Shock bolt broke off in swing arm!! 2004 Chopper
- Thread starter jor43387
- Start date
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rebroker7
Active Member
Had the same on my American Ironhorse Texas Chopper. Take a look:
Jersey Big Mike
100K mile club
Can't help with the removal, but are you torquing that bolt to 100 ft/lbs and using red loctite when installing the shocks?
I've got over 170K on softail style bikes and never had one loosen up. And I've got over 10K since I replaced mine recently on my K( and alls well.
Had a shock go bad. Didn’t realize until I started tearing bike down. Cost me a broke swing arm and a new pair of progressive shocks. Got her back and really pleased with the suspension. Love these bikes and what they teach me. ( weather I want to know or not)
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I’ve had 3 softail shock bolts break on my Bourget, so a similar setup to the Big Dogs. They were Loctited and torqued correctly and the shock bushings lubed, but these are heavy bikes to begin with and depending on rider weight (in my case 250lbs) that’s a lot of stress at those joints just by design. The first time it was 2 of the 4 original bolts that broke...one on the frame side and one on the swing arm side. Your heart sinks of course because it is a complete pain to try to get these out once they’ve snapped. The swingarm side I drilled and used an extractor. The frame side I used a chisel to slowly back out the busted piece. These were replaced with Colony bolts. The following year I had one of the Colony’s break. Colony makes good quality fasteners and there was no indication that they were grade 8 but I assume they were? After this I said “no more” and bought stainless bolts from Diamond Engineering. Their bolts are manufactured to be beyond Grade 8 and 190,000 psi. Haven’t had a problem since.
I just looked and Diamond Engineering’s website www.depss.com is completely down...wow, I wonder if they’re out of business?! That would be a shame...they make some great looking and very strong stainless fasteners.
I just looked and Diamond Engineering’s website www.depss.com is completely down...wow, I wonder if they’re out of business?! That would be a shame...they make some great looking and very strong stainless fasteners.
Welcome from Florida Brother! If that’s your 1st post on this forum, it’s pretty damn good! Bourget makes some fine ass bikes. Cheers!
Hey thanks man! Where at in Florida? I lived in St. Pete when I was a kid and I’ve got a good friend in Ocala. I’ve come down to his place and then we’ve ridden over to Daytona for Biketoberfest a couple of years.
Been very happy with the Bourget...have always loved long raked choppers of any type. (All started with the Captain America bike in “Easy Rider” when I was a kid.) Only paid $8k for it in 2015. It’s an ‘03 and only had 7k miles on it. It’s a shame people bought these bikes like the Big Dogs, Bourget’s, & AIH and then just let them sit. Of course I’ve put over 20k miles on it. LOL The forks on mine are from Mean Street who also made forks for some Big Dogs. A lot of similarities between the Big Dogs and the Bourget’s. I’m always looking at the Big Dogs in case I see a good deal I would buy one...you can never have enough bikes right? LOL
Been very happy with the Bourget...have always loved long raked choppers of any type. (All started with the Captain America bike in “Easy Rider” when I was a kid.) Only paid $8k for it in 2015. It’s an ‘03 and only had 7k miles on it. It’s a shame people bought these bikes like the Big Dogs, Bourget’s, & AIH and then just let them sit. Of course I’ve put over 20k miles on it. LOL The forks on mine are from Mean Street who also made forks for some Big Dogs. A lot of similarities between the Big Dogs and the Bourget’s. I’m always looking at the Big Dogs in case I see a good deal I would buy one...you can never have enough bikes right? LOL
Oh, and one other thought for the OP. Be VERY CAREFUL when Loctiting those bolts that you don’t get ANY on the shoulder of the bolt that goes through the steel cylinder of the shock bushing. If you accidentally get some on there it will lock the bolt to the cylinder and it won’t move correctly. What I do is apply the Loctite (I use Blue 243 instead of red - never had one come loose with 243) to the female threads of the mount in the frame/swingarm and NOT to the bolt threads themselves. Then, as you screw in the bolt there is no chance of any getting on the bushing cylinder. Use bearing grease on the shoulder of the bolt and the inside of the bushing cylinder - that’s where your movement occurs as the swing arm moves and the shock actuates. I pull everything apart every off-season and re-grease. The grease dissipates pretty quickly over a riding season and even though the radial movement at the bushing is small you want that to stay lubricated.
Wow! That’s an amazing looking ride! Kudos!! I live in Melbourne on the East Coast. Cheers to many more good rides!!