I have a 2015 Street Bob and will be changing the rear tire soon. To get the rear axle out I see some people unbolt rear shock bottoms to lower the swing arm and others remove the muffler. I was reading some people reverse the axle when they re install the tire so the nut is on the right side so next time they do not have to move anything out of the way to get the axle out. My question is if you do reverse the axle how to you torque the axle nut there will be no clearance on the right side to get the socket on. Do you hold a wrench on the nut and place the torque wrench on the bolt head? It's a hollow axle and if done that way I don't think it would torque correctly. Any thoughts / info?

 

As I understand it, the logic on the direction of the axle is to avoid being overtorqued in in the event of a seized bearing. I wouldn't change direction. A muffler is easy to remove, and easier than a shock in my view.

 

I put a lift under the back of the frame and take out the lower shock bolts. I'm not taking my 1 piece exhaust off and changing out exhaust gaskets to replace a tire. It isn't that big of a deal to drop the shock bolts if you have a fairly inexpensive motorcycle scissor jack.

 

I've been reversing my axles since the 80's....

 

I jacked mine up and dropped shocks several times, I finally reversed my axle because I"m running a V&H MR 2-1, and was getting tired of unbolting the shocks.

Now, however, I'm back to unbolting shocks and jacking the bike.. I also have to remove the rear brake, to get my 'not stock on my bike' wheel/rim off.

Small price to pay, whichever way you need to go.

 

i flipped both of mine because i didn't see a reason to have them on the right. now, it doesn't matter either way both my pipes stop long before the axle.

 

Never could figure out the rationale for installing the axle the wrong way from the MOCO.

Maybe to increase the cost of R & R-ing a rear tire?

Those sneaky little devils at the MOCO...

 

Simple, If your going to do a "custom" thing to your bike (non-factory),
,then you need to be confident with what you do.
Proper torque is important,, but that doesn't mean you always have to have a tool go "click" when you've reached that point.
Get it?