FZ600 Swingarm

1985 RZ350

Installing the Modified FZ600 Swingarm

This page assumes you already have the FZ600 swing arm machined for the width, and have the FZR600 rear wheel machined for the width of the swing arm.

My swing arm was totally bare when it came back from the machinist. The first step was to install the nylon bushings and oil seals where the relay arms that connect the shock to the swing arm pivot. The bushing can be tapped in from the inside of the swing arm with a similar sized socket, and needs to be set in with enough space so that the oil seal will be flat once installed. After the bushing the oil seal gets pressed in with your finger until it is flush with the face of the swingarm tube.

Grease the pivot points on the two separate relay arms and insert them one at a time in to the holes. Once they are both in place they can be aligned and the single bolt passed through to lock them together.

I found there was a flat spot in the center of the arms which I assumed was to clear the shock. The bolt should have the head facing towards the brake caliper side of the swingarm. The swing arm is upside down on the garage floor in the shot above.

The swing arm pivots on two caged needle roller bearings at each end and the reused single RZ pivot tube which has the pivot bolt through the center. Brand new pivot bearings must be installed flush with the outside of the pivot metal.

To do this I used a large, thick washer and gently tapped the bearing in to place, checking that it was always square in the hole. When the large washer is flush with the swing arm the bearing will be too.

From either end, heavily grease the pivot tube and slide it in to place....

...followed by the shim from the original RZ (picture above is missing the swing arm pivot tube but the order of the images is correct)....

...and finally the new dust seal. Repeat the same on the other side.

I decided to use the original FZ600 chain slider so I cleaned it and installed it as shown. On the inside connection you need to use a flush bolt otherwise the wheel may rub on it.

Take the entire swingarm and place it roughly in position. If you left the chain in position, make sure that the chain loops around the pivot otherwise you'll have to either remove or replace the swingarm, or break the chain later. Make sure the shock passes through the center of the opening just after the pivot point. With a little force get the swingarm in between the two frame pivot points and slide the pivot bolt in from the right hand side. Once it is in try wiggling the end of the swingarm. There will likley be a little play from left to right. Now tighten the pivot bolt nut and check the play again. There should be none at all if the width is correct. If there is still play you can increase the amount of shims behind the dust seal and try again.

Align the FZ relay arms with the shock and knuckle. Place the small oil seals on either side of the shock, then pull the knuckle in to place, fit a dust seal on either side, and finally pull the relay arms in to place. Grease the pivot tube and slide it in to position. I found that the RZ relay arms were wider than the FZ ones and that when the same bolt was used it had too much thread poking out of the left side which could rub on the exhaust. For this reason, I added washers to the head before installing the pivot bolt (as shown above), and then added a few washers at the nut end too. This centralized the bolt and made the exhaust issue go away.

Above is a shot of the inside mount of the chain slider noted earlier. I don't know if this will hit the rear tire but it looks close. If necessary I can cut this off and drill another attachment in to the swing arm.

To mount the rear wheel, slide in the axle adjusters, and get the wheel, sprocket carrier, brake arm, and original spaces in order and ready to install. Pull the wheel in to place and push the axle trhough from the left side. For now this will be loosely fit for checking clearances and other areas where things may hit.

Typical areas that I had problems with were the rear passenger peg bolts, and the exhaust bolts. I also found that the sprocket carrier sprocket bolts were long enough to possibly rub on the inside of the swing arm. For a solution to the above problem, I reversed the exhaust mount bolts so the bolt head was inside and the nut was outside.

Also (a bit of a low tech solution) I simply added washers between the mounts that hold the pegs and exhausts and the RZ frame. This spaced them out enough for the swing arm to clear under full load.

With the sprocket carrier I used a grinder to shorten the threads. I did this with the nuts on so when I backed them off again the thread was restored well enough for use in the future.

The final part to the puzzle prior to botling everything down for good is to align the front sprocket with the rear so the chain runs straight. Two solutions exist here: 1. you can measure the difference and remove material from the lip where the sprocket attaches to the carrier, but this will bring the chain closer to the tire...or

2. you can measure the difference and have a front sprocket fabricated which is offset by the amount of the difference. The downside here (from what I understand) is that the further out you go from the casing, the more load the bearing will have to endure. This is my prefered solution so I guess we'll find out on the next page!

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