I was in the process of cleaning the swingarm prior to replacing the chain and sprocket, and noticed a little paint had lifted just befor the axle. Upon further investigation I found my swingarm was cracked. Has anyone here had this happen on theirs?
can this be safely welded, to repair it?

 

it happens...more so on FXR's,though...a customer of mine came in with a '97 XL883H with a cracked swing arm...we have a motorcycle JY close and i picked one up for 80 dollars,i thing...i was not gonna weld it

 

sounds like a perfect time to weld on a hardtail and bob it............

 

Glad you discovered it before it put you down or into oncoming traffic.

Yeah, that and all kinds of other stuff on our scoots crack n break or work loose. Hopefully, all who read this will learn to take lots of time to go over their bikes routinely and objectively LOOK for such problems before they splatter you.

Ten years ago I was an amusement ride inspector for the state.....I saw things then that made me swear off ever again riding another roller coaster.......I see things on scoots (including mine) that make my butt pucker, but rather than not ride, I learned to instead look for the problems almost daily and stay on top of them.

Gents.....there might be a day when you are layin beside the road bleeding out due to a failure on your scoot that will instead be attributed to "rider error"....Don't fall into that stat......Take time to comb your ride like your life depends on it-because it really does.

 

With a '96 and a 180 rear tire, I doubt you're going to find a stock swingarm to replace it. You might get lucky at a salvage yard and find a doner swingarm to piece together a good one.

 

Do you have pics of the exact spot where the crack occurred...?

It would be interesting to know the area to check for problems.

 

Be safe and replace it!

 

The arrow on points to the location of the crack. It's not completely through. It has been there for a while as there is a bit of rust on the inside. It looks like it had been bondo'ed over by a previous owner and repainted.

 

I would have no problem at all welding that. If you are a certified and practicing competent welder it will be better than new...swingarms are welded together pieces of steel already.

 

I'm surprised this doesn't come up more often, I built a 2" longer swing arm for my bike a couple of years ago and the original Harley welds where so bad on the swing arms that there was rust in between all the pieces, it was a total pain in the *** to repair everytime you thought you had it done you would find more rust where the welds hadn't penetrated.