'07 FJR1300A - 16k miles service (repacking necessary?)

[damianomigani]

just following up on this thread...
http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,29366.0.html

My maintenance costs excluding tires have been:

600 miles = $248
4000 miles = $264
8000 miles = did it my self
12000 miles = $366

I'm now approaching 16k miles.. I went shopping around and I was told that this was going to be more expensive mainly because of the repacking of swingarm pivot and steering bearings. Estimated cost between 600 and 900.
What is your opinion on this one? Did you guys have to repack steering and pivot at 16K miles? Should I do it/is it important/can I wait??
Thanks

[JGreb]

It will eventually need done,  to have peace of mind I would repack the bearings since I intend on keeping the bike for many years.  

I would order the factory service manual if you don't already have one and spend a weekend getting to know your bike a little better. I personally enjoy learning to do my own service. In the end I know at least it was done with care and done right.

On the flip side of the coin, there are those occassions it causes me frustration and bloody knuckles and I swear I will pay to have it done next time.

[greench440]

I did the steering head, swingarm and suspension pivots.  Probably could have skipped all these but now I know they are all properly greased.  Should be good for another 50k miles.

The hardest part of doing the swingarm and rear suspension is supporting the rear of the bike while your remove everything.

[Huron52]

From your link only maybe the skipper talks about the FJR  He's pretty bang on

But then there is this thread you should read as well

http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,34988.0.html

Topic is more FJR .... there is a couple good points there ...

[squeezer]

The hardest part of doing the swingarm and rear suspension is supporting the rear of the bike while your remove everything.

So...  What was your solution -- how did you support the rear of the bike?

I'm actually having it done at the shop this month because (a) I'm out of free time for the next several weeks and (b) my garage is friggin' cold.  But I like doing my own maintenance, so I'd like to sort this out at some point.

[greench440]

I did it in June so the garage was warm and hung the bike from the rafters using tie downs and chains.  It wasn't easy since the bike swung around quite a bit, but I managed.

[radman]

Build one of these--


cheap, simple, effective.

http://www.fjr1300.info/howto/frontstand.html

[FJRmgm]

What is your opinion on this one? Did you guys have to repack steering and pivot at 16K miles? Should I do it/is it important/can I wait??

No, I'd wait till at least 40k to do either.

BTW - I have 61k on my '05 and did it at 50k.

Neither are hard to do.

[sprint_st]

I'm now approaching 16k miles.. I went shopping around and I was told that this was going to be more expensive mainly because of the repacking of swingarm pivot and steering bearings. Estimated cost between 600 and 900.
What is your opinion on this one? Did you guys have to repack steering and pivot at 16K miles? Should I do it/is it important/can I wait??
Thanks

I did this at my 24K and IMO it is pretty much a waste of time.  The bearing on the left side is a factory sealed bearing so you don't have to repack it at all.  The one on the right looked like new.  Yes you can take it out and repack it but you will probably do more damage doing that than just gooping some grease in there (which it did not need in the first place).  Now why did you guys have to go through the "sky hook" routine????  You can do just about everything except the centerstand bearings by just doing the job on the centerstand.  Now how many guys wear out their centerstand bearings     The did put the front bolt on the relay arm in backwards so I couldn't take it out.  I'm not convinced you need to grease any of the bearing on the relay arm either.  I've seen zerks fitted to them but when you get in there, the seals seem to have done their job.  I might look at them at 50K but after looking at them, I look back at lot of wasted time and effort.

[Baz]

I'm now approaching 16k miles.. I went shopping around and I was told that this was going to be more expensive mainly because of the repacking of swingarm pivot and steering bearings. Estimated cost between 600 and 900.
What is your opinion on this one? Did you guys have to repack steering and pivot at 16K miles? Should I do it/is it important/can I wait??
Thanks

In an "unofficial" conversation with my dealers service manager he unofficially suggested I would be wasting my money on both counts.

They have done this to a few FJR's at owners requests but so far have not done it to any bike that needed it. He suggested that the next time I had my bike in, they could just check for steering head play (same goes with swingarm).

You can check for this yourself.

[sprint_st]

In an "unofficial" conversation with my dealers service manager he unofficially suggested I would be wasting my money on both counts.

They have done this to a few FJR's at owners requests but so far have not done it to any bike that needed it. He suggested that the next time I had my bike in, they could just check for steering head play (same goes with swingarm).

You can check for this yourself.

IMO, your dealer is right.  In my previous post I stated that the larger swing arm bearing on the shaft side was a factory sealed bearing.  That was not correct.  It just appeared to be, but my point is still valid that from what I saw it did not need repacked.
In all of that greasing and repacking the main things that I did see that really needed grease were the drive splines and u-joint.