Suspension linkage..help!

Some fantastic advice..

Thanks very much. It is a little late for me now bit will save this page to refer to in the future.

Rang up AP this morning who quoted 110.00 posted for 6 bearings 6 seals and 3 pins!! Ouch.

I degreased and re greased the dog bone bearings and installed them after work as they didnt have a hint of brown on them.

So ive ordered 2 bearings 2 spacers and 1 pin for the rear swing arm connection as the seal was fubared and the bearings rusty. Set me back just over £40 :(

But they are official aprilia parts..

The after market ones do look gopd at £70 for a set of 3 though...

Can you send me a link for the teflon washers think im going to pick some up tomorrow.

I am a bit shocked aprilia havent done anything about this issue. Yes it is maintenance related but the owners manual says nothing about doing this work regularly..

Turns out that one of the blokes I work with has a brother who is a qualified laser cutter 

One of the designs I did



the standard Aprilia part is superimposed on top but I would follow the AF1 pattern to a certain extent with a shallow recess rather than a full cut through.

Raised bosses are certainly do able,just more machining involved.

Kev,I first thought of lasered blanks (in fact that's how I'd buy the blanks in, albeit in oversize form and with undersize holes)

If I did the job though it would then go on one of our CNC machining centres to be machined all round and have precision aligned holes bored in with decent deburring chamfers around all machined edges.

I just can't churn out unfinished stuff so I'd probably have to go overboard and machine engrave an arrow and logo on as well  like we do for other customers.

You can see why I dropped the idea really ,although should some spare capacity materialize at work (after I've sorted some slotted cam wheels) I may just knock up a set for added bling  and see where we go from there.

IanG wrote: One of the designs I did the standard Aprilia part is superimposed on top but I would follow the AF1 pattern to a certain extent with a shallow recess rather than a full cut through. Raised bosses are certainly do able,just more machining involved.

ooh things are coming along very nicely here boys, i'm sure there will be plenty of demand for these. Nobody wants to risk a failure now do they?

There was a lot of postings on apriliaforum about this.  One post had over 60 pages of posts to it.  Strangely, watching this one evolve looks like a repeat from all those years back....not a bad thing at all....its good to show the 'newer' prilla owners what issues existed and what issues most likely still exist today....certainly how to deal with them.  Better informed is good.

That's probably more the root cause than material or design defects I suspect.

Kev, all good here thanks mate.

Thanks for posting that pic,I see what you mean ref the possible interference,it would need a Gen 2 as a template really.

If you're up for getting some made then I'll do the same as last time and forget about the whole thing till someone resurrects the topic in another 5 years 

My priority is slotted cam wheels when I get time to think at work,as I intend doing some work engine wise when time permits.

When Aprilia performance services my dogbone suspension linkages they noted that my plates were made of Steel

Just done a search for the parts in question Kev,



Nice bit of kit

Although altering the rate and ratio of the linkage without taking into account the damper properties could be a bit risky I would think,one assumes they have a better understanding than most of the  variables involved.

The machining looks nice though,like the artistic way they lost some weight on the dogbone.

The fun one can have with a good Cad-Cam program,a ball nose e/mill and some spare time.

It's a G2 issue, originally seemed to just affect the first ones out, but an 07 is now nearly 6 years old and if the bearings have never been looked at then it might be getting on to critical time.  I don't know for certain though, it's only supposition on my part.  I've got an 07 and AFAIK they've only been looked at once, and that was because Griff did a full service on it the year before last.  Whilst I've got it in bits I'm going to get in there and have a look/clean and if the guys come up with new link plates then I'll replace them whilst I'm at it.  As Taps said, the chance of failure is only 1%, but do you want to be that 1%?

IanG wrote: Just done a search for the parts in question Kev, Nice bit of kit Although altering the rate and ratio of the linkage without taking into account the damper properties could be a bit risky I would think,one assumes they have a better understanding than most of the  variables involved. The machining looks nice though,like the artistic way they lost some weight on the dogbone. The fun one can have with a good Cad-Cam program,a ball nose e/mill and some spare time.

Sorry to resurrect this thread again, no I'm not! Lol
Are the bearings the same size gen 1 or gen2?