I'm in the group who says that you need to get another opinion ( and you know all about opinions! ) Did the bike exibit and condition/problem before the "parts replacer" told you that they were in need of replacement. I've never had to prelace them on any of my baggers after many miles. I'd say a further inspection is in order.

 

I had to change mine @40,000,rear had a wobble. Easy project.

 

If this guy said that the bushings are inside of the swing arm than this is a person needs to read the manual. There are bearings in side of them since 2002. Earlier models had cleve blocks inside of the swing arm which are made up of rubber and a metal sleeve. The bearings are crap that HD puts in as they only have a side load of less than 100 pounds. We are having 1,200 pound heavy duty bearings made for replacement. I have found that the swing arm bearings last around 40K mi.

The rubber isolator "RUBBER MOUNT ALL" 47564-86B fits into BRACKET rear fork, right (or right) ALL. It takes a while for that to go bad with usually oil damage.

You may try reading a manual for the insite

 

I take it the bearings are sealed since my flhp doesn't have any grease zerks?

 

Sorry.........the early models like 96 to 2003 (not sure when they changed to spherical bearings) are rubber bushings......or cleveblocks. Didnt see what year you had at first.

 

no those are not sealed bearings. Everything is lubed prior to assembly and HD doesnt list regular maintenance in the service intervals. As hard as some of those pivot shafts come out it would be nice if they had it on a 20,000 mile service.

 

I would guess your mechanic is talking about the isolators. I doubt your swing arm bushings are bad. I have had to replace the isolators many times but never the swing arm bushing/bearings. I have had some high mile baggers.

 

Howard,
Are those heavy duty bearings for a private project, or do you plan on selling them.

 

Those will be available for sale as a for sure fix. YJey are relpacement bearings that are wider and have about 10X the side load rating. More than a year into it.

 

Thanks Howard, do you have an estimated release date. It's funny that 2 days ago I was just talking to someone else about the OEM spherical bearings insufficient side load capacity. I was thinking of using 2 sets of thin thrust bearings, and position one on each side of a solid bronze bearing; 1 set for each side of the swing arm. There simply is not a motion requirement that demands a spherical bearing in the swing arm. Actually once the pivot axle is inserted through both spherical bearings it is impossible for those individual bearings to "wobulate" in a manner they were designed for; it’s absolutely the wrong type of bearing for the application.