Broke grease fitting on bottom of bike!

[sage1965]

Excuse me, they are now permanently sealed, sorry...for the typo.

[bosco]

Originally Posted by sage1965

As for the older bikes such as mine. I installed a small bolt which I remove and install the Zerk fitting, grease the fitting, remove the Zerk and re-install the small cap screw.

This was my plan as well, until I inspected and found no fittings.

Originally Posted by sage1965

Excuse me, they are now permanently sealed, sorry...for the typo.

No worries, I understood what you meant in your first post. I guess they don't get that much movement, but would think over time & mileage they would have to be cleaned and lubed. Thanks for the response.

[Jace Bror]

Well I finally after almost owning my bike for three years decided to do this mod.
The zerks were still there. The back one was messed up the most, the front was fine, filled that one up.
Went to the middle one and this happened.

Guess the ball was gone.

So I figured it would be fine til I got a good zerk in. But when I went to do the back one it wouldn't even take grease, actually the hose jammed up and I had a bubble in it about the size of a quarter.


4500 psi working pressure? Guess I am ripped.
Anyhow so I removed that rear zerk which threaded out fine, but I had a hell of a time getting the good one in. Oddly enough the old one would go in very easily. I was really careful not to strip it out. But once I did get it in, the grease wouldn't go in but it started to seep out around the base of the hex portion.

So I figure I will have to up size the the zerk. But I am worried that the taps that I do have will be a problem. They have pointed tips and the threads don't start out till probably too late. I am thinking that the tap would hit the through bolt on the knuckle. I had seen someone on this thread mention something about a bottoming tap. Is that a different type of tap? I haven't tried any of the new zerks out, but maybe they will work better and I won't have to tap.

I don't know why but it only seems the a few people have mentioned using a Grub Screw. That seems like they would be better then a cap screw since it would be flush. Also has anybody thought of trying to find an all nylon screw that way it wouldn't strip out the aluminium casting? Which they do make in a grub screw style.

edit: Found out what a bottoming tap is. Good ol' wikipedia. Found a whole article about taps. Tap and Die If I got one of these maybe I could just chase the threads.

[sage1965]

I think perhaps Kawa removed the fittings altogether on newer models. I have an 07. The location of these fittings makes it easy to break them by lifting the bike or hitting an object like a curb etc.

[Larry Johnson]

Originally Posted by Jeep Pirate

First, does anyone know the name of the idiot engineer who made the lowest point on the bike a grease fitting into cast aluminum? If I can find him, he is due an ass whooping!

Second, after someone has gone over a speed bump and thereby ripped this silly fitting out of its casting, what do you do? I assume I could spend an astronomical amount of money at a repair shop having the whole rocker arm replaced. But honestly, I don't really want another rocker with the same stupid design flaw. I am thinking of trying to re-tap the hole and just put in a worm screw plug. Any advise would be great. Maybe some of you guys with newer models can tell me if they fixed this on your bike. Mine is an '07. I know they fixed the phillips head screw on the air filter on the newer bikes by making it an allen head.

Larry Johnson
(09)900 I had the same thing happen to mine, I retaped mine whit a bugger fitting but now I cannot get the grease to go in ???????

[peteyg]

This is a design flaw that should be a recall and fixed once.and.for."all". My grease fitting did not rip out the casting so by mounting a flush grease fitting, my problem went.away, and I can use a.needle grease gun fitting, to lube the shaft. If you have the means and experience, I would remove the arm, and redrill the hole to a different.angle/location and put a set.screw in to plug the old hole.its not rocket science, just requires a bit of planning.

[CupHolder]

For 2011 Kawasaki replaced the Arm-Suspension Uni Trak with one without grease nipples.
Kawasaki still uses the same needle bearings in the 2011 ASUT as in the 2006-10 models.
This tells me the grease nipples on 2006-10 models don't need to be greased or even on the bike at all. This might be why so many Vulcan 900s are dry of grease. My suggestion
is to remove all the grease nipples, de-grease the holes and seal them with silicone or weldbond or epoxy putty to keep dirt and water out. An alternative is to replace the USUT with a new one for about $140 plus labor or sweat. New bearings and seals will run another $100 or so and do the same job as weldbond.

[peteyg]

Interesting, but I can regrease my swing arm for pennies, until I notice lateral wear,with my flush grease fittings. Needle bearing wear in the swing arm is roatation limited to range of swing arm movement (Shocks, roughness of roads, load). As I usually cruise solo, and superslab P-2P, my inspection should occur around 60,00 miles, and only a teardown will show excessive wear on the bearing surfaces. Is it a big enough deal to spend 140+ on that issue as Kawasaki is eliminating the greasing points? Probably not. I would like to inspect a high mileage bikes swing arm bearings before I commit to spending time and resources on the issue. Anyone have pictures? I only have 7000 miles on mine (2006), as I have three bikes to exercise, and my daily commute is 5 miles both directions. It might take me five years to get 60000 on the odometer.

[Tiefighter]

Does it matter what grease is used? Any recommendation?

Thanks in advance.

[peteyg]

I use the Lucas red synthetic grease for my swing arms as it has a higher load rating than marine grease.