We all know it sucks getting old as things start to wear out with time. The same goes for our motorcycles: components wear out and break down. The difference is that if your TV or toaster breaks down, you're not sitting on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck, or worse, sitting in the hospital from an accident. It's always a good thing to go over your bike before you ride, but what about the parts you can't see, such as wheel bearings and swingarm bushings? Unless you have a reason to, these parts are often overlooked until it is too late. 01. This is the Custom Cycle Engineering Swingarm Retrofit with pivot shaft01. This is the Custom Cycle Engineering Swingarm Retrofit with pivot shaft Here at Baggers magazine, we have a few go-to shops that always help us out with doing tech installs and letting us borrow tools as needed. So when one of the shop techs (Kazoo) at Freedom Cycles in Orange, California, picked up a project bike that needed a list of things, we were glad to help out. The bike is a '99 Road Glide with just more than 60,000 miles on it, it still runs great, but just needed to be gone through and freshened up. One night Kazoo noticed that the rear end felt a bit soft, thinking it was low tire pressure. He pulled over but the tires were fine. Once he got the bike to the shop and started checking the rear, Kazoo found that the swingarm felt loose. It was then he knew that he needed to replace the stock H-D Cleve bloc with spherical bearings. After looking online, we came across Custom Cycle Engineering (CCE) and its FLT/FXR Swingarm Retrofit with pivot shaft for $339. Replacing the Cleve bloc with spherical bearings would dramatically change the handling and tracking of older dresser models. The spherical bearings reduce the stiction at the swingarm pivot and negate any lateral and torsional movement in the swingarm. The conversion fits all FLT and FXR models from 1980 to 2001. In '02 Harley-Davidson changed the Cleve bloc bushing to a spherical bearing still used today on FL Touring models. The CCE swingarm conversion kit updates pre-'02 models bringing the swingarm/frame/transmission interface up to date and lead to a much better. 02. To get started, the first thing we needed to do was remove the saddlebags, exhaust, shocks, brake caliper, and rear wheel to get to the swingarm.02. To get started, the first thing we needed to do was remove the saddlebags, exhaust, s 03. Next, the chrome plug and the fork bracket were removed from the left-side mount followed by the pivot shaft nut. The old rubbermount isolator was then removed.03. Next, the chrome plug and the fork bracket were removed from the left-side mount foll 04. From the right side, the swingarm pivot shaft was removed along with the bushings, seals, and isolator04. From the right side, the swingarm pivot shaft was removed along with the bushings, se 05. With the pivot shaft out, the swingarm was removed from the frame. 06. The swingarm was placed in the hydraulic press and the old Cleve bloc assembly was removed (pressed out).06. The swingarm was placed in the hydraulic press and the old Cleve bloc assembly was re 07. Here is a shot of both the stock H-D Cleve bloc assemblies (on the right) and the new CCE bearings assembly.07. Here is a shot of both the stock H-D Cleve bloc assemblies (on the right) and the new 1 | 2 | » | View Full Article By Ernie Lopez Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!
