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I lifted the bike a few inches off the ground yesterday with a chain hoist and straps wrapped around the seat mount casting and laid on my belly yesterday and shot some lithium grease into the side stand pivot..while laying there I looked at the dogbones..
I think it might be possible to support the rear wheel and remove the dogbones to grease the pivot points..Has anyone else thought of this?

Sorry I can't help you Bob. Just glad this wasn't Bust doing a sheep post. Phew!

That’s pretty much how I did mine.
You have to take care as you remove parts
that the CG doesn’t become over-center
relative to your attachment point and
the front contact patch.

SLK50 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 11:05 am That’s pretty much how I did mine.
You have to take care as you remove parts
that the CG doesn’t become over-center
relative to your attachment point and
the front contact patch.

I attached the bars on both sides to the front canyon cages with ratchet straps to prevent the front wheel from turning sideways and then wrapped two tie straps, one on each side, around the casting that holds the latch for the riders portion of the seat..then tie straps to chain hoist..I lifted it slowly to make sure it lifted vertically. I think a floor jack under the rear wheel to stop the rear wheel from falling down might work..

Why not just remove the rear wheel? Dogbones and two of the three pivots on the relay arm are no problem on the centerstand - with or without separate support for the swingarm (it isn't that hard to manage without the weight of the wheel). The front relay arm pivot needs the skyhook for the bike and centerstand removal. At least that one doesn't get as grungy as the others.

Agree with Ross - I've studied this a bit and I can't see how you can remove the front mount without removing the center stand first.

The requirement to cut the bolts to remove the center stand is a design flaw, IMO. I know what the manual says for this (remove the exhaust), but that is just stupid.

I'm ordering new C/S bolts, new front and center mount bushings (rear one recently replaced and bolts/nuts. I'm holding off on the bearings until I get it apart, but I think a good greasing is what it needs. Hope so anyway.

As I mentioned, that front pivot is far less problematic than the other ones. It is pretty much protected. If the other two are OK, I might hold off on the front one for now - make sure it moves freely without excess play when you have it apart. If the others are ugly or if there is significant grittiness in the front one, you need to do it before you ruin the bearings or it seizes.

You still need the skyhook but if you insert the bolts from the opposite direction, future removal of the centerstand is much easier.

Did this at the last tech day. Carefully slide the bolts in and out as to not to dislodge the needle bearing pins, smear on the grease. The installed backwards bolt at the swing arm can come out most of the way.

Mine looked good, must of forgot doing it when I installed the Penske shock.

Hppants wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 1:13 pm The requirement to cut the bolts to remove the center stand is a design flaw, IMO. I know what the manual says for this (remove the exhaust), but that is just stupid.

I was able to remove just the mufflers on my 03 and push the headers out just enough to get the bolts out. Don't know if this can be done on Gen 2 or 3s.

If you like, buy a used spare relay arm on ebay, way cheaper than buying bearings and bushings. As Mikey says, can lube all but the front bolt while on the centerstand...... centerstand removal involves skyhook. I'll check into griff's suggestion of removing mufflers, upcoming job tomorrow evening on a friend's FJR. Otherwise, I just use a sawzall to cut the two bolts off.

raYzerman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:41 am If you like, buy a used spare relay arm on ebay, way cheaper than buying bearings and bushings. As Mikey says, can lube all but the front bolt while on the centerstand...... centerstand removal involves skyhook. I'll check into griff's suggestion of removing mufflers, upcoming job tomorrow evening on a friend's FJR. Otherwise, I just use a sawzall to cut the two bolts off.

I did exactly that. Got an almost new one on fleabay and Ray is right - the whole unit was way cheaper than the bearings, seals and collars. The one I got even came with a set of spare dogbones and a shock bolt.

Edit to add - nice to have the spare even if you might refurbish the old one. That way you can swap it out and work on the other one at your leisure. Until you actually remove it, you have no idea what parts (if any) are going to need to be replaced.

I'm liking this idea as well. Not crazy about my bike sitting on the pipe stand/jack stand/straps from the ceiling joist/whatever I come up with to support it without a center stand - for days (weeks) waiting on parts.

Time to start lurking fleabay - I'm assuming that this part is "generation" specific?

Gen1 might be unique, Gen2/3 A models same, ES is unique.

Thanks Ray - 10 minutes of searching various terms on fleabay yields …. nothing. I'm not God's gift to online shopping. If anyone out there finds me a link and can post, I'd sure appreciate it.

Also, see the following parts breakdown:

https://www.partshark.com/oemparts/a/ya ... 6/rear-arm

I've already replace the rear shock collar and bolt (#28 and #29)

I want to get new collars and bolts for the other two relay arm connections. I see that the middle link (largest/widest size) should be #18 and #19? The front collar is a #25, I think. Can't identify the front bolt? Help?

I’ll get all the parts ordered in the fall and have them sent to Russell for the zerk fittings mod..then I can simply swap the parts. Having lubed the dogbones and the lower shock mount this week, I’m good for a while..

Bumpsie -

Ready to order parts. Gonna get the center stand bolts. Shipping wise, I might as well get the collars and bolts for the other two holes in the relay arm and change them while I have it broken down (see my post above).

IMPORTANT: PLEASE CHECK ME OUT ON THIS - I'M NOT QUITE SURE OF MYSELF:

Parts breakdown for reference:

https://www.partshark.com/oemparts/a/ya ... 6/rear-arm

Again, rear hole (lower shock mount) is done and good.

The middle hole for the relay arm, the collar is #19, and the bolt is #18

The front hole relay arm collar is #25 and the bolt is #23.

Here is where I'm confused:

See this picture:



There appears to be another collar (#26) that goes through the frame support on the left side (clutch handle side) of the bike, but not on the right side?

Any help would be appreciated.

I found a used relay arm on Fleabay for $30.00 shipped. It's from a Gen 2 bike with the same mileage my bike has. On second thought, I'm gonna hold until I tear mine down.

Sort of related.

If one simply wants to replace the dog bones with a set of different length, can you simply remove the top dog bone bolt and the bottom shock bolt. Then swing the relay arm to gain access to the lower dog bone bolt?

Canadian FJR

When the dealer had the engine out to do the second gear recall, they swapped the relay arm for the nice one modified by Russell..they noted that the top bolt was almost rusted solid - but a lot easier to get it out with the engine out.p

Canadian FJR wrote: ↑Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:07 pm Sort of related.

If one simply wants to replace the dog bones with a set of different length, can you simply remove the top dog bone bolt and the bottom shock bolt. Then swing the relay arm to gain access to the lower dog bone bolt?

Canadian FJR

I'm pretty sure it won't be a problem. Not 100% sure if the shock bolt needs to be removed... (Probably, but not a big deal)

CollingsBob wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:05 am I lifted the bike a few inches off the ground yesterday with a chain hoist and straps wrapped around the seat mount casting and laid on my belly yesterday and shot some lithium grease into the side stand pivot..while laying there I looked at the dogbones..
I think it might be possible to support the rear wheel and remove the dogbones to grease the pivot points..Has anyone else thought of this?

Yes, its been done. There's a video of it. He actually removed everything including the relay, centerstand with the pipes and wheel on.
https://youtu.be/B9u6u3bKAfM