Kman6287 wrote:It had some type of factory weld that was impacting the head of the swing arm bolt. I had to take a dremel tool to reduce the weld around the head.
Were you referring to the weld on the left in this picture or was there another weld on your frame?
That's it, mine didn't look as good. As I look at yours I am thinking it actually serves a purpose, such as keeping the swing arm bolt from rotating while tightening? Well if so it is gone now, I might have to fabricate something to put in its place.
I was afraid of that. However I just couldn't get that bolt out without cutting it away. I am thinking that they must have put that weld in there after the bolt was placed into position. I think I will try to cut a washer to fit and weld or possibly just find a new bolt with hex head sort of like the KDX. Can you think of any reason why the bolt needs to be hollow?
Looks like I can't go wrong with a solid bolt, probably will cost me a few ounces of weight though
Looking forward to the bike once it is finished. I love riding my son's 125's as they are so flickable, however I want that KDX grunt to go with it. Plan is to have it done my March.
I don't know what it would cost, but you could take that to a machine shop and have them weld it up and then clean-up the inside of the bearing surface.
Good idea Tech98, I will check around locally to see if someone can do that as there doesn't seem to be a surplus of 03 swing arms out there. Was cross-referencing part numbers and the 03 swing arm is definitely unique to the 03 so no chance in using an 04 or 05 swing arm. I think they must have redesigned the 04 and 05 linkage which prompted the swing arm change for those years. I think I will research this to see if I could use an 04 or 05 swing arm with 04, 05 linkages if they will work with the 03 shock and frame. Has anyone tried this route?
OK, I just finished cross referencing part numbers and the frame and shock is also unique to the 03. During the research I should have reviewed this thread as Tech98 already mentioned that earlier on the first page
Kman6287 wrote:Looks like I can't go wrong with a solid bolt, probably will cost me a few ounces of weight though :wink:
Looking forward to the bike once it is finished. I love riding my son's 125's as they are so flickable, however I want that KDX grunt to go with it. Plan is to have it done my March.
The solid bolt will not be as strong as a hollow bolt.
The solid bolt will not be as strong as a hollow bolt.
?????
I don't get that. I would go OEM on that bolt; I doubt you are going to find a replacement at the hardware store.
In my opinion, that '03 swingarm is usable - Clean it up, install new bushings, fill the grooves with expoxy in make sure you use new chain sliders
What I am probably going to do on the bolt is use the current one but have the head machined to hex head to accept a standard metric socket.
On the swing arm I am not sure how much force is applied on the swing arm bearing area. It is the pivot point so I would think most of forces would be on the linkage and shock but I just don't feel comfortable with that much material missing from the swing arm, at a minimum it would induce a weak spot and wouldn't give me any piece of mind while riding. If it ever did fail while riding in that location my fear is that it could have the potential of causing a catastrophe.
On the bolt - if it were me I would just put the weld back in the frame and be done with it. Probably won't ever happen, but if you ever needed to replace that bolt you could just get a replacement and not have to worry about modifying the replacement first. This would have to be the cheapest option as well.
I'd get a price on welding up the swingarm. That will probably help you decide if the peace of mind is worth it or make you more comfortable with exopy or JB Weld to fill in the grooves.
rbates9 wrote:Are you in need of the swing arm bolt or is it just that you ground the frame and need a way to hold the bolt?
The bolt is fine. It is just the stuff that I ground off on the frame. Unfortunately I have never done any welding so I was looking for ways to rectify this myself. I found a friend that does some welding and talked me into welding the "bump" back in. I need to learn how to weld as then I can rely on myself to do some of this myself.
