I recently discovered a bad rear fork (swing arm) bearing, causing a squeek and wonky handling on my '03 Fatty.

 

The steer post of which you speak ?
What is it ?
Are you saying the steering stem where the triple trees mate to the bikes frame
at the front of the bike?
Is this a slight movement of the bars to the bike ? Say up and down if so your steering stem is broken ,DO NOT RIDE FIX IT or you could die.
I broke one , nearly crashed cost of the stem from HD was nuts so I used an inch by 8 inch black bolt on my old EVO ,still in there ha ha.honestly been there for over 6 years .
Seriously if the bars move up and down relative to the bike the stem is broke.

 

A good one indeed! Tire is good. Working on it today. Finally got some time. It feels like the swing arm. I know of course everything wears but how common is it for the bushings to go on the swing arm. Will also be checking the shocks. Bottomed recently when I couldn't avoid a poorly set in man hole cover. Again thanks for all the suggestions!

 

Yo c'mon Taffy what's a steer post mate !

 

First, the steering post (at least that is what I called it) is the long bolt that goes through the neck of the frame and holds the front end to the frame. Essentenially an axle too, allowing the rider to point the bike where he wants it to go. Normally I would write he/she but after the ridiculousness of the whole Cam Newton thing I'm protesting, but I digress. Please enlighten me as to the proper name of the bike part to which I refer.
Anyway, when I first encountered this wiggle problem, the first thing I did was visually inspected the distance of the rear axle nut to the circlip and bounced the rear end around to see if there was any movement. Seeing nothing in either case I moved on to tire pressure. That was good too. I put the bike away till I could get it in the air. The only thing being I took my bike to a close independent thinking I had ruled out the easy and the obvious.
Got it in the air and promptly found the rear axle was loose. Embarrassing!
This prompts me to ask why did HD go away from the slotted nut and cotter pin on axles. Never had this happen on my '04 Heritage nor on countless high vibrating two stroke dirt bikes.
In hindsight, I should not expect my eyes to be able to see the distance between the nut and the circlip has changed by a couple thousandths of an inch.
Thanks for the input and humour. Try not to crucify me too much.

 

OK we're in the same place fu(k it's name, steering stem where the triples join the frame right, what's in a name right , k so is there any movement of the bars how I asked in my first? post ? reread it plz. If there is it's explained in that post above. Do you think there's movement there or with the axle you've found it. Just worried as if that's broke you could kill yourself.
Cheers HTH.

 

Thanks for the concern. I think because I was negligent in maintaining the neck that I was looking for that to be the problem. From a feel stand point it did not make sense but just did not think it was the rear axle. Would have thought I would have seen the rear wheel move when I had a buddy bouncing it around but it needed to be in the air. I would like to get an axle with a slotted nut or I might drill my present nut and axle and put a cotter pin through. I just don't know why HD moved away from something simple and proven. If it ain't broke...

 

Glad you got it sorted!

 

Cool cool !