I recently replaced my swing arm as I thought it was time to inspect the bearings, bushings, etc. with the mileage I am getting to on my bike. I am at 68K right now. I was not sure what to expect but the manual made it sound easy enough and I had a spare near new swing arm sitting here. In hindsight, I should have chromed the spare one but did not. It is definitely 20/20.

1.Put bike on lift. Depending on your rear suspension set up, either remove shocks or pivot your air ride out of the way. I did not do either first as I was not thinking, no surprise here.

2. Remove rear wheel and brake caliper. Remove splash guard.
Notice the swing arm is already off in this pic.


3.Using a 1 3/8" socket and an adjustable wrench ( I had to use an adjsutable wrench due to the True dual exhaust on the left side) Remvoe the bolt that holds the swing arm.


I found a lot of leverage is necessary on this bolt so use a breaker bar or a BIG ratchet.


Once the bolt is removed move the swing arm up and down to free the spacers and then the same to remove the bushings. Teh wing arm will not come off until you get the bushings off. Once they are off it will slide right out.
Yup same pic again. I forgot to take one at every step.


Inspect the bearings and bushings for wear. My bearings still functioned as they just came off the assembly line and the bushings looked fine, but I had new bushings and the "new" swing arm had near new bearings as well. Teh bearings are held in my a large snap ring in each side of the swing arm. I did not need to mess with them, but it looks simple enough to remove them.

Here is the bushings that hold the swing arm on. One on each side.



Slide the swing arm back into place and secure it with the bushings. You need to move the swing arm up and down to be able to get them in on both sides easily. Next put the spacers in place. Same thing for moving the swing arm for these.

Slide the swing arm bolt back in and spin the nut on the end using red loc tite. Do not tighten yet. Ensure that you have proper mvoement then tighten.
New swing arm in place


Reassemble everything else.

Total time for this job was 3 hours taking my sweet time with a friend.

Drew

 

Thanks Doc! Been toying with a chrome swing arm but was nervous about getting into a painfully complex procedure. Your post makes me less pessimistic, almost to the point I wanna go out and tear it apart tonight - just for a dry run! *whack*
Okay, maybe not quite THAT enthused, but you get the idea! Well done!

 

Glad to help. Much simpler than I thought too.

Drew

 

Thanks Drew! This is on my 100,000 mile service list.

 

thanks for the write up.

 

Nice one Drew, you guys certainly put some miles on those bikes,

 

Good job Drew, not that bad a job at all. Thats one old Snap-on rachet you have there,

 

Drew, thanks, I'll have to bookmark this. Swapping out for a chrome swing arm is down there on my list at some point.

 

It's from 1930 and still works well. Might as well use it. The swing arm swap is one of the easiest things I have done. The hardest part was getting that bolt undone that holds it on as the it was super tight.

Drew

 

Good write up how old is that snap on ratchet?lol