Well shoot. Took my swing arm out of my 04 RK because of play. Ok, and because I was bored. The play was in the metal bushings between the swing arm bearings and the shaft. New bushings from harley were cheap enough, so I ordered a set.

Arg! The new bushings are just as loose as the old ones! About .001" difference between them when I mic'd them. .010" difference to the shaft they're supposed to be snug on.

No wonder the swing arm bearings weren't turning, and the swing arm wiggled. Good lord, those two bushings having that much play new gives roughly 1/10" play at the axle! I'm sure my belt appreciated it as well.

So, before I turn up a set on a friends lathe, are there sources of this bushing that are worth a darn? OEM sure isn't.

 

Make a set, use 7075 Alum, that stuff is tough as steel. Good observation, I'll be sure to double check when I get around to doing mine, thanks for the heads up, easy to overlook.

 

Not sure if this is what you mean.

 

http://www.bikerrogue.com/articles/t...armupgrade.htm

Another article, a little more depth.

 

This is what I plan on replacing my bushings and bearings with. http://www.sta-bo.com/id2.html

This system has been on the market for some years and I believe it negates use of a Tru-Trac or any of the other bolt on systems for adding stability.








aka Bob

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...installed.html

 

The stiffey and Stabo are both "auxiliary" bushings that aid to firm up the OEM rear rubber isolators, they don't replace anything. I believe the bushings the OP is referring to is the single shouldered aluminum bushings that fit between the axle and the ball eye.

 

Yea, I think your right. I was trying to convince myself that the brass stock sitting in his garage would be adequate, but it'd get squashed in just a few rides. Ah well, don't need to buy much.

Guys, don't mistake these metal bushings for the big rubber bushings on the ends of the shaft. I'm talking about the metal bearings in the swing arm. Harley puts a metal bushing in between the bearings and shaft. This bushing is tight in the inner race of the bearing, but loose on the shaft. So loose it can rattle. That's not good! I don't know if it's being made incorrectly, or spec'd wrong by harley. Either way, the new bushings are as loose as the old ones were.

 

call kevin at Sta Bo. He has a bearing that replaces the HD bushings. Once you install the bearings on both sides, installed his bushing in the HD stock rubber isolators and bam, your bike will corner like it is on rails. you want the ED 16 and the sta bo II. i took the opportunity to also replace my front motor mount at the same time and it also helped.

I did my 04 road glide and it made a tremendous difference. Total cost was around 200+

http://www.sta-bo.com/id2.html

 

I would look into the Glide-Pro bushings and motor mounts. They call it their “Glide-Pro Stabilization System” I installed it on my '08 RK as well as my sons '06 RK as the stock stuff is pretty much garbage. On both bikes the rubber on the bushings had worn through and there was metal to metal contact. There was some slop in the swing arms as well. The Glide Pro stuff took care of all the slop and significantly reduced the vibration. Their tolerances are just much tighter. If you watch the video on the web site you can see the huge difference in the quality of their product vs. stock.
I never have had any wobble issues on either bike but when an acquaintance went down due to a severe wobble at about 80 MPH I looked into the wobble issue looking for a fix. This is the route I picked
http://www.glide-pro.com/glide-pro.html