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Yacugar rear shock question

RPGR90s

Member
I've had a set of Yacugar E-RS shocks on my 1150RT for a few years and have been happy with their performance.

Last summer at the Hamburg rally, I noticed the rear end was squeaking in relation to suspension movement. I rode it home and disassembled the rear shock, cleaned both upper and lower eyelets and greased the mounting bolts. The squeaking was eliminated and it lasted through the fall.

Fast forward to this spring, the noise returned so this time, I took it all apart again, inspected the lower bushing to find that they use a spherical bearing and it's sealed from dirt and moisture with o-rings. I disassembled it anyway, cleaned the crud out of it, made sure the o-rings were good and applied a very thin smear of moly grease and re-assembled. And like magic, the noise is gone again.

I went out for a 50 mile ride on Sunday and to my chagrin, the noise is back once again.

I should note that the shocks have about 30k on them but were rebuilt 5k ago, per the 25k service spec (The Beemershop)

Has anyone had this same trouble?
Would you just replace the spherical bearings?

http://www.beemershop.com/Merchant5/graphics/00000001/ERS SERIES HPA REAR 500X750_398x600.jpg
 
I've had a set of Yacugar E-RS shocks on my 1150RT for a few years and have been happy with their performance.

Last summer at the Hamburg rally, I noticed the rear end was squeaking in relation to suspension movement. I rode it home and disassembled the rear shock, cleaned both upper and lower eyelets and greased the mounting bolts. The squeaking was eliminated and it lasted through the fall.

Fast forward to this spring, the noise returned so this time, I took it all apart again, inspected the lower bushing to find that they use a spherical bearing and it's sealed from dirt and moisture with o-rings. I disassembled it anyway, cleaned the crud out of it, made sure the o-rings were good and applied a very thin smear of moly grease and re-assembled. And like magic, the noise is gone again.

I went out for a 50 mile ride on Sunday and to my chagrin, the noise is back once again.

I should note that the shocks have about 30k on them but were rebuilt 5k ago, per the 25k service spec (The Beemershop)

Has anyone had this same trouble?
Would you just replace the spherical bearings?

http://www.beemershop.com/Merchant5/graphics/00000001/ERS SERIES HPA REAR 500X750_398x600.jpg

You should have asked Ted Porter at the rally........
 
If they look like these, they are Heim Bearings (see http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/sphericalbrng.php )

In my experience, when a Heim bearing squeaks, it has to be replaced. Many of them have a Teflon coating which eventually wears off and, no matter how well you grease them, they quite quickly start to squeak again.

Thanks Bob,

Yes, I had them apart and applied some grease, but the lower race and bearing aren't perfectly smooth so it looks like I'll be replacing.

I'm not sure why it wore out so quickly since it is sealed with o-rings.

Maybe 30k is a normal life expectancy............
 
I'm not sure why it wore out so quickly since it is sealed with o-rings.

Maybe 30k is a normal life expectancy............

So, the bottom mount on my KTM enduro bike shock is via a Heim bearing which I used to have to replace every year. KTM insists that you should not grease the bearing when replacing it as grease will cause the Teflon coating to prematurely wear off.

Several years ago, after reading up about them on the relevant KTM forums, I followed a bunch of suggestions and packed it with BelRay waterproof grease when I installed the new one.

It's been at least three years now, and I am still on that same bearing. According to the forum content, the waterproof grease does not attack the Teflon.

I'm not really sure if the grease provides additional lubrication to preserve the bearing, or if the grease just acts as a further barrier to dust/dirt intrusion, but it seems to have made a big difference.
 
So, the bottom mount on my KTM enduro bike shock is via a Heim bearing which I used to have to replace every year. KTM insists that you should not grease the bearing when replacing it as grease will cause the Teflon coating to prematurely wear off.

Several years ago, after reading up about them on the relevant KTM forums, I followed a bunch of suggestions and packed it with BelRay waterproof grease when I installed the new one.

It's been at least three years now, and I am still on that same bearing. According to the forum content, the waterproof grease does not attack the Teflon.

I'm not really sure if the grease provides additional lubrication to preserve the bearing, or if the grease just acts as a further barrier to dust/dirt intrusion, but it seems to have made a big difference.

Good info Bob.

FWIW, I got these from the Beemershop and had them rebuilt once. But I found out that the bearings are not part of the service.

I thought I had the problem licked last fall when I re-greased the bolt (I didn't know it was a spherical bearing design at the time) and the squeaking stopped until this spring again.

The lower bearing uses two reducers that fit into either side of the bearing and the shock bolt goes through that. I had it apart earlier and the whole assy. has o-rings that act as seals to keep out dirt and water. I added a 50/50 combo of Wurth grease and moly (my cocktail for spline lubes) and the squeaking stopped for only 50 miles or so. :(

So it looks like I'll have the bearing replaced, but my thought is, "why the specialized bearing when a standard Koni or Boge shock type rubber bushing would suffice. Or maybe the loading of the shock (being a mono-shock) requires this design.

Still. Having to replace the bearing annually, is a deal killer IMHO.

Thanks for the info. I've contacted Yacugar (no reply yet) and Ted Porter. I'll probably just send it off to Ted.
 
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