I recently replaced the rear dog bone bearings , bushes ,and oil seals on my gen 2 .
some years ago I rebuilt the bearings and found there was no grease in there , roller pins were all dry and rusted .
I cleaned them all up and rebuilt the bearings sticking each roller back in to the cage with grease, all was well for 8000mile or so .
over this winter I have given the bike a full maintenance program including the dog bones again , having priced up aprilia gen parts circa £120 for the full kit ,I then checked out aprilia performance to discover they now do a kit with caged Japanese needle bearings . new pins and good quality seals for £98 delivered .
all the bits and pieces are top quality stuff and are fairly simple to fit with a home made puller assembled from threaded bar nuts washers and a couple of 1/2 drive sockets .
I also fitted some nylon shims to fit between the oil seal sides and the triangle side plates , I was a bit dubious about this but its well worth the effort as the whole exercise has taken out all the vertical slop in the linkage and lateral slop , as the dog bone and side plate assembly has a tendency to float causing wear to the side plates .
having seen the effects of poor maintenance or ignorance to the issue , its a necessity to re grease every 2 years and bearing renewal every 4 to 5 years .
I have just over 25000 miles on the clock now (15000 miles of mine ) its a 57 plate which ive had 6 years this coming December .!!!
I plan on it being a keeper as so far ive not been tempted by owt else .
some years ago I rebuilt the bearings and found there was no grease in there , roller pins were all dry and rusted .
I cleaned them all up and rebuilt the bearings sticking each roller back in to the cage with grease, all was well for 8000mile or so .
over this winter I have given the bike a full maintenance program including the dog bones again , having priced up aprilia gen parts circa £120 for the full kit ,I then checked out aprilia performance to discover they now do a kit with caged Japanese needle bearings . new pins and good quality seals for £98 delivered .
all the bits and pieces are top quality stuff and are fairly simple to fit with a home made puller assembled from threaded bar nuts washers and a couple of 1/2 drive sockets .
I also fitted some nylon shims to fit between the oil seal sides and the triangle side plates , I was a bit dubious about this but its well worth the effort as the whole exercise has taken out all the vertical slop in the linkage and lateral slop , as the dog bone and side plate assembly has a tendency to float causing wear to the side plates .
having seen the effects of poor maintenance or ignorance to the issue , its a necessity to re grease every 2 years and bearing renewal every 4 to 5 years .
I have just over 25000 miles on the clock now (15000 miles of mine ) its a 57 plate which ive had 6 years this coming December .!!!
I plan on it being a keeper as so far ive not been tempted by owt else .
