Day 1 of rebuild

First off I decided on a game plan.
1. break quad down to bare frame.
      a. rear swingarm and axle first
      b. front end
      c. motor
      d. paint and body
      e. reassemble
      f. hope the hell it works

     Enough of that, This morning I started off all happy to get the project started. Of course, right off the bat the main swing arm bolt war rusted and someone decided to use a pair of vise grips to remove it at some point. Looks like I'll have to fix that later before install. Besides that the swingarm removal was pretty simple.
   Once it was removed I decided to do what normally would be done. Check the bearings and grease them up. Oh crap where's the grease gun. Oh yeah I threw that out years ago. Well it looks like I will be putting grease in manually. The next step for those who are paying attention it to find the Zurk fitting. Oh there it is, the rusted thing under all the dried mud. So after removing it and pressing grease in with my finger I realized the more grease I put in the more the axle wobbled as I turned it. That only means one thing, I was pushing out the dirt in the housing.
   Well looks like we'll be replacing the rear bearings. Did I tell you this Quad in 25 years old. first thing. If you attempt this have a torch handy. This goes back to those high school and college courses on thermodynamics. As usual the main lock nut on the axle is rusted. So after a little persuading with a hammer and the torch the nut began to turn. Lefty loosey righty tighty, Correct. WRONG..... Of course the threads are reversed. TIP#1 I heated the nut really freakin hot and then put gear oil on the threads. I did say to keep a fire extinguisher in your garage at all times, just in case of fire. (That may have happened before) That's a different story. Well at this point the nuts (yes 2) began to turn. Oh crap why isn't the nut coming off, it is at the end of the threads.
   Found the problem (time elapse 1 hour, Slowly moving the nut), the mud was so packed in the axle I didn't see the lock ring where the nut came off. So this means I had to reheat the nuts, reverse direction and start over. Finally, got the nuts off (No comments) and on to the bearings. Nope, first thing is first. Remove rear brake rotor mount and rotor. Yipee more torch time. I'm getting good with this thing. Actually that went well. A couple of gentle strikes with the hammer and it popped right off.

Now for the bearings. As usual the bearings and dust seals were full of dirt. Hence the funny noise when the axle turned. Bearing removal is more thermodynamics. First of all remove outside carrier bolts to allow for expansion. Note the position of the bearing carrier. Okay now back to heating housing. Keep the torch moving because remember your bearing carrier in aluminum and the housing is steel.
    After allot of heating and some manipulative adjustment with a drift the bearings came right out.
Now it's time for more ebay parts and a beer.
   Found both bearings and dust seals for $17.00. At least one thing has worked out.