Sissy bar struts- 03-04 models

[Mr. Wright]

Kind of hard to find these now day. Donna may have some left for the RT frames but the DT frame struts are all gone. The Bull Dog struts will fit the DT chopper, you just need to long gate a couple holes.
Anyway my RT struts came in today, and figured a " how to" was in order. Remember on the 03's and 04's the wires run on the inside of the fender, not on the inside of the strut.
Of course, even though they are new, they have been rolling around in the package for 15 years, and were a little scuffed up. A little Mother's Billet cleaned then right up.


To make this as easy as I could, I just removed the rear strut bolt and loosened the front one. Then tilted the fender up and put a block under it.



Remove the tail light, get a sharpie and mark were the wires go and remove the wires from the socket.



To pull the wires through the hole, they need to go one at a time.



Remove the three bolts inside of the fender. Note, I'm missing one.


Clean fender. Living on a dirt road sucks.



Some of the bikes had a hollow bolt the the wires ran through, and some had a second hole for the wires. Mine has two holes, but the new struts is set up for the hollow bolt.


Sorry that is so hard to se, but if you flip the new strut over, you can see that it is spot drilled for that second hole.


Drill that hole 13/64. Also drill the threads out of the first hole 5/16.


The new strut is thicker, so you will need a longer bolt.

 

[Mr. Wright]

After installing all the bolts with red lock-tight, I always put a dab silicone on the head. Had one back out once, and ate up the side wall of the tire.


Now do the same on the other side.
Sissy bar should be here tomorrow, and I'll see what I have to do with the old sissy bar brackets.

 

[JR03CHOPPER]

Shannon...I used RT struts on my 03 DT. All I could find. I had two spacers made for the frame from a piece of scrap Billet I purchased on Ebay for $6. I took it to a local machine shop with a cardboard pattern and the dimensions I needed and had them cut them for $35. Then I used longer bolts.

Just thought I would throw another option in. My struts on the 2003 were painted black, so I powder coated the struts and the spacers black with a powder coating gun I purchased at Sears a while ago.

 

[Mr. Wright]

Super, that's good to know.

 

[Mr. Wright]

Sissy bar came in. Had to remove the old sissy bar mounts to get it in. I'm going to leave the old ones on for two reasons. 1. I don't feel like fixing the holes in the fender right now and 2. these sissy bars have been known to fall off. With the old mount in the way, I know it won't.

 

[Synway]

Morning from Mississippi ,I'm looking for a set of struts like you did on your bike, you mention that Donna may have some( Who does she work for?) I have a 2003 DT frame that I need struts for I bar sissy bar like yours. Thanks for any help you can give. Synway

 

[roadie1389]

Donna and Derek:

 

[Synway]

Thank you ,I'll give them a call

 

[Mr. Wright]

Thank you ,I'll give them a call

Do you know how to tell if you have a DT or RT frame?

 

[Mr. Wright]

The easiest way to tell is to look at the front motor mount. On the DT,(Daytec) both the engine and the foot controls are mounted to an aluminum piece .


On the RT (Rolling thunder) frame, both the engine and foot controls are mounted to the frame.


Note, both of these bikes have forward controls on the, and may look different than yours.

 

[Synway]

Yep mine is mounted to aluminum

 

[Mr. Wright]

You have two options mentioned above. I can make you the spacers, if you go that route. If you go with the Bull Dog struts, you just need to longgate a couple holes.

Yep mine is mounted to aluminum

 

[Synway]

Thank you, I'll let you know what I come up with.