Broken rear swing arm

[mattmuir]

Hey Toby, is there room enough for a sleeve in the middle of the swing arm? It seems you have the skill, I would try to find new box tube and just rebuild the rear end part. Cut the arm, sleeve the new rear part to the old front with new holes in the back. You would have new welds on all 4 sides of the joint. And the heat stress would not be a factor where holes for the axle are.Th esleeve would only need to be about 2 inches with an inch or so supported inside.

As far as the heat stress worries. If you weld slow with the proper heat settings and dont go crazy the effects should be minimal.

Matt

 

[wannaride]

Thanks for all the great advise. I am hoping to do the upgrade in a month or two. I am excited that I might be able to run a 150/80/16 tire but will have to wait until I wear this tire out first. But until then, I will do the repair. The problem is a fault of HD. The placement of the shock is just behind the axle which goes through a rectangular tube that is a bout .090 thick. So if the shock bottoms out & the tire is upward bound, they crack. That is why they upgraded the 2002 & up. The fix that I am doing this time will have a 3/16" piece of angle going on the top side & down the outside, so the axle will also be going through that piece. Then a piece af strap along the bottom & stich weld that to the other piece. When I weld it, it will be what they call a fabrication weld which is a higher heat with less wire speed & is a spot over a spot. It keeps the heat down on the metal, gets great penetration & does not have a lot of weld build up. When my eyesight was better it looks just like a tig weld or a roll of dimes evenly spread out.

Toby

 

[wannaride]

What a day, got the swing arm all welded up had some help from a friend so I decided to change the front fork seals while the bike was down. Did not get pics of the front forks but there was a couple that would have been great. First, if you ever change out the fluid on the front forks, don't forget to release the air pressure first, very important step. It's like a skunk spraying. And it stinks if it has not been kept up on. Here are some pics of the rear swing arm repair. We almost got the bike back together, but I need to do a mod to the axle nut & washer to get it finished.









We also made this to get the top nut for the front forks off, works great.




Toby

 

[bigdawg5000p]

mine has broken in the same place as yours twice now. when i worked at harley i seen 3 come thru and it has only been 1998 and 1999 i called harley and they said not enough has been reported for a recall . so call and complain before someone hits the ground because it has to be a defect in those years

 

[glimmerman]

Please replace the swingarm. There are serious problems with the metallurgy at this time. Have you done a mag particle or liquid penetrant test to be sure there aren't hidden or unseen cracks? As stated, the metal in the heat affected zone can be compromised and while it may appear solid, it in fact, is not. Let us know, please.