'81 swingarm help requested

[MitchB]

Want to pull the swingarm on my '81 Darmah soon. All seems to work well, but want to make sure it's all correct, because many areas of this bike have been found not to be...

Is there a site or write up on how to assemble, lube, and most importantly SHIM everything correctly?

[BevHevSteve]

Hi Mitch, what I do....

*Loosen up back 2 engine mount bolts, loosen s/arm pinch bolts.
*Mark on frame where split on eccentrics is, remove pin and eccentrics marking which shims are on what side.
*reassemble everything without the shims, whack the frame a few times w/a dead blow and tighten only the engine mount bolts.
*give frame a couple more whacks with a dead blow and retighten engine bolts as req'd
*measure with a feeler gauge for space between inner frame and s/arm
*try to pry s/arm over to one side and remeasure play.
*take things partially apart only to slip appropriate shims in place and reassemble
*remeasure everything etc

[MitchB]

Perfect.

Just what I was hoping for. Hadn't even considered loosening the engine bolts...

Your directions say to measure gap on both sides - if the swingarm slides on it's pivot shaft, wouldn't they be the same? Is there a determinent way to decide how much to shim per side?

Sorry if confusing...

[BevHevSteve]

I add the {thicker} shim to whatever side is going to have a posative affect on chain / sprocket alignment. on your particular bike.