Boot Change on Yamaha YTM 225DX Shaft Drive

[GunsShooting]

As the subject says, I need to change a boot on my black & gold 1984 Yamaha YTM 225DX (Shaft) 3-wheeler.

The boot goes at the front end of the swing arm, and the one that's there now is pretty well hosed.

I have ordered a new boot, should be here before too long.

I've never had the swing arm apart on one of these, and I'm looking for advice and/or pointers. How hard is it to get the swing arm off? Are there any tricks or special techniques I need to know? How do I go about it?

So far this seems like a pretty good machine... once I get the boot replaced, I will spend some time playing on it and decide whether to keep it or sell it.

Thanks!

[ColtonGG33]

Hi, welcome

From personal experience, its a pain in the butt to get the swingarm pivot bolts out. But that was just with mine, some people say its a peice of cake. I still haven't gotten my swingarm off to replace the bearings, because I stripped everything. But if you know what your doing it shouldn't be a problem.

[GunsShooting]

Thanks for the info. What got stripped on yours? I looked at a parts diagram and it looked like maybe it has Allen bolts holding it on?

[briano]

Hi, welcome

From personal experience, its a pain in the butt to get the swingarm pivot bolts out. But that was just with mine, some people say its a peice of cake. I still haven't gotten my swingarm off to replace the bearings, because I stripped everything. But if you know what your doing it shouldn't be a problem.


So it is quite evident that you don't know what you're doing. Lol

Back on track, get a manual and take your time. Should be a fairly straight forward project.

[muthey]

to remove the swing arm there are locking nuts and allen bolts behind the plastic covers to the swing arm. First if you have a chain hoist or cherry picker I recommend lifting up on the grab bar with that as you will want to reomove either the bottom bolt or top bolt on the shock, then while it is still suspended pop the covers to the swing arm bolts and remove the large locking nut I believe a 1 5/32" socket is what I used. Then get out your metric allen wrenches make sure the socket is clear of all debris before inserting and grab a small cheater bar to assist with the torque breaking. Once the allen bolt pins are out the only thing holding the rear swing arm to the rest will be the drive line, and it will come apart at on of the u-joints, or it will slip off of the pinion gear whichever pops first, to separate the drive line give the swing arm a firm tug and the drive line will separatenow you are free to replace the boot, that is if your boot is already split into many pieces, otherwise you will have to remove one of the clamps before separating the drive line.

[GunsShooting]

Sweet, thanks for the details! Sounds like I might have to go begging next door for a big socket (neighbor has a pile of tools although he never uses any of them) or buy one. Other than that I should be okay.

Russ


to remove the swing arm there are locking nuts and allen bolts behind the plastic covers to the swing arm. First if you have a chain hoist or cherry picker I recommend lifting up on the grab bar with that as you will want to reomove either the bottom bolt or top bolt on the shock, then while it is still suspended pop the covers to the swing arm bolts and remove the large locking nut I believe a 1 5/32" socket is what I used. Then get out your metric allen wrenches make sure the socket is clear of all debris before inserting and grab a small cheater bar to assist with the torque breaking. Once the allen bolt pins are out the only thing holding the rear swing arm to the rest will be the drive line, and it will come apart at on of the u-joints, or it will slip off of the pinion gear whichever pops first, to separate the drive line give the swing arm a firm tug and the drive line will separatenow you are free to replace the boot, that is if your boot is already split into many pieces, otherwise you will have to remove one of the clamps before separating the drive line.

[ColtonGG33]

So it is quite evident that you don't know what you're doing. Lol

Back on track, get a manual and take your time. Should be a fairly straight forward project.

Haha, no I knew what I was doing, just I think my pivot bolts got so screwed up, from it not having good bearings and grinding, the pivot nuts came off easy as butter but the Allen wrench part got stripped. And once that happened I tired about everything to get it off, now my only choice really is to get a welder and weld a bar to it, and just pray that works. Sorry for hijacking your thread.

[GunsShooting]

I got it apart this afternoon... now I'm waiting for the new boot so I can get it back together and running again. Thanks again people.

[GunsShooting]

I got the boot today and put it back together... Ran it a while idling in the shop while it rained. Later got the chance to take it for a spin. WOW is it fun in third gear, runs like a raped ape!

It has some rattling though, and when I downshifted to second to putt down the dirt road back to the house, it felt like the clutch was slipping. I had that same sensation a few times in first and second gears. I had time to adjust the clutch screw but no time to take it for another spin, and won't be able to until Sunday or later.

Is the clutch toast, or is the small clutch adjustment likely to solve my problems?