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- Let’s convert this fucker.
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- I started by cleaning up the swing arm. I cut off some tabs and took it down to bare metal.
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- I made a plate to reinforce the swing arm where I will be attaching the shock and the swing arm braces.
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- Reinforcement in place.
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- With the swing arm prepped, the old subframe had to go.
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- I figured out where the top shock mount needed be and tacked it in.
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- Since it was never intended to have a mono-shock. I wanted to make sure the swing arm legs were reinforced as well.
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- I bent up some 1″ tube, and welded into place.
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- Now for the bottom shock mount. I made a cradle where the shock will sit.
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- I added a piece of 1″ tube under the cradle to disburse the load more evenly.
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- Here’s another angle.
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- Originally there was one long bolt attaching the bottom of the shock. The new design would not allow that.
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- So, I turned out a piece that would make it possible to mount the bottom of the shock.
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- The new piece is threaded so I can run two shorter bolts instead of one long one.
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- It worked out great!!
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- The conversion is complete!
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- Left side.
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- Right side.
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- I still need to add some gussets to strengthen the top shock mount, but she is standing on her own. The suspension cycles nicely as well.
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- I added the gussets. Two to reinforce the main hoop.
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- And two to reinforce the top shock mount.
I knew I wanted to change the ride height, and I had a mono-shock lying around so, why not?
I like the way it came out! It cycles smooth and look cool as fuck!!
I’m sure it’s been asked before. What did your mono shock come from? How did you figure a decent, rideable spring rate?
It’s off a Kawasaki 636 ’05. Also this configuration did not end up working. The suspension rebound was non existent. It was because of the spring angle. If you are not going to be running a cantilever system, you are going to want to make sure the spring is perpendicular to the rear axle. I decided to use a cantilever system witch I’ve used before and it works really well. I will be making a post about that soon.
Did you end up using the cantilever system?
Yes, I did. I was able to use the stock swing arm with a few modifications. I hope I have enough photos to make a post. I did end up ditching that swing arm though to convert to an aluminum swing arm. It worked great though!! I liked the look of the old style steel swing arm with the cantilever system.