001 BMW R1150GS that's on my lift right now.