Its official: BajaRon's swaybar is a MUST have for all RT owners!

[flybuddy]

I've got the bar, waiting on the "bump skid" and plan to do both installs at the same time (since the Spyder will be "up" anyway). One thing that I cannot find are torque specs for any of the bolts in the install. Near as I can tell, there are 8 involved (4 on the bar, 2 at the heim joint, and 2 to loosen the frunk). I've checked the BRP 2012 RT maint. manual (on CD) and all it shows are instructions on removal and replacement, no mention of torque for any of the subject bolts (though I see torque mentioned many other places in the manual).

Does any one (Ron, maybe? ) have a recommendation for each of these? Also, for the two collars that go on at the end of the install, would there be a recommendation to use loctite on those small screws?

Looking forward to the improved ride and keeping up with SpyderCowboy on his HD Ultra Classic!

I don't think you'll be able to torque the clamp bolts as pretty much only an open end or box wrench will fit, The clamp bolts were god awful tight on mine and it took a hammer to break the uppers loose. The 2 at the heim were fairly standard as were the frunk. You can feel the tightness coming off and try to duplicate that going on, I don't believe torque is critical on any of these other that to not vibrate loose. Loctite might be useful.
I installed mine today. Ran it up on ramps and did the following:
removed plastic bump skid - 4 screws and 2 bolts
removed 2 lower frunk bolts
removed lower clamp bolts and loosened uppers as far as I could without them falling off
removed heim joint bolts
pushed up on the frunk with my knee while using one hand to move clamp and other to pull stock sway bar down, same for other side
Put the rubber bushings on the outside of the new bar (near the bends) and pushed the bar up into the clamps(while holding the frunk up with knee again)
slid the bushings into the clamps
put all the hardware on loose and tested for centering of the bar--I used a small piece of safety wire to measure each side (tough to measure a curved surface with limited room) bent the wire when it hit the curve. Tap the sway bar back and forth until the it matched. Check the Heims clearance.
Tighten everything up, install lower cover and done
If I had a longer 13mm open end I think I could have done this in under an hour. I wasted 20 minutes where I couldn't get enough leverage on the upper clamp bolts.

[bmwlarry]

I just installed mine and I didn't torque them. They are Nylock nuts so they wont come off. I tightened them to what I believed is enough and will often go back and check them.
Thats just me though.

[BajaRon]

Like others here I can only tell you what I do. I'm not a big torque guy. Head bolts, rod bearings, things like that, absolutely. Otherwise, torque wrenches are very good at twisting things right off in your hand if you're not careful.

Again, as mentioned, the important bolts in this install have Nylock nuts and they aren't going to go anywhere. The sway bar clamp bolts that I've done are all pretty tight but some are really killer tight. This tells me that they are not torque spec'ed at the factory, they just get them tight. And that is what I do. They don't need to be killer tight, just good and tight.

Go easy on the Frunk bolts. They just need to be reasonably tight. If you go Frankenstein on them you may strip them. Same with the Billet Aluminum collar clamps. Just get them good and snug. If you ape up on these you may strip them.

How's that for a scientific answer!

[flybuddy]

Did my first ride today since install. Went through some Harley eating turns at high speed and the sway bar really makes a difference. Great job Ron, thx!

[GeoffCee]

Here is link to the install album

http://s808.photobucket.com/albums/z...bar%20install/

Thanks for taking, annotating and posting the interesting photos of your install of BajaRon's swaybar. I had thought to load them into my iPad to use them to guide my own install at some future date but I don't seem to be able to copy them at good quality out of Photobucket. Is there a way to do it, Larry?

[bmwlarry]

Copying them from photobucket should give you a good quality for laptop or iPad for viewing. They are 72dpi so the res should be good to go for viewing but for actual printing, they will look bad. Juist view them and not print them.

[GeoffCee]

Copying them from photobucket should give you a good quality for laptop or iPad for viewing. They are 72dpi so the res should be good to go for viewing but for actual printing, they will look bad. Juist view them and not print them.

I couldn't access (copy) your photos in Photobucket, instead I found a link to that same bunch of photos that you made available for Eddie Sheppard to use in the Album Gallery. That worked great for me, too, thanks. Right now I have copies of them safely tucked away in my iPad for use some time in the future when I set about fitting my new sway bar.

[StriperKing]

OK, this is a mod I was not going to do since I have the Elkas. I did not think i would get the bang for the buck but after all these posts I think this will be my next mod. When you think about it the Elkas were $800.00 and well worth it but how can you complain about $200.00 if you get what you guys say you did. Thanks for giving all the reports! My wife dosn`t thank you so much, lol.

[kinggeek]

OK, this is a mod I was not going to do since I have the Elkas. I did not think i would get the bang for the buck but after all these posts I think this will be my next mod. When you think about it the Elkas were $800.00 and well worth it but how can you complain about $200.00 if you get what you guys say you did. Thanks for giving all the reports! My wife dosn`t thank you so much, lol.

I am sure you will be thrilled with this mod. I'm running Elka's and the same tires as you and improvement is incredible.

[bmwlarry]

Just DOOOOO ITTTTTTT! I hear Ron has just about sold out on his first run on the shocks. there is at least three members of our group that have them. It looks as though I will be busy installing!

[StriperKing]

I am sure you will be thrilled with this mod. I'm running Elka's and the same tires as you and improvement is incredible.

Thanks for the info.