Exhaust

This is a little out of sequence. I actually removed the rear mufflers first of all,and then removed the front end of the exhaust after the rear end was stripped. But it makes more sense to show the pictures in this order.

Unscrew the rear muffler bold from the support, and basically just wiggle it off

On the LHS, this soft metal coupler came off as intended as a separate item

Not so on the right, where the coupler is stuck in tighter than a tight thing:

No matter. Gonna buy a new exhaust anyway ;-) The top end of the exhaust comes out quite easily:

 These are spacers, and the exhaust mounting clamps push them into the exhaust gaskets that in on the cylinder head itself, so not in this picture:

Here's the front end, removed and propped against one of my wife's objet's d'art:

Various pix of the engine now the exhaust is removed. You can see the exhaust gasket now.

Nasty leaks

Swingarm

With the rear shocks removed, the swingarm can come out. This was a lot easier than I'd feared. Start with the rear shocks removed:

Loosen and remove four bolts:

And hey presto!

Note that there is a spring (not shown) between the adapter and the cardan joint (which is still in the transmission tunnel)

The chrome covers over the swingarm bolts come off more easily that I'd thought. There's not much room for a spanner, but once the thread is broken it just comes off by hand:

It just screws out. What's impressive is that as you screw it back in, you can feel the air resistance! The bearing that the swingarm bolt turns in is really good. I'll probably renew it anyway ;-)

Looking right up the transmission's backside. Ooerr, missus!

The other swingarm bearing

My cardan joint has leprosy! Its just surface rust, but I wonder how it got there in the first place...

Thomas Covenant's cardan joint. Hellfire! Time for a VSE.

Rear Shocks

With the rear wheel removed, next is to remove the rear shocks and then swingarm

 I'm not yet ready to drain and remove the brakes (specially as front and rear are linked) so I just removed the rear caliper. I gave it something to bite on, in case a pedal was pressed. This prevents the pads from coming out and brake fluid going everywhere.

Now to remove the shocks

Rear wheel stuff

OK, so I removed the tank, seat, side panels etc. First order of business is stripping the rear wheel which I did like so:

Disconnect the rear wiring loom. This powers the brake lights, rear lights, and rear indicators

 This is after removal of the rear fender, complete with wiring loom:

Now its time to take off the rear wheel. This is simple, just follow the instructions...

Leaving the rear transmission floating in midair: