It looks like my swingarm bearing has exploded after less than a year (9 months to be exact), which given its not been ridden into the ground I’m not to chuffed about.

Anyways, how easy is it to replace them, do I need specialist tools or is it a bodge job at home? I’ve heard removing the old bearing if its collapsed is the difficult part.

As for the bearings themselves, did I read somewhere that Santa Cruz offer a fre bearing replacement policy? Maybe I imagined that, in which case I’m gessing Kasae is the best option?

ta

SC replaced the bearings on my Blue free of charge.

SC are the best option. Bearings are cheap for the heckler < £15. Replacement is so so so so easy.

Time (in terms of age) is kind of irrelevant in bearing life unfortunately, life is more dependant on many other factors, like cleaning, usage time, maintenance (I.e. if your shock bushings had worn introducing play this would accelerate pivot bearing wear rate do to increased side loading).

tech docs here

Hi,

Email support at Santa Cruz UK. They may give you a free set of bearings.

They are really easy to change. I must admit I bought the dedicated tools from SCUK also. With those it was super easy peasy.

HTH

If you have the latest and greatest Heckler frame the service destructions above aren’t quite right. They are for the older frame where there are some pinchbolts on the swing arm holding it to the pivot.

The best instructions to use are those for the bottom bearing on the Butcher (ignoring the instructions for the Butcher APP or whatever it is).

Here is a thread from a while back that I posted asking for help

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/heckler-pivot-service-instructions

well I’ve managed to remove the swing arm. The way the chap was talking in the bike shop i was expecting the bearings to fall all over the floor. If I’m honest they looked and felt reasonably ok.

My next question now is how do I know if the bearings are goosed, or its something else. If I tighten up the pivot bolt then all the play goes away, however then the arm feels a bit on the stiff side???

Just had a similar thing on mine, the chaps at 18bikes saved me a trip over after recommending I ‘nip’ up the Axel first to see if the problem is fixed, which it is. Going to see how it goes before replacing the bearings

. Best way to describe how tight is think of it as a headset – tight enough to remove play but not too tight it binds.

Maybe there isn’t enough thread lock on the bolts, I think there was a thread a while back about something similar and the problem was no thread lock and bolts coming loose.

AS for checking the bearings you need to check them for play as well as binding.

So rotate them and then pinch the outer race and see if it feels like there is any movement.

I’ve got rid of most of it, there was a bit of play in the bearing and still a little give when you lift the bike by the seat but no lateral play. Think maybe an overhall of bushes and bearings prior to my alps trip in a month may be order of day.

Kaesae…got your mail, will reply

ta

If your still getting a little movement when you lift the bike by the seat are you sure its the pivot bearings?? That sounds very much like one of the shock mount bushings (prob rear one), TF do a Heavy Duty one that’s only about Fifteen quid

Had mine 8 months and done the main pivot bearing twice and the bottom shoc bush 5 times, just put the tf heavy duty ones in. I bought the proper sc tools from stif which cost about 60 but it’s dead easy with them. Like freestar says use the butcher/nickel guide and torques.