Chain Drive Harley Swingarms

If you are building a big inch FXR the stock swingarm is simply not strong enough. FXR's and FLT/FLH have different shock lengths and shock eye locations. We make a special swingarm for the FXRs that uses a late model, 2002 to 2008, FLT/FLH swingarm that we convert to chain drive.

A belt has to know it's limits. As is frequently said, "Chains are for racing...Belts are for holding up your pants". When you start putting in high compression big inch engines, or high output turbos, you are going to start snapping final drive belts. Hayabusas, BMW S1000RR's, or any highly-engineered 180 to 195 hp street bike, would never have a final belt drive. A 140 to 360 hp RB Racing Turbo Harley surely needs one.

Available in Gloss Black finish. Don't ask us to chrome them as swingarms do not belong in acid and chrome tanks.

(1) OEM Steel (pictured above): If you have a 1000 lbs of rider and bike the OEM dedicated steel forgings are stronger than any aftermarket aluminum item. Make 100,000 of them and you can pay for the forging dies and fixturing. Beyond the aftermarket.

(2) Extruded and Machined Aluminum: Saw cuts and welding and not doing any post-fabrication heat treating or ageing is not a good idea. We got an education in that in the early 1980s from someone who used molten salt heat treating of aluminum motorcycle swingarms. Normalization and post weld heat treating back to a T6 condition. Raw aluminum (no corrosion protection) . No one does this. $2,000.00+

(3) Machined Billet: Held together by bolts...Not a good idea. Good for park and talk, not for high stress. If you want aluminum option (2) is better. Raw Aluminum (no corrosion protection) $3,000.00 - $3800.00+.

Pre 2009 Twin Cam swingarm shown with 0- 2" adjustment. The stock adjusters only offer +/-1/4" (12.7mm) of adjustment which is sort of understandable as the factory belt is a fixed deal with a certain drive ratio and belt length. This simply does not work if you want to go chain drive because +/- one link or +/- one tooth on the rear sprocket and there is no way you can get correct chain adjustment.

We modify your FL swingarm for 2" (50.8mm) of movement in stock lengths. We also offer modification in 3" (+1-3") longer. Shock eye location remains stock.

For 0-2", 1-3", and 0-3" over swingarms we need to remove the old brake anchor shelf and fabricate a completely new one in a new location.

This involves about four hours of sawing, grinding, sanding, and refinishing plus the new fabrication and welding. The OEM Harley brake anchor shelf is welded completely around, 360 degrees, so all the welds must be removed on both faces of the formed swingarm surface.

Here are the stock adjusters. Put a 1" axle in a 1.5" slot and you can only move it +/- 1/4" (12.7mm). They have to go.

Pictured above are the new chromed chain adjusters offering 2" (50.8mm) of adjustment. Chrome adjusters come with four bolts (two sets): One set for 0-2" and one set for 0-3" over stock.

Alignment measurements can be taken with vernier calipers on total bolt length from rear of adjuster. Locking nuts are supplied. Procedure is to set length with 5/8" socket on the bolt. Then holding the bolt head in place tighten the locking nut with a 11/16" wrench.

Note: When the chain is finally adjusted, hold welded nut on rear axle and final tighten cone nut to 95-105 ft-lbs (128.9-142.4 Nm). Install your e-clip in axle groove.

Precision sawing of aluminum and steel billet parts, CNC mill and lathe machining, CNC mill and CNC lathe fixtures, manual lathe machining, multiple welding fixtures, heliarc (TIG) welding. MIG welding, high speed belt sanding, manual hand sanding and finishing, bead blasting, powder coating, polishing, chroming, color buffing, bearing preparation, re-tapping of threads, chrome polishing, swingarm polishing, touch up finishing, wrapping in plastic wrap, and packaging and shipping.

CNC machined and fabricated swingarm adjusters...Here off for final polishing and chroming. Gives full two inches of chain adjustment on our modified swingarms.

We geared our 2004 Turbo Road Glide a bit taller: 24T transmission / 45T rear sprocket so we can cruise at 80 mph at a little over 2750 rpm...and still take it up to 180 mph. There was no simple answer to getting a chain to work so we redesigned the swingarm. There is no cush drive on this year.

Hot Rod baggers are the norm these days with street racers pouring money into big 124/126/131/and 145 cubic inch engines, with high lift cams and lots of compression for street racing and bragging rights. Only by going to chain drive can you have a true high performance drivetrain and the flexibility to gear up or down which is impossible with the stock belt drive.

Our 126 ORCA 360 hp Turbo Road Glide aka "Road Toad" has a chain final drive as does Mike Geokan's 139 ORCA 535 hp Bonneville Bullett. Both run the EK530ZZZ chain.

RB Racing offers a swingarm conversion service for Harley-Davidson Twin Cam FLT/FLH models. If you want your swingarm modified you must send RB Racing the items listed in 1-4 below and provide the rear sprocket size required. Below drawing is just to show that items #13 and #24 must be left in the swingarm.

Ship Swingarm to (with note in box as to contact info and what you are ordering)

1. Your swingarm: Dressers Send with bearings (#13 above) and Inner spacers (#24 above) installed. Do not remove these.
2. Your rear axle and axle nut.

Pictured above is a pre 2009 FLT Swingarm. In 2008 Harley started put a bolt-on cush drives on their touring final drive pulleys. For 2008 models simply ditch the cush drive and go sprocket direct. For Pre-2008 models the sprocket can be bolted directly to the hub. Spherical Bearings were first installed on 2002 models.

The final drive belt can be removed by placing a scissors jack under the bike and removing the left side pivot assembly. You don't have to cut the expensive belt. You do have to be careful not to nick the belt as this could cause premature failure should it be used again.

These are not the same as our FLT/H Swinarms. Lengths and shock locations are different

Here is a CVO2 swingarm off of our FXR Orca Turbo with a red arrow showing the weak point, among others, in the stock FXR swingarm when used in high horsepower situations like 300 hp turbos or built 130 hp 124" motors. The Cleve Block bushings have to go and we use the 2002 to 2008 Dresser swingarm with spherical bearings. The later model swingarms are twice as strong and we convert them to chain drive with 0-2" of adjustment.

For high hp it does no good just to upgrade the bearings in a stock FXR swingarm. Go straight to a late model rear wheel with the 25mm rear axle and upgrade your caliper at the same time. You can run a 150 rear tire upgrading from the OEM 130 size, using a 16" or 17" rim. 25mm wheel bearings.

Above: Top swingarm pivot axle is 5/8": FXR or EVO Dresser. Lower photo is later 2002-2008 3/4"transmission shaft.

FXR with conversion to TC (pre 2009 Dresser) Swingarm w/ 5/8" Shaft Spherical Bearing

In the picture above, at the top, are some really questionable White Delrin spacers that are sold with tubular inserts that, with the help of some grease/paste, are supposed to act as swingarm bearings . This is by no means a bearing in any sense of the word. It is patently stupid...Crude in execution, a low-tech bushing.

White Delrin Spacers: Built-in stiction you are supposed to ride through. Those go in the trash. Kitchen sink inventor tech. Here testing Delrin bushing stiction with a weight on a moment arm..It did not move. Don't send these in to us...The Delrin melts in the powdercoating oven.

The original rubber-mounted FXR/FL's had complex Cleveblock swingarm pivots that were designed with rubber internals, derived from Norton Isolastic mounts, that had a singular purpose of damping vibrations beween the swingarm and the engine-transmission-frame assembly. These were part of the reason why FXR's became so revered for their handling and smoothness...But the Cleveblocks do wear out a long way down the road.

They subject of perhaps misguided scorn these days...But in anno 1984, with 58hp EVOs, it was a revolution,

Harley then transitioned with the TC Dressers to spherical bearings which are free rotating bearings, non-rubber isolated, which eliminated the Cleveblock rubber isolation.

For FXRs transitioning to pre 2009 TC swingarms RB Racing machines up some spacers, the black items pictured above, that allow you to use the OEM 9208 Spherical Bearing...that is actually a real bearing...This allows you to retain your one or two-piece 5/8" axle. We install these in the pre 2009 Twin Cam swingarms we modify for 2" adjustment, on high horsepower, FXRs. The original FXR swingarms are crack-prone and not meant for 111" and 124" motors.

If you choose to do this be aware you must change your rear wheel, axle, and brake assembly for the 25mm rear axle and later model brake calipers. Do not attempt to drill or ream your transmission case for the late 3/4" axle. There may be more stronger Delkron FXR cases with 5/8" and 3/4"pivots...even though Delkron went away long ago.

We can supply the complete swingarm ready to fit your FXR or earlier EVO Dressers. FXR and Dresser swingarms have different shock locations.

Stiction

Swingarm pivot bearings, shock absorber rubber bushings, and shock absorber stiction all conspire to bounce your rear end like you were riding a rigid with the rear tire being your only suspension.

People send in swingarms with the sperical bearings almost locked solid...We replace these with new 9208 bearings. You have about 18" of leverage from pivot to rear axle so even if there is stiction the arm will pivot but it's not right. When we send back modified swingarms they pivot freely.

As for the shock absorbers we suggest you look at the videos on the Super Shox website. They use spherical rod ends to avoid bushing friction.

Cut Your Chain to Length

Best to measure things twice before you cut the chain by grinding and pressing off the links you do not need. Using a couple of plastic tie wraps allows you to move the adjusters back and forth to see exactly what links you want to remove. In this case we ended up with a location about 5/8" futher back than stock. The longer adjuster bolts are not needed so we'll put in the shorter bolts supplied. 2004 FLTRI shown.

Note: When the chain is finally adjusted, hold welded nut on rear axle and final tighten cone nut to 95-105 ft-lbs (128.9-
142.4 Nm). Install new e-clip in axle groove.

Note: If you intend to use the lower plastic belt cover you will need to cut off the inner lip.

Billet Hub History

We did about 195 of these hubs, in batches of 65 at a time, until everyone decided to get in the game. We used a 5 bolt pattern with special shoulder Gr9 bolts. The hubs were a light press into the cush assembly, not loose.

When business slowed we decided spending another $25,000.00 in billet material and machining to have parts sit around was no longer a good plan. There were the best though. S&S used them on their 143 Dragon project.

Ancient history as they say. We see used hubs from other vendors up for sale..guess people are dumping hem. We had zero issues with ours.

Dressers: M8, 2009 and later Twin Cam: Your Swingarm Modified, Rear Axle and Axle Nut Modified. Powdercoated Gloss Black Including Chrome chain adjusters.	$1,095.00
M8 Softails: Your Swingarm Modified, Rear Axle and Axle Nut Modified. Powdercoated Gloss Black Including Chrome chain adjusters. Specify 0-2"; +1-3", 0-3"	$1,095.00
FXR and EVO Dressers: You Supply 2002-2008 Dresser Swingarm for 5/8" Transmission Pivot Shafts : Modified for 5/8" Transmission Boss. Custom machined adaptors. 0-2" (See FXR discussion lower on this age)	$1.295.00