Morning All,

I’ve got some maintenance due on the Heckler, namely a service and bushing change for the rear shock. So I thought while I’m at it I might as well do the outer bush as well and then change the pivot bearings too.

I know that I have play in the shock as I can feel it knocking when I apply upward pressure to the underside of the seat if that makes sense? I figured it wouldnt hurt to change the other ones at the same time, get everything onto an even keel as it were.

So this leads me to the whats and wherefores of it all. I’ll need to get some inner bushes, I believe the polymer ones are the best to get? What outer bushes do I need and where is the best place to get them from?

I’ve seen the Pro Pack on the Santa Cruz website which looks like it covers all the bases for the main pivot and shock axle unless theres something better out there?

I’ll also need to get some tools to remove the existing bearings and to fit the new ones. They have some on the SC site but everything from there works out quite expensive so I wondered what other options there were?

Its a bit of a ramble, I’m tired and need to go to bed so thanks in advance 🙂

The bushing’s will go before the bearings and are easy to remove/replace, with home tools or a specific tool for £10-15. Polymer is best.

I’d replace that, its a 15min job at worst before you do all the bearings, you may / probably will have much more life in them.

With regard to the bearings, its a once every 3 years job unless your unlucky, send it to the LBS FWIW.

what he said. I did the shock bushings on my full suss and the bearings turned out to all be fine.

I got my stuff from a guy who posts on here. Katec bikes on ebay.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/KaTec-Bikes

You can do it without the tool but the tool he sells makes it really easy and is peanuts compared to the cost of a bike. Offers advice on what you need as well.

I’d also suggest you take the bike to a decent shop to do the rest or email Katec and see if they do tools or have a look on superstarcomponents, they recently started doing bearing tools.

Drifting stuff out with a socket is fine as damaging the bearings isn’t an issue. Getting bearings back in is often harder as you need to be more careful.

Loco tuning or TF Tuned do the polymer bushes. Cheap bushing tools on eBay for £10 (Stephens Cycles or csgeo), work well.