[Ducati] Swingarm

[Rich Roberts]

This is pretty common failure, I can not recall how many I have heard of over the years. You could always go back to steel swingarm and stay away from the fancy failure prone aluminum SP swingarm. I am not sure what Deucati uses for aluminum 6061 T6 or something even more pedestrian but anyone who has worked with aluminum knows its fatigue strength is not so hot, and that pinch bolt is under tension all the time. Might work for bicycle parts but not something that will cause your whole ass end of bike to shimmy rattle and roll. First time I heard of this failure was a good 10 plus years ago. Not sure percentage of failures but on aluminum swingarms lots have failed. I can think of dozens I have heard of first hand over the years. Seems like evryone who rides 900SS with aluminum swingarm knows of at least someone who has had that failure. it is sort of like the plastic exapnsion tank on water cooled Ducs, 916s etc or voltage regulator rectifier failures,
 take your pick eventually you will have one of them. Rich


----- Original Message ----
From: John Filak <jffilak at hotmail.com>
To: ducati at ducati.net
Sent: Wednesday, September 5, 2007 9:12:42 AM
Subject: RE: [Ducati] Swingarm


>From: Ronald Betts <ronaldebettsasalc0015 at hotmail.com>
>... my swingarm seperated at the point where the cast pivot and extruded 
>arm were welded together by the countershaft sprocket ... Danm if it aint 
>cracked right through the center of the weld and the pivot is hanging on to 
>the rest of the arm by a skin on the upper side of the arm ... does anyone 
>know where I can get a used swingarm ...


Ron,
Sorry to hear this. If you have pics, send them. I'd like to inspect the 
failure. I wouldn't expect help from Ducati, though.

You might want to consider looking for a steel CR swingarm. They should be 
inexpensive.

If not, I have an aluminum SP swingarm which I recently purchased on ebay, 
but after receiving, it left me scratching my head as to whether I'd 
actually do the conversion. I didn't realize it was going to involve a 
wheel, tire, and possibly an axle. I don't really want to sink that much 
money into this bike. So if you're interested, I'd be happy to re-sell it to 
you for what I paid on ebay. Here's the auction number: 230151307998.

Please PM me if ya wanna.


John Filak
Potterstown, NJ, USA
"Tempus Fugit"

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