The forks and shock arrived on schedule and they are a bit shorter than when they left. The swingarm has been reassembled, with blue loctite on the bolts, in particular the ones holding on the chain guide / rub strip. In some cases, these bolts have backed out and caused some serious damage when the guide warps around the front sprocket. I don’t want that to happen to me if I can prevent it, so the blue loctite is used on those bolts in particular.
I cleaned up the caliper and lubed the posts that the caliper floats on. I had previously put some anti-seize on the chain adjuster bolts, so the swingarm is ready.
Reinstalling the swingarm is fairly simple, I just put a thin coating of grease on the pivot bolt so that it can be easily removed in the future. This bolt/nut combination is to be tightened to 130nm, which is pretty tight. I don’t think this bolt is coming loose without some serious leverage. making sure the proper bolt is at the top and bottom of the shock (they’re different lengths) the shock went back in easily. Tightened to spec and that’s that. Now the plastic shock guard and we’re ready for the rear wheel.
The rear wheel went on without too much trouble, got the rear axle through and the adjusters in place. Adjusted the chain slack and tightened averything up. No dragging on the rear brake disc, the wheel will easily spin through a complete revolution plus a bit with just a push. I used the DuPont teflon spray to lube the chain and I think that puts the rear end together. It does look more like a motorcycle with a rear wheel in place.
Reinstalling the front forks was a nuisance only because the lower triple was a little tight and I didn’t want to bugger up the newly-serviced forks. Used a screwdriver to open the clamps a bit and they slid into place. I snugged the lower clamp bolts and put the other fork in, same need to open the clamp and then it was fine. Set the tops at 5mm above the top triple, and tightened the lower clamp bolts to spec. Since I had the tree out to regrease the bearings, I needed to be sure the top triple was tight so the plastic-faced hammer took a couple of whacks at the top triple. I tightened the stem nut and then the top triple clamp bolts including the one on the stem itself. No play now, turns lock to lock easily and smoothly.
I cleaned the front calipers and mounts, and began reassembling everything. In about half an hour the speedo pickup was in place and the calipers were installed as well. Now the juggling act begins. I had a bottle jack under the bash plate so I raised the bike so the fork lower openings were at the same height as the wheel hub. However, sliding the brake discs into the middle of the pads on both sides at the same time proved to be frustrating. I finally used a door shim to hold the pads apart and then the wheel slipped right into place. The axle was next, but the clamps were very tight and they needed to be wedged open a bit. Got the axle in place and put the axle nut on. I temporarily tightened the lower clamp bolts and tightened the axle nut to spec. Then I loosened the clamp bolts and bounced the front end by rolling the bike forward and using the front brake. After a few quick stops, I tightened the clamp bolts to spec. The fender was next and then the clamp for the brake line/speedo pickup.
Now the fun started.