Anyone have a '58 to '72 Harley with a Harley sidecar willing to post a few pictures of the rear mount?
George Ryals - 1/29/2010 4:43 PM
Anyone have a '58 to '72 Harley with a Harley sidecar willing to post a few pictures of the rear mount?
I wish I did have a picture for you. I haven't seen one for those particular years. I do recall seeing some of the sidecars in the 70's that were used on FL's with rectangular section swing arms and before HD added the rear footpeg pad that had two bolt holes.
You probably know this, but they used a mount that bolted to the rectangular section swing arm. That meant that the sidecar frame would move up and down with the swing arm and would swivel on the front lower mount very slightly.
Just after that, probably around 1978-1/2, they added the two-bolt right rear footpeg pad on FL's and FX's. At that point, the early sidecar design had the rear fore and aft tube of the sidecar frame cut off by the factory so that the mount then attached to the frame at the footpeg mount. I had a Shovelhead with that version of sidecar. This was the type of sidecar with drum brake and large threaded mounts, pre-Heim joints. That type of frame wouldn't use a kick starter either since the rear mount was forward and would have been hit by the kick starter arm.
I'd like to see the earlier setup for a round tube swing arm of the years that you mention myself. I presume that your sidecar is an earlier one with the long frame section. I suspect that it would have mounted on the swing arm but as I say, I've yet to see one.
Thanks for the information. I did not know that the sc frame was shortened after they quit using the swingarm mount. I have a 1980 HD sc with the big swivel lower front mount and the rear mount designed for the passenger foot peg mount. I may have to add the foot peg/board mount to the '72 FLH if the sc frame is too short to use the swingarm mount. I beleive that '72 was the last year of the round swingarm.
How far back from the swingarm pivot was the rear mount attached.
The car is from a 1980 factory rig. The fellow I bought it from said it didn't use the two piece clamp for the front upper mount so I'll need thst too. He said the boss for the big hole in the front bar and the bolt was welded to the bike. He gave me the spring, washers and nut tha completed the mount.
V-Twin has the upper mount pieces separately. It appears from their catalog, to get the rear mount the full kit ($515) has to be bought. I haven't called to see if they have the rear mount separately.
George Ryals - 1/29/2010 9:09 PM
Thanks for the information. I did not know that the sc frame was shortened after they quit using the swingarm mount. I have a 1980 HD sc with the big swivel lower front mount and the rear mount designed for the passenger foot peg mount. I may have to add the foot peg/board mount to the '72 FLH if the sc frame is too short to use the swingarm mount. I beleive that '72 was the last year of the round swingarm.
How far back from the swingarm pivot was the rear mount attached.
The car is from a 1980 factory rig. The fellow I bought it from said it didn't use the two piece clamp for the front upper mount so I'll need thst too. He said the boss for the big hole in the front bar and the bolt was welded to the bike. He gave me the spring, washers and nut tha completed the mount.
V-Twin has the upper mount pieces separately. It appears from their catalog, to get the rear mount the full kit ($515) has to be bought. I haven't called to see if they have the rear mount separately.
OK, if you have the 1980 model TLE and an early FL or FX frame (Round tube swing arm) you will have to mount the rear mount on the frame somewhere because that was the short frame for electric start. I would make a mount for that purpose to clamp behind the oil tank on the frame tube.
As to mounts, I wouldn't buy the V-Twin setup. I bought a set of those cheap at a swap meet and they were poorly made in China. They are not worth the money, I finally got some OEM ones on eBay. The OEM mounts are on eBay literally every day. There are probably some on there right now. If your frame is FL or FX it will probably use the U-bolt mounts for the lower front on left and right downtubes. The swing arm frames didn't have the lower rings in the frame, IIRC. The upper front is a two piece clamp with a large step bolt, a large thick washer and a lock tab. I would never weld on a bike frame to modfiy it, only to do repairs if needed. The lower rear mount stanchion has a large thread on one end to connect to the sidecar frame with two bolt holes in the mount adapater. That's the link about a foot long that has two large U-bolts to go around the frame. You will have to adapt that to your frame if you don't have the two bolt pad.
The rectangular mount that conected to the swing arm for a rectangular section swing arm mounted just behind the swing pivot bolt ahead of the brake caliper. They only did that for a few years in the 1970's and then they added the two bolt pad and cut the frame off short. After that, you couldn't use a kickstarter on a Harley sidecar. My FXS had a kick starter but I just took it off and made an alloy cover for the shaft.
It sounds complicated but if you get OEM mounts you will probably only have to worry about the lower rear mount to the frame.
Aboiut 15 years ago, I modified a 1980's TLE to fit on a 1993 FLHS with Heim Joints. It worked nicely except I had to completely reshape the cross bar. I wouldn't want to do that again, though. It took me a week! LOL.
If I recall correctly, the earlier long frame may bave been designated as a CLE to differentiate it, LaAter on, they called it a TLE as up to the present day, although there are a lot of changes to the frame with the disc brake and the curves of the tubes on the later ones.
Good luck!
I have the lower front mount complete. I have the 1982 rear mount. I don't have the upper mount. Do you know if the factory rigs used something different for the upper front mount than the two piece clamp with the the stepped bolt? I'm think that the PO didn't look good at the upper mount and it is still on his '80 flh.
George Ryals - 1/30/2010 11:40 AM
I have the lower front mount complete. I have the 1982 rear mount. I don't have the upper mount. Do you know if the factory rigs used something different for the upper front mount than the two piece clamp with the the stepped bolt? I'm think that the PO didn't look good at the upper mount and it is still on his '80 flh.
The upper front mount was always the two piece clamp with the large bolt. it goes in from the rear and the portion of the bolt that protrudes forward holds the crossbar with a sping and a washer.
If you have the '82 rear mount, your only problem will be to adapt it to your earlier bike frame. I would modify the mount rather than doing any modification to the frame but that's just me.
You should ask your friend for the mount. You might have to remove one of the fuel tanks to get at the bolt.
Here are some HD mount listings that are on eBay right now. These have the upper mount but with some otther parts. There were several listings for just the upper mounts on there last week. I look at "Harley sidecar" keywords on eBay all of the time just for fun.
