All the abuse finally was too much and the swingarm on my 99 Scrambler 500 broke. The break is on the right side about 4 inches from the pivot.

My questions is whether this can be repaired (welded) or if the only way is to buy a replacement.

By the way, this thing broke about 9 miles from the trailer, so we used nylon tie downs to completely compress the shock and I rode the Scrammy back.

 

I dont see why you couldnt have it welded. I am pretty sure that they are just steel swingarms. It might not be a bad idea to add some extra bracing if there is the room.

 

my blaster had a big crack in the swingarm right in the back near the shock, and we welded it. once we had it done, u couldnt even see it anymore. worked good, also, a lot cheaper than buying a new one.

 

Got the back end stripped down (on my Scrambler, you perverts!) and got a good look at the break. I am going to try to keep everything lined up and spot weld the arm on the quad, then take if off and add some angle iron reinforcement. If that doesn't work, well,,,,I already have a broken swingarm.

Thanks for the input.

This atv has about 3500 miles on it and most of it was rocks and/or logs, so I don't feel bad about the swingarm. This is the first significant problem I have had with it. Funny that people used to trash Polaris so bad for unreliability and shoddy quality.

 

This could be a good excuse to get a nice +2 swingarm to extend the rear a little. I think a +2 or more rear swing arm would make the scrammy look alot better. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Update on broken Scrambler swingarm:

I took the swingarm off and we welded some angle-iron on the top and bottom outside edges (the break was on the right side, just above the weld to the connecting plate). It worked pretty good for about a 100 miles. Went to ride last week and noticed that the weld was broken THROUGH the angle iron, and, of course, the old break was loose. We are pro welders, so that's probably part of the problem, but at this point I am planning to order a new swingarm.

This ATV has had a few dings put in it by me and by my wife (gotta spread the blame), but it sure seems like everything costs a fortune to fix. This is in addition to the normal stuff like maintenance, tires, busted plastic, etc.

I knew this wasn't a cheap hobby, but dang!

 

lol the price of fun is never cheap[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

yea thats probally the best thing to do if you dont want to dish out all of the $, just weld it good.

 

I had a '99 500 that I broke the swingarm in about the same place you mentioned, as well as the frame where the base of the rail that holds the oil tank. I don't weld, but my buddy that does fixed it up and never had any more problems. I never got too upset about it because I abused that machine and did a few launches that the Scrambler just wasn't built for. Oh well, it was all fun. I also had a '02 400 Scrammy with no frame/swingarm problems.

 

Well Deskbound-
It doesn't really matter if you fix it or replace it because your toy will eventually get all of your money.

I tell people that ATV riding is a poor man's sport - If you aren't poor when you start, you sure as h--- will be before you finish!