I had my 98 electra Gluid swing arm fail last year. I replaced it with a used one from Ebay. I am very scared that this one will crack and break like the old one did. Now I have the option to replace the swing arm with a 2002 and up one. My question is that I have heard different things regarding the front bushing on the swing arm. I dont ride super fast and dont have the wobble issues other see at high speeds so an upgrade there is not needed. My question is on the front bushings, will the bushing out of a 98 fit into the newer swing arm. The swing arm I am getting does not have bushings in it. So I would like to order some from Harly, but I heard that the newer swing arm has a different size pivot bolt. So if I can press in the 98 bushings then I dont have to mess with pulling the trans and having the bolt hole bored. I just bought new wheels off an 07, so the rear swing arm and 1 inch axle will be a direct fit. Many of the older post deal with upgrading teh swing arm due to wobble issues that happen at high speeds. I dont really push this bike much faster than 80 and have never had a wobble problem.

Thanks all in advance.

David

 

David,

I fited a 2007 swingarm over last winter. See my thread on Suspension THUMP.

It is not as simple as just replacing the swingarm, because the later bikes have a larger 1" wheel axle as well as a larger diameter swingarm axle. Your old wheel cannot be upgraded to 1", so you should also replace the rear wheel. The new swingarm is longer than the old one, so you will need a 3 teeth longer belt.

For the new swingarm to fit your old transmission you can get suitable bushings from True-Track, Sta-Bo and HDF sponsor Motorcycle Metal. The stock 2002-on bushings are not suitable, so you have no choice but to replace them, although someone on HDF made his own. I bought the swingarm and wheel plus most hardware secondhand off ebay.

Read my thread right through for articles and tips.

 

I have done a lot of research on this. I understand the axle issue, and the pivot shaft issue. The question is can you install the bushings from a 2001 and older into the newer 2002 swing arm. I have almost everything I need to change this out, wheels, axle, caliper, and swing arm coming not here yet. I would like to order the bushings but before I do I need to know the inside diameter of the newer swingarm as to the older one. Anyone know if this can be done, or does anyone have a newer swing arm that they can measure the inside diam of the front tubes were the bushings go?

 

Even if the exterior diameter fit wouldn't the interior be off? Older is 5/8 while newer is 3/4.

Still why go with the older when there are options that would adapt the newer swing arm to the 5/8 shaft of the older tranny case.

Sta Bo and other vendors offer products thsat are designed for this purpose.

http://www.hotbikeweb.com/tech/0710_.../photo_01.html


http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.c...ii-update.html

 

The bushings will not swap. The inside diameter of the older swingarm is a plain hole, but the later ones have a stepped hole which is also slightly smaller in diameter to the early one. What we need is a bushing with the outer shape of the new ones but the inside diameter of the old ones (for the smaller axle).

True-Track, Motorcycle Metal and StaBo all make suitable bushings. I already had True-Track in my old swingarm and remachined them to fit the new one, so as you can see they are actually too big to go straight in a new one.

 

I just finished up a 00 RK this past weekend using a Custom Cycle Engineering kit. You press out the 3/4" ID spacer with bearing and replace it with the supplied 5/8" ID spacer and 5/8" swingarm rod. It works slick although in retrospect I if I ever do another I will drill out the tranny in place and use the 3/4" swingarm rod for no other reason than it would be cheaper. There is more than enough meat on the tranny case to do it.

Rick

 

Rick,

I considered doing that but decided against it. What may look like enough meat has got to carry the weight of the entire bike, plus suspension shocks. I don't believe it is possible to produce a straight accurate hole in place and would not recommend trying it. The cost of a pair of bushings is peanuts compared with peace of mind! The cost of all the other parts needed to do this conversion, secondhand, is so low those bushings do not break the bank.

 

Plenty of people have done this successfully and I have no doubt I could do the same with the correct tools. In all the research I have done on this I have never heard of one case of tranny failure other than what was presented by a vendor of one of the conversion products. From what I understand from a reliable source the tranny castings are the same for the 5 speed TCs and it sure looks like it to me. It may be different for Evo trannys such as yours.

5/8 pilot, 3/4 spotfacer and shaft extension



Rick