A friend of mine wants me to swap his stock swingarm out for a chrome one on his Fatboy.

How hard of a job is it to do this?

I'm very capable working on the bikes, but I haven't done a swingarm swap yet.

Any help or hints would be great.

Thanks,

Steve

 

Well once you get the tire off only have to un mount the shocks and pull the through bolt and the mud shield. I would replace the bushings also.

 

You'll be able to handle it. As soft already said, remove the rear tire, shock bolts, and the pivot bolt for the SA is pretty much it. If you have the tool you can swap out the bearing (sorry, didn't mean bushing lol) from the old SA or install new ones.

 

Not a hard job, it's the prep work that takes the time.

 

Pretty easy job. The Softail swingarms don't have bushings, they have spherical bearings...which are unlikely to be worn out, unless the bike has been subjected extremely sandy/gritty conditions...and a simple visual inspection will show if they have any wear.

 

Yeah, I was told to have the dealer install new bearings in the new swingarm. Then after that it's a pretty easy job.

Steve