You'll have to remove the pipes, or disconnect part of the suspension so you can tuck the tire/wheel up into the fender.

With my air ride, and while on a bike lift, I put a jack up under the rear tire and jack it up into the fender. After each pump, I let some air out of the suspension, and it tucks up nicely.



If you have a bike jack, I would suggest disconnecting part of the rear suspension to allow free travel of the swingarm.

 

I echo bmb it's a biatch to do, but the exhaust isn't that hard to get off it's just a pain.

 

V&H really dropped the ball on that one if you ask me. I take my Bigshots loose every time I change the tire. It's a great ole big PITA! I've come real close to chopping them off short on a couple of occasions. Here'a how I do mine:
1. Use a breaker bar and socket to loosen the axle nut.
2. Put the bike on a lift and loosen the header bolts.
3. Remove the exhaust rear mounting bolts and pull the pipes away from the swingarm.
4. Remove axle nut, brake caliper and brake bracket mounting bolt on swingarm.
5. Remove axle and wheel without messing with the adjusters.
6. Remove belt from pulley and remove wheel.

Installation is the reverse of removal except I use a click style torque wrench to tighten the axle nut instead of a breaker bar and obviously do it before I install the pipes. I wouldn't rely on marking the nut. If you mark it one time and use the torque wrench you'll see what I mean.

 

I didn't think putting a mark on the nut would be a real good idea... but if other people were doing it, i probably would have.

I won't need to buy new gaskets for the exhaust each time I remove it, do I?

I love the Big Shots, but I wish they were just a little shorter. Maybe an invention like this would work:

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That's supposed to be an extension for the socket that is round and hollow in the middle. That way you can get the nut so it is almost tight enough with a regular wrench, then you should have enough room to use the extension to turn it a little more until it's torqued.

 

I made a homemade tool that is exactly what you guys need.
It would be hard to explain without a picture.

I will take a picture of it in the next day or so and post it for you.

It let you use your tourque wrench without removing your pipes and is very simple to make.

Harley Jones

 

Cool!!! I can't wait to see it.

 

Here you go!
I took the proper size box wrench and cut it off 6" long.

Then I took a torch and heated and bent the box wrench stright. I then welded a socket with the proper drive size for my torque wrench up 2-1/2" up the wrench.

This way the socket and wrench and your torque wrench are parallel to the axel nut. When using the homemade extension make sure it is 90 degrees to the torque wrench. There is no difference in the torque spec. on the axel nut with this set-up.

I made this tool to work around my pro-pipe and have used it many times.

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nice idea

 

NOT trying to step on anyones toes here, just trying to keep ya safe, I built a similar tool, anytime you increase the length of the torque wrench beyond the pivot point, you are changing the torque setting. I had to refer back to my textbook from aircraft school to get the formula, sorry but I dont have it with me right now, I recalculated it based on the new tool length and wrote the figure that i needed to set the torque wrench to on it. In my case, setting the wrench to 92 ft lb yields the required 110 ft lb. I can get the formula tommorrow and repost, just wanted to get the info out, once again, not tryin to step on toes, just keep everyone safe, one of these tools that have a good length to them could seriously overtorque the axle, mine has an increase in length of only 3.5 inches but increases the torque by 18 ft lb!

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Here is a good article on this. Type on your browser-Keeping it all together part 1- then scroll to part 3 and read about homemade torque wrench extensions.

As long as you keep them parallel and keep your torque wrench at a right angle to the homemade extension the torque will be the same. I proved this by checking the axel torque with the tool and without and they were the same.

Harley Jones

 

What ElvisWarrior said is correct if you don't keep the extension at a 90degree angle to the torque wrench.

Here is a link to the above site. Go to part 3 and then go to homemade torque wrench extensions.
http://home.jtan.com/~joe/KIAT/kiat_1.htm

Harley Jones

 

Thanks for the clarification Harley, I was concerned that someone may use the tool as you have shown in your pictures, which increases torque, but at a right angle to the original pivot point, you are safe. If you guys like, tomorrow I can still post the formula if you have to use the extension straight on, but in the case of Bigshots, there should be plenty of room to torque at the 90 degree angle.

 

Speaking for myself, loosening the pipes is just not that big a deal....

 

Hey ElvisWarrior,

Thanks for pointing this out about the pictures. I was trying to show the homemade tool and didn't even think about not having the torque wrench at the 90degree angle to the homemade tool. This could have messed someone up if they didn't read the post carefuly.

Thanks again [^]
Harley Jones

 

I'm not sure if I follow the 90 degree thing correctly... Is this how I would use the homemade tool?


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Ewells,
Your drawing is the correct way and your torque will be the same as if you were on the axel nut.
You are not changing the pivot point this way. If you put the torque wrench on like I showed in my pictures the pivot point changes and you will need to do the math like ElvisWarrior talked about.

I have always just used the 90degree method and it is spot on.
Just make your final torque with the torque wrench 90degrees to the homemade tool.

Hope this helps you out.
Harley Jones

 

Thanks again for the tip! I already have the 27 mm wrench and an old socket, I'll just have to see if my neighbor wouldn't mind welding it together for me.

The less I have to remove from my bike, the less chance of something going wrong. That's the main reason I don't want to have to remove the pipes.

 

I agree removing the BigShots is a pain. I put my stock exhaust back on for now!!

 

Just in case you ever need this type of tool in a straight on configuration, use the following formula. The example depicts a torsion style torque wrench, when using a click style, measure from the end of the handle. Sorry about the quality, its an old textbook.

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