another inspection and maintenance item

Something I've done before on my Mercane Single motor is to check and if needed attend to the suspension swing arm pivot. This sounds harder than it is, because in part the Mercane is an easy scooter to work on.

The suspension arm pivots around this point

there is one on each side, and both front and rear (so 4 bolts in all)

The covers have to come off so you'll need your 2.5mm allen key (that came with the scoot) and the 4mm allen key (that also came with the scoot). I'll be using my own tools here.

with the cover off you can see the bolt that needs inspection. The scoot does not need to be raised (unless you want to, I just sat on the floor) and you can just put in your allen key and test that it does not move when you attempt to tighten it (righty tighty). Mine did on one side and so I took it out, applied some permatex and replaced it. NOTE: it will probably only be one side because of the design.

While I was there I also checked that the axle nuts were tight (with the supplied 18mm spanner) (and again, righty tighty). Some small movement of the axle will occur because its keyed in (not perfectly circular) and can turn a few degrees ... don't mistake that for looseness. You'll see the axle move if you're careful as the indicator. All my nuts were tight (no comment).

Anyway, when looking at the bolt there was no evidence that any thread locker had ever been applied, there is of course a little grease there because the pivot is greased inside.

So I applied some

The astute will notice some silicon in places, this is because I put a small dab of silicon on the inside of the covers so that the outside small bolts just hold it in place and the silicon holds and prevents the plate from rattling ... inevitably some of that gets onto the swingarm as seen below. Its of no consequence.

So with that drop in place, I snuggled it in firmly but not "strip its threads tight", knowing that the permatex will indeed do the job of preventing it vibrating loose again.

Also a drop of permatex on those small bolts makes sure they can remain just firm (not even plastic cracking tight) and won't vibrate out.

So all in all I had to tighten 2 of the 4 pivot bolts.

For the curious watching this video will make it clearer how the pivot works. Start from this point if that video starts at the start ...

Why do this? Well keeping things running right is the most important way to prevent failures. I use my scooter hard and "a stitch in time saves 9".

Lastly I have a bunch of points on maintenance on this blog post. I mention over there the type of thread locker I use (permatex) and its important to get the right strength (doesn't matter if you prefer loctite as a brand, they have one too.

Enjoy