A little caution on cush drive replacement - based on my experience - your results may vary...
I have an 03 America with spoked wheels. I bought the Thunderbird cush drive a few years ago based on recommendations on here and it just didn't work for me. The driveline was so tight, you could feel every vibration the engine made right through the seat and the handlebars. I gave the Tbird cush to Snert, and as far as I know, he is happy with it.
Shortly after that, I bought a chromed Speedmaster rear wheel off of ebay. I also bought a drive hub and had that chromed. I bought a new cush drive from my dealer and put it all together and everything seemed ok. A bit of play, noticeable when you let off the throttle suddenly, but I could live with it.
Recently, I bought a new rear tire to install on the SM wheel, and also got new sprockets and chain. I figured what the heck, let's replace the cush again. So I had the dealer order me a new SPEEDMASTER cush drive. I removed the rear wheel to get the tire installed and started to install my spoked wheel so I could continue to ride in the meantime. The new SPEEDMASTER cush drive did not fit in the spoked wheel. It is a lot beefier, but that wasn't the problem. The problem is that the spoked wheel has a series of "nubbins" where the spoke nipples seat in the rim right where the cush drive goes. The SM wheel, being a cast rim, does not have these protrusions. Checking the original cush from my spoked wheel, sure enough, the rubber lugs have little cut-outs in them to allow for this. The SM cush does not. The lugs are solid.
Now,if this cush drive epiphany is only mine, and everyone else knew this already, I apologize in advance.
But my advice would be to contact your dealer and get the correct cush drive for your bike and check it over before you install it....
The p/n for an 03 America spoked wheel is T2012230.
Bikebandit lists the p/n for an 03 America AND 03 SM as 5567931-001. (?)
The SM cush I just got from my dealer is a p/n T2012201.
Whether they updated anything I just don't know. But to be on the safe side, I'd order whatever p/n is called for for your year and model. That is, if you even need to replace it.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....
