GS1200SS Inspection, Rear Maintenance + OH, Carburettor Maintenance + OH & Polishing, Self-Service Point Maintenance 30 Items—we’re on it.
Sorry for the delay—it came in on 3/25.
With a twin-shock setup, it comes off quick—tap, tap, tap.
The Inazuma 1200 and GS1200SS shafts rust almost 100 percent of the time. We’ve had cases where they wouldn’t come out, so it’s better not to let them sit too long.
The bearings and sleeves are in rough shape.
Even this bike was in beautiful condition and still looks like this. Rain-exposed bikes are pretty scary.
Using a puller is the clean way to do it.
The manual says to use a slide hammer for removal.
But the swing arm is really hard to hold in place, so it might get a bit tricky.
Avoiding brute force keeps things gentler.
That’s how it was. After this maintenance, we should see some real improvement.
This isn’t a spot to skip, so clean it really well before reassembling.
This is the setup before putting the bearing in the swing arm. If you do a trial assembly on the frame with this configuration, you can adjust the pivot clearance first and save time.
If there’s no clearance, tightening the pivot without compressing the frame is a bit gentler on it. You need some clearance to fit it in, so the right amount is fine.
Honestly, some bikes rattle and run fine anyway, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.
* Even new bikes sometimes rattle and people don’t worry about it, so I find myself overthinking sometimes.
For needle rollers and such, we make a collar with an inner diameter that fits perfectly and press it in. On the swing arm pivot side, warming it up before insertion keeps it smooth and avoids strain from pressing.
We try to do it cleanly and not mess up.
This is just part of it, but if you make and store one each time, it becomes an asset you can use over and over.
Then tighten the pivot and check that it moves smoothly up and down, with no side-to-side play, and you’re done.
If there’s a lot of side play after tightening, the pivot width shim adjustment is off, so you’ll have to take it apart again—watch out for that.
* Replace the chain slider every time you remove the swing arm. Rubber parts like this are a pain when they’re discontinued.
