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[Delta]

So this morning while it was unseasonably warm (31*) I decided to install my new 13" HD Premium Hand Adjustable Rear Shocks. Had the Ultra raised on my trusty jack so that the rear wheel was just off the floor. On the left side I had to remove the two 1/2" bolts from the muffler hanger to provide clearance for the socket to remove the bottom shock bolt. Removed the left shock and bolted up the new one.

The right side had plenty of clearance, I didn't have to remove the muffler hanger bolts, so I removed the right shock and attempted to bolt up the new one. The eyes of the shock seemed to be 1/8" too long when the swing arm was fully extended. I couldn't drop the swing arm further and I couldn't compress the shock to screw in the remaining bolt. The only thing different from the left to the right side was the removal of the bolts to the muffler hangers. As soon as I removed those 2 bolts I had more than enough travel in the swing arm. So much so that I had to lower the jack to line up the bolt holes on the shock.

I don't recall my shop manual instructing for the removal of the muffler hanger bolts. I don't know how much more travel there was as I didn't measure it. I wonder if we are giving up something with the restricted movement caused by the bolting up of the mufflers.

I won't have the chance to give my opinion of the new shocks, hopefully by April all the winter chemicals will have been washed away. Can't wait to try them out.

Has anyone else experienced this when changing the rear shocks?

[Ripcord]

That's interesting. I wonder if this is what I ran into installing my Ohlins as described here: http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=98278.30
Do you think if I had emoted the exhaust bolts I would have had more swing arm movement to get the shocks in at a longer length? If so, how would you re-attach the exhaust? I basically ran into the the swing arm only being able to lower until the axel bolt hit the muffler detent.

[Delta]

I'm not sure how much the swing arm will move. I do know that when the 1/2" muffler hanger bolts are removed the swing arm moved further. After the shocks were bolted on, just bolt the mufflers back on with no difficulty.