Hi

Thought i'd drop the swing arm/linkage and shock off my Ten for a re-grease/clean and inspection.

First off - removing the swing arm has caught me out. i dont have a 15mm hex key (or a bolt) to turn the adjuster to let the swing arm be released. so will need to buy one...while im there im going to need another 22mm socket (only got 1) for doing up the swing arm pivot bolt.

My Haynes manual says "The pivot bolt nut is self-locking and Yamaha specify to use a new one".......really?? that wont be cheap...its Yamaha for gods sake!

Also was looking through the Haynes manual about removing the shock. point 2 is "remove the air filter housing (see chapter 4)". i guess this was to gain access to a bolt or something, no probs i thought....i bet the air filter housing is just a cover of some sort. So...i flicked to Chapter 4 like it said.

under XT-Z it says:
remove seat
remove fuel tank
displace or remove IAT sensor
remove cover from left of bike (use new seal)
detach all the hoses from the air filter housing
remove battery
slacken air intake duct
remove housing

All of that to get the shock out???????? i fricken hope not! not had the bike long, done no work on it till now so just getting used to it. So to re-cap (ive warbled on i know!) do you replace the swing arm bolt nut and do i really need to do all that s**t just to get the shock out?

cheers
(by the way...loving the Tenere so far )

You need to get the exhaust Y-piece out to get the bolt out of the top of the shock, but I've managed to do that a couple of times without taking the airbox out (most recently about two hours ago).

The book lies



Oh and personally, I wouldn't bother replacing the locking nut. Especially for the �20.33 your Yamaha dealer will want for it. This is not advice by the way, just saying.

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I spent a lot of money on travel and racing motorcycles - the rest I just squandered.

XT660Z - Commuter, Adventurer...Racer?

www.dashmoto.net

Other bikes >> MT-03 / CG125BR-J / ER-6F
Departed >> ZXR400L3 / EC300 / DR-Z400E / DR800S / GPZ500S / GS400

exhaust Y piece? balls to that...the shock can stay in! im only stripping it down to clean/ re-grease. i've heard that the Tens came out of the factory with ****** all grease, mines only done just over 4K but the best way to get to know a bike is to take it apart

I cant believe Yamaha suggest buying a new nut for the swing arm bolt....cheeky ******s! i might just put a drop of thread lock on it just to make sure.

Tell you what i did find hard........undoing the linkage bolts that hold the linkage on to the frame. Prob wont be as hard as having to put the centre stand spring back on... ...plus i wont be able to torque the linkage bolts up as the gap near the nuts is so dam tight against the frame i wont be able to get my torgue wrench in there.

If you look closely at the Haynes text it only says for R and X models remove the airbox, but ironically it mentions nothing about removing any of the exhaust system on the Z!

The intermediate Y pipe is fairly easy to get out by pulling it out towards the back of the bike, especially if you take off the small 'S' shaped hose on the RHS between airbox and throttle body. It will go through without removing this hose, but it requires pushing it out the way and some fiddling to find the right angle to get the Y pipe through.

IMHO it's worth taking the shock off as you don't want to strip and grease everything else only to find after reassembly the top shock bush is sqeaking!

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Thanks for the info guys....this is turning into more than a 5min job!

Need to find a 15mm allen key first to get the swing arm out.preferably a socket style.....any ideas?