I was changing my rear tire, and and as I was pulling the axel out I heard 2 distinct differant sounds. As I looked on the ground I saw a chunck of black "stuff" on the ground, and thought that's weird, never saw that before.
As I picked it up, I realized it was the back part of my swing arm with the axel tensioner on it! My friend who was helping me said, I've never seen that before either.
Now, my friend , who has been an HD certified mech for over 15 years, says that he has never seen that before either. you get kinda pukered up!
He was tellin' me that pretty much the only thing holding my rear axel in place was the tension on the belt, and the pressure of the axel nut. And if I had changed anything , or hit a REAL BIG bump in the road I woulda been ROAD TOAST!
So, now my question is, has any body else had a problem with their rear fork similar to mine? Has anybody heard of any alerts or recalls on rear forks(swing arms) with this type of problem?

 

I had an 01 RK that I took to an Indy for a tire change when I first bought it used in 06. I noticed the tech closely examining the swingarm area where the axle is installed and asked him if there was a problem. He told me he had to check it over good because there had been numerous reports of swingarms cracking. I cant remember the exact year models that were affected but my 01 was one of them. My bike was good to go and I never had any problems with cracking.

 

It's pretty common on the pre 2002 bikes. You need one of these kits or a similar mod.
http://www.customcycleengineering.co...ndex&cPath=192

 

With the help of a friend, I took the bike to the dealer this AM and explained what had happened. When the service manager came out and looked at the break in the fork, he did the " Holy Crap! Boy aren't you lucky it didn't happen on the road!" thing, and said that the warrenty will cover the repairs.
I did some research and read about a guy on his Road King that had the swing arm break and he got himself messed up.
So, for what it's worth, bagger riders and pretty much anybody else check your swing arms for cracks.....
LATER DUDES!
OH! to BLKBAGGER, thanks for that web link. Hopefully the dealer and warrenty will take care of me and I won't have buy a new arm and axel assembly.

 

You have a warranty on a 2000 year model? Or is this a newer bike?

 

That's something else that should never have happened.

 

You are a very lucky guy..how did you get warranty on it?

 

I bought the bike used in 2006 with only 30k. Since then I've put over 55k.
I bought the insurance/warrenty because I had never worked on a motorcycle and if something broke(and many things have) somebody else would fix it I would have a little more time to learn the nuances of an aircooled engine.
I still have 10 months left on the warrenty!

 

There was another thread here, not long ago, about this...