I'm looking for a swing arm for my '91 900SS. Both the adjusters on mine have siezed and one has actually snapped inside the swing arm.
I've got the same problem with my SL one Gilps ! Got one out but the other one seemed to be welded in !!! Finally got it moving after a lot of heat and WD40, two weeks on and it's still an on going process, it's not going to beat me though ; )
Rich at Louigi Moto did a good job freeing up the first one for me with plenty of heat, WD40, and oil. I took over the job and after about 1 hour had the thing almost out when it just snapped inside the swing arm. The second bolt just started to move before locking up again. One option is to try to drill it out but I'm not hopeful that it'll go well as it's so arkward to get to. The problem seems to be that the bolts rust inside the swing arm so when undoing them you end up pulling a rusty bolt through the thread. What a totally crap deisgn. One option may be to try to wind the bolt back in somehow and just let it falll in to the swing arm. Not ideal though.
Paul, i just bloody sold my 900ss alloy swingarm I have a box of SS bits let me know if you need any parts like rubber bits and so on.
Damn. How much did it go for, just so I can get an idea of what I'm looking at and whether I should spend time trying to repair mine. I'm ok for most bits thanks as I've just helped a lad at work strip his 600ss and I bought fasteners and little bits off him. I could do with some decent cans though. Do you have the little rubber right angled boot that goes over the oil pressure switch? I need one for my rear brake banjo pressure switch and its the same size.
In my experience once the adjuster bolts have started to really rust up cutting the head off and putting a screwdriver slot in there is the only way to go its damn hard to anything in there drills milling cutters etc regards Steve B
£140 approx.. they are very sought after now as most ended up in DD. ( I would try and fix yours tbh, even if it means drilling out and fitting a next size up bolts. Will have a look in my box of rubber bits for you.
The original bolt head sheared off mine early on, I've tried having a longer bolt welded on the end and an M8 nut welded onto the threaded section but both have broken off as soon as you apply any real preasure ! I'm finding spraying a load of WD40 inside the box section of the arm is helping, letting it soak in for a day or two first then using mole grips to gradually turn the bolt out, it's very slow going but i'm getting there
The problem I've got is that it has actually snapped just inside the start of the thread, pretty much flush with the ally, so there's no way I can put a slot in it to wind it back in. The current plan is to drill in to the bolt which should be easy now it's flush, and hopefully retap it with an 8mm thread, and then fit and acutal stainless steel bolt in there. Considering how much Ducati charge for their bikes I just can't see why they are so tight with the quality of the fasters that they use. Would it really have hurt that much to fit a stainless bolt rather than the crap they've fitted. I've just had to order a couple of extra length drill bits so hopefully this will fix it. Meanwhile I'd still be interested if anyone has got a swing arm up for sale.
Rich at Louigi Moto has managed to drill out the two original bolts and fitted helicoils so I can keep 6mm bolts. However, I've discovered a pretty nasty engine problem which has resulted in a full engine rebuild, so now the engine is going to look fresh, the frame and wheels have come back from the paint shop looking awesome, and the bodywork is being restored, so my existing repaired swing arm whilst being perfectly servicable is nowhere near good enough to be used on the finished project. What started out as a bit of a refresh has turned in to a very expensive restoration project. So I'm still looking for an early SS aluminium swing arm, but I will fit a later one if that is all I can get, but it must be in really good condition.
