Dude I think you'll be fine with what you're doing. If you're concerned about that being potential weak spots, slide a slug long enough to stagger over the area where the crosstube welds are gonna be inside the side tubes. Drill a 1/4" hole through the side tube and spot weld the slugs to keep them from moving.
Your piston looks like your head gasket is leaking judging by the burn pattern around the edges of it.Well I decided to mail my jug off to Denny at Flotek. While my bike is down for that I also decided to make my own swingarm completely from scratch.
heres the swingarm with the template i made for the carrier end.
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heres the 1/4 plate steel i will use for the part that the carrier will bolt to. You can see I already traced one of the templates on there.
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And heres the rest of the steel I will use for the swing arm.
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Heres a picture of the piston after a few hours. Does this look normal?
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