The swing-arm is another bearing that goes back and forth over a few degrees for all of its life as opposed to round and round (the other is the steering head bearings). For this reason they are prone to wearing in a characteristic brinelling pattern.
While earlier airheads had conventional 2 piece tapered roller bearings in the swing-arm, the later r65 had sealed units with integrated dust caps. The internal diameter of these bearings is 13 mm and removing them was a little tricky. I used a small diameter Kukko puller to remove the inner race and then a larger diameter puller to remove the outter race. Sure enough the brinelling was pretty marked with some deep pits on the inferior surface where the race has been taking the weight of the stationary bike for 35 years.
Installing the new bearings required the usual manoeuvres- the bearings were put in the freezer for a few hours to get them nice and cold and the swing-arm was heated up. I used a neat trick to help drive the bearings home- the old bearing outer race fits perfectly over the new one and is then tapped in with a standard bearing driver. I put the slot in the old bearing to facilitate removal at the end. Note the thin metal plate in the non drive side which prevents the swing-arm filling with grease when the bearings are greased!
