Use the Haynes method if you can't be bothered to buy a 15mm key - works a treat...

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa1baee63.jpg

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6ae51b44.jpg

What may have to do (as bolts with a 15mm head have rounded corners and won't fit well enough) is take a slightly larger bolt, such as an 9/16 AF and flat the sides with wet and dry paper to get nice sharp corners. This is what I did (the above is a 9/16 AF bolt).

In my experience it's just too tight and inaccessible to get at from inside.

Thanks Pleiades. Finally went for this option, but with a different piece of hardware I found in a plumbing shop. I think it is a piece to join gas pipes :tool:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/34/m3cz.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...0/842/tsqh.jpg

Cheers

Quick update on removing the MPL cage from the needle roller bearings...

The swingarm bearings, that I stripped of MPL and replaced with grease 13K miles ago, were in perfect condition, no play and everything, including the inner bushes was still well packed with grease (unlike the first time I stripped them). So no problems whatsoever to report with the MPL-free uncaged needle rollers and the waterproof marine grease seems to have done the trick too.

This time I have also removed the MPL cage from the linkage to frame bearing as I am satisfied that "proper" grease and no cage does a better job.

Swing arm bearings
 

Well I've had the swing arm off today.
2012 bike with 7300 miles on the clock and the rear seems to be pretty solid on my usual commute with very little movement in it.
I've previously done all the linkage bearings which were very sparsely grease.
Got the bike apart easily and the right hand bearing was moving but had very little grease in it. The left hand bearing however ( the sprocket side of the swing arm) was solid. The inner bearing race was stuck and had to be tapped out with a hammer. Once I got it out the problem wasn't the needle bearing but the plastic bush which was dry and gummed up and gripping the inner race. After removing and cleaning it and then cleaning and greasing the main pivot bolt the suspension seem much better ( it moves up and down now!)

So I've now had the front end off with dry bearings in the steering head, 2 sets of Cush drives in it and now dry bearings on the rear.
Honestly never had a bike so badly put together which is a real shame............

I can't remember but I think I might have put a smidgen of grease on my plastic bushing before re mounting....

As most riders here I too found my head bearings with only a smidgen of grease. I got them just in time.

Over the next few weeks I'll be tapping a grease nipple into the headstock whereupon I'll be able to fill same up with grease and give it a few pumps on a fortnightly basis to remove any crud/moisture.

:)


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grease your nipples
 

grease nipples are a good idea provided you dont over grease.
we have several fan bearings seize up after the apprentices over greased them to the point where the grease had heated up, degraded into a thick sludge and then destroyed the bearings and knackered the motor. Not applicable to your head stock but you know what I mean........
they used to fit them to the rear linkages etc

How do u thoroughly clean the bearings without removing the silicon

You can't! ;)

The only way to clean the bearings thoroughly is remove the MPL.

So they are really a sealed unit and aren't meant to be cleaned? Just re-greased

In a nutshell - yes. Any solvent or cleaning agent that's going to do an effective job will just dissolve the MPL. It disintegrates very easily.