Take a close look at your current stabilizer links and the end spherical joints - they are all metal. Your engine/trans plus the rear wheel and swingarm are all dependent on those links to guide your bike in a straight line and take the side loads while cornering, hitting potholes etc. Do not replace them with anything other than proper metal spherical/heim joints! As I mentioned previously I replaced my original (rusty) stabilizers with s/s ones from True-Track. There may be other suppliers.

 

Just for fun, here's what the stock mount on my '90 looks like cut in half.

 

So it is steel sleeve in a rubber bushing?

 

Not exactly a sleeve. It's still got the spherical internal part like you'd find in a conventional heim joint (or rose joint, for our Brit friends). But it's got a looser fit, and that clearance is taken up by the rubber bushing.

After 29 years, mine weren't rusted, but I expect that rubber loses suppleness over time.

 

I haven't cut in to mine, but the sleeves don't move at all

 

Ignore this post - wrong topic!

 

I just started going to school on these during the course of my winter rebuild project, so take this for what it's worth:

When i first took off the stock stabilizers, I tried moving the inner ball part to test if they were frozen. Discovered them to be immovable, so went ahead and got new ones.

When the new ones came in, I was confused to discover that, if tested by hand, they felt essentially immovable also. Didn't make sense.

So I talked to my guy Chuck out at my local HD dealer. Chuck's one of those guys who's been at this for 40 years, and he explained about the rubber bushing. That lead me to the realization that my mistake was expecting these to wobble freely like a conventional heim joint. That's not how they are made.

All that still leaves the question of why the MoCo spec'd the version that they did, and the further question of what would happen if you replaced the stock type with conventional, free-motion joints.

I might try that someday, just because I'm curious. For now, I'll stick with the new, OEM type that I bought. Having learned how they are designed, it seems like a good idea to replace them periodically.

Here's a quick vid:

 

I just got two new, oem stabilizers off ebay. I imagine after 28 years and however many miles electra glide has gone, my originals are tired. I think the rubber should have *some* flexibility. But mine are harder than an old mans toenails. Hopefully after I replace the other worn rubber bits, I'll have a bike that doesnt have spooky tendencies

 

Why? To reduce the things an owner has to service. I've had my all-metal s/s ones for over a decade and they are fine - free moving and easily serviced occasionally with a little weather-proof grease.

 

I wonder if the stiffness of the stock version was part of the design. Then again, compared to the forces involved, that stiffness is probably immaterial, and your thought of maintenance free is probably it.