So I noticed a little movement in the *** end of my bike.I could wiggle the wheel just a little(checked wheel bearings,all good ) . I have 2 months left on my warranty so I took it in and they rebuilt my swing arm. The bearing on the drive side was smoked. I only have 10k on the bike. Anyone else have or heard of swing arm issues?

 

MY 06 has some movement on the left side. I can't shake the rear wheel, but if I grab the belt and tighten and loosen it when the bike is upright I can feel and hear some movement. I don't notice it when riding. About 39,000 miles.

 

Update . ....harley replaced swing arm bearing and bushing again under warranty . .....500 miles and I have a little play already and expect it to get worse like before....****in junk.....now looking for aftermarket solutions . ....anyone ?

 

timkin

 

I replaced all moving parts in my swingarm pivot at 20K miles, at disassembly I found the right hand bushing was toast, bone dry, no lube from the factory. I replaced items 12, 14, and 17. Item 14 is a steel shelled bi-metallic split bushing. Item 17 is what that bushing runs on, the mating surface has a rather coarse machined finish that almost guarantees a short service life for the bushing.
The left hand side pivot is a rather large spherical plain bearing, item 9. This bearing controls the position of the swingarm relative to the pivot mount on the transmission and with grease should last a very long time.

The only flaw in the swingarm pivot is items 14 and 17 on the right hand side. Item 14 should be non-split and made from a good grade of Ampco bearing bronze with a grease groove and have a zerk fitting installed on the swingarm. Item 17 should be remade with nice tight tolerances in a good hardenable steel with a nicely ground surface that gets along with the bearing material. That would last a good long time.

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: Mike

 

Hmm, bummer. One more thing to keep an eye on, thanks for bringing this up again!

Nemo, appreciate your metalurgy knowledge, you seem up on this metal stuff

 

I think mines developed a bit of play, with only 11k on it. Gonna use the warranty to check it out while it's still covered. 2014 FXDB.

 

So did you replace the split bearing with Ampco 18 on your bike?

 

Hi Bwoltz,
Not yet, at the time I overhauled the pivot I just threw new parts at it and packed the works with Bel-Ray EP2 grease. The future plan is to find a alloy swing arm (Roaring Toyz) and fabricate the new pivot parts at that point.
Anytime I see a split bushing installed, the first thing that comes to mind is it's a cost saving measure, combined with the less than acceptable machine work of the "spacer" it runs on, the lack of weather protection, and lack of grease in my case, I'm surprised it went 20K miles.
My rough plan (subject to change at any moment) for the bushing is Ampco 25 with grease grooves, 4140 for the spacer (hardened RC 50+ than ground), about -2% of bushing ID for the clearances, and somewhere between 16 and 32 for the surface finishes. I will play with the diameters a bit to end up with a thicker wall bushing and use a light press fit with anti seize, and for the left hand side I will upgrade to a better equivalent size spherical bearing probably from Aurora bearings.
I would be very interested in your thoughts on this, I realize this is massive overkill but it should be fun to build .




: Mike

 

Hi Mister Blue,
I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ... I have been in the mechanical arena a long time, I inherit other people's, it don't work/it don't fit/obsolete/mechanical problems for a living.
Sometimes I actually fix something . Thanks!!!

: Mike