Normal!
Daniel would you be kind enough to add your step by step removal/installation procedure here.
Ya know...I don't believe I've actually got an article on that...need to do one with pics! Promise I will next time I pull a rear!
Really. Darn. I was convinced/sure it was you. Dropping, raising the bike.
You wouldn't mistake me for Daniel, but I remove the rear fender section, as he does,
and then do an amount of sinking and raising the bike through the process. I never raise
my bike very high, not even high enough to reach the first lock on my sears jack, so I
stick a board in the scissors part of the jack to lock it. Taking the shocks off is one of
the sinking-raising steps: get the bike to where the rear wheel is touching the ground
but the shock is neither in compression nor extension, and the shocks come off easy.
Then sink the bike way down and pull the axle out.
Replacing the shocks with a big turnbuckle is helpful in several ways. The turnbuckle
will hold the swingarm real high for you when you're struggling to get the
driveshaft back in. And then you can set the level of the swingarm so that
the wheel just rolls back in with everything lined up so you can put the
axle back in. All the rest of the time the turnbuckle holds the swingarm at
where-ever you think "the right place" is since your shocks are off...
-Mike
