Center stand and spring bearings stuck

[alexdecker]

Hi all

I think I'm nearing the end of things that can be unmercifully rusted stuck on my CB550. But never say never apparently - I am down to the center stand now. The pipe going through is seized. Tried heat and hammering, but to no avail.

Do you guys have good tips as to how to get it out?

Also, the two bearings in the rear fork in the mounting holes for the springs. Holy sh**. Is there no end to this? Any tips for getting them out?

[Bryanj]

Centre stand cut off the ends and use a hacksaw blade down the inside, shocker bushes don't know, never changed any in 40 yrs!

[Oddjob]

Same trick with the shock bushes, drill out the rubber parts until the centre falls out and then cut carefully through the outer metal sleeve with a hacksaw until your through, it will collapse and be easy to remove when the slot is all the way across.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

For shocker bushes I used a socket & threaded bar - after soaking with releasing fluid.

Centre stand - mine was a pig it was a combination of using heat, a hacksaw blade fitted inside the tube that I had to cut top & bottom followed by  a corded  impact drill on chisel setting with a suitable masonary bit as a drift  - it took me hours of sweat to get it - to move an inch or so - then it let go very quickly.

[alexdecker]

The reason I want the spring bearings out is because I am getting the frame sandblasted and painted, and presumed I had to take them out for that. Correct, ya?

[Sesman]

Alex, pardon me for asking, but what do you mean by “Spring bearing”?

[alexdecker]

Alex, pardon me for asking, but what do you mean by “Spring bearing”?

The swingarm shock mount bushings. Sorry, "spring bearings" was rather lazy and unprecise…

[Oddjob]

Yes Alex, they need to come out. Do the hacksaw method, less chance of damaging the welding around the fitting.

[AshimotoK0]

Never had much luck with the hacksaw method  on centre stand pivot tube ...guess mine must have been super corroded in... plus it's quite hard to cut though the walls of the pivot tube at the centre without marking the ends of the stand ... (perhaps my hacksaw skills are not on the Allen Millyard scale  ).

Drilled out about half a dozen of them out  last year though... with good success .. because they are tubular the drill bit centres pretty well ... needs lots of cutting paste though and a decent set of drill bits.

[smoothoperator]

I think it possibly comes down to what tools you have available, everybody has a hacksaw but I'm guessing Ash you used a pillar drill? If I had six to get out I'd buy a pillar drill! Just one then get yourself a good hacksaw blade, I used a Bahco and had to grind away a millimetre all along the top of the blade before I could fit it through the tube. If you used an ordinary hand held drill then fair play to you Ash.

[AshimotoK0]

I think it possibly comes down to what tools you have available, everybody has a hacksaw but I'm guessing Ash you used a pillar drill? If I had six to get out I'd buy a pillar drill! Just one then get yourself a good hacksaw blade, I used a Bahco and had to grind away a millimetre all along the top of the blade before I could fit it through the tube. If you used an ordinary hand held drill then fair play to you Ash.

I used a Makita mains hand drill .. kept going up in size in drills. Must admit the drills were good quality 'old-school' Dormer ones and I had them all sharpened by a guy at work. Interestingly, I drilled from either end until there was about a 35 mm plug left and tried to bash that our with a drift but it still wouldn't shift. Some of my bikes had been left out in gardens for years though, so pretty well corroded in compared with a bike that has been stored indoors/in a shed or barn for years or an import bike from sunnier climate.

[Oddjob]

If it's super corroded just do 2 cuts opposite each other, the tube will collapse away from the walls making it easy to remove, or do 2 cuts about 1/4 inch apart and remove that section so it collapses inward then.

[AshimotoK0]

If it's super corroded just do 2 cuts opposite each other, the tube will collapse away from the walls making it easy to remove, or do 2 cuts about 1/4 inch apart and remove that section so it collapses inward then.

Sorry Ken but tried that too (cuts on opposite sides and two cuts close together and the remaining pieces were literally corroded to the walls of the tube of the stand ... every man to his own method though. I don't doubt that with one, which is not too badly corroded, then the saw cut method works fine though. Incredibly though, my really badly corroded ones were fine on the outsides, once bead blasted .. I guess that they get a coating of muck and oil to protect them for serious pitting.

[Trigger]

Never cut one in all my time, Oxy acetlene works every time 

[alexdecker]

Cut today, and it still won't come off. It is really badly corroded to the walls of the center stand. Gotta have to go to a pro, before I throw the whole thing down on the junk yard in anger!