Rear Mudguard, Bench Seat Support Bracket and Shock Absorbers

OK, so the number 1 piece of advice for removing the rear fittings is REMOVE THE WHEEL FIRST. I couldnt do this as the front wheel was already off and the bike has to stand on something! This makes access to nuts under the mudguard etc very difficult/impossible and I wouldn't recommend. But.. for my own records this is what I did.

My first thought was to remove e the bolt from centre of seat carrier to mudguard... this comes out with its spacer between the support brace and mudguard. Didn't really take the right photo as I was expecting to remove the 4 cheese head screws that hold the shock chrome trim on... in fact I didn't need to.

Once that central bolt was removed I found the mudguard was quite free.... this is because I had already removed the 2 screws that pass through the toolbox and mudguard. The upper is a button head bolt to  nut under the mudguard... and I had to drill the head off as Icouldnt reach the nut with the wheel in place. The lower is a specialised self tapping hex headed bolt that enters from the bottom of the front of the rear mudguard to the frame. Luckily this had unscrewed properly.

The mudguard is now held by its hoop stay at the rear (attached to sw arm) and the wiring to the rear light.

I tried to remove the wiring by stripping the rear light. Remove the single rusted screw on the top so that the cover can be removed. I've no idea why these pictures are all loading inverted!

unfastened the wire... sadly it wouldn't pull through so I had to remove the light. The 2 lovely cheese head screws in this pic were hopelessly rusted on the back and as access to those nuts was limited by the tyre, I had to drill these out too. The light then came off and I placed the cover in citric acid to derust. I could then pull the wire through and unclip it from along the mudguard stay and inside the rear mudguard.

The hoop stay is then held by  large nut each side holding both the luggage rack and the stay to the sw arm, and two small screws through the mudguard at the hoop end. 

The bolts holding the shockabsorber to the sw arm could be unscrewed, but couldnt be removed because the shock absorber fouled them. However you can hinge the seat bracket forwards and just about finagle them out. One of them didn't appear to have been fastened properly anyway! I died the bolts but I'll need yo change the dodgy one.

The steady hoop to mudguard screws were removed relatively easily and I could save the screws.

The mudguard could then be rotated away and slipped out over the wheel. The number plate is still attached via the number plate bracket, but the nuts are inaccessible so I drilled them out to remove the plate.  The bracket is then held on to the mudguard by 2 screws which were also rusty and inaccessible. I drilled them out to complete the strip.

I didn't think I would need pictures of this "simple" process of rear mudguard removal.... how wrong I was and now I'm not sure that I will be able to put it back together without leaving something out! Sadly the illustrations in the parts book don't actually match the number plate bracket fitted to my bike so I will have to go carefully and source replacement bolts (all odd lengths) to refit the rear light number plate bracket and number plate itself. I will definitely remove the r wheel before attempting that, but by then the front end should be back together.

Still waiting for myfront end parts I decided to complete the rear end strip abd get Ll the parts cleaned anti-rust treated and finally painted with owatrol. This mens removing the bench seat support frame...and to do this the shockabsorbers need to come off.

I've had trouble with these begore so these have been treated with penetrative oik for months now and all the nuts unscrewed easily. I eld the stud with a screwdriver and undid both locknut and nut with 11mm wrench.

The top rubber and cup lifts off from above the bracket.

The shock can then be compressed by hand to release it from the support bracket freeing the top end.

The bottom end is secured by a pin and circlip... horribly rusted. 

The pin itself passes through a nylon bush in the frame but in my case it had a lot of play. Ideally to remove the pin, slip off the inner circlip and push the pin outwards. Removing the circlip was easy enough (above), but the pins  were rusted in and there was no in out mvt at all. I broke a G clamp trying to push them out. It's possible that IF I'd removed the wheel I could have shifted them with a punch and hammer, but as it was I had no access. Its also likely, given the level of "stuck" I found, this might have bent the frame. I decided to drill the mushroom tops of and push the pin inwards.

This worked and revealed the reason fir the excess.play... the nylon bush had disintegrated totally and there only remnants left. This is reminiscent of my quick 50nwherecall nylon bushes had vanished and I think it's. General problem with NSUs. The nylon bushes need no maintenance and so get ignored until they've essentially vanished. I cleaned out the hole and pressed in  new bush. Note this will need reaming to 7mm as its too tight as supplied. 

The seat support bracket was only attached by 1 bolt... the lhs I think was removed with the rear chainguard section. This pic just illustrates the holes used in bracket and frame... bolt temporarily refitted.

The frame coukd then be removed. I detached the seat latch mechanism and prepared the bracket itself. This is going to get a lot of spray, and the underside of the top bracket is inaccessible when fitted so I treated all the inside sections with underseal... I should have used stonechip as this was really messy! Anyway it's done now.

I replaced the lower shock bush on the lhs as well, but the new pin is held up with my order as well. If I need to rebuild I do have some usable spares.

Rebuilding is the opp of dismantling but I couldn't remember exactly where I'd put some of the bits do that complicated it. I replaced all the bolts (mainly M5s) using flanged allen bolts which are easier to get at under a mudguard. 

The new suspension pins (lower shock mount) are slightly thicker than the old... possibly to compensate for potential wear in the shock sbsorber pin hole. In any event I couldnt insert the new pins and was loathe to force them in so I reamed out the shock absorber pin holes until the pin just fitted, needing only a gentle tap.