Lookin for any hints or short cuts

 

tip: take the caps off the fork tubes or at least loosen, before you remove the fork tubes from the trees

 

Does the Allen bolts on bottom of forks need to come out if I am only changing oil. Looking tostiffn up ride find front end too soft

 

no, you drain from the top of the forks... you need to remove them and pour out the oil....
theres a few write ups on this forum... https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...-new-bike.html
A service manual would be a great help as well...

 

I drop them out of the upper tree and use the lower tree as a "vise" to take cap off and also to reinstall cap.

 

Remember to loosen the upper pinch bolts before you try to remove or loosen the caps!

 

Thanks for info I will check out that link

 

i like to break the top nut loose in the trees, then remove the lower, flip it over and use and impact on the lower damper bolt (12pt 10mm)... from there you can pump out the oil, new teflon tape, new crush washer, torque lower damper bolt to spec... then you remove the top cap (put a towel around the socket you are using to keep the internals from springing out) flip over and drain the rest, the fill, snug up the top nut, install in tree and torque top nut to spec. If you do not remove the lower damper bolt you will never remove all the old oil and/or crap in the bottom of the lower.

 

No need to take the tubes out of the trees, just syphon the oil out of the tubes using a topsider. You can get one from most auto supply stores or nearly all marine stores. One heck of a lot easier than going through all that disassembly, IMHO.

 

You will never get out the thickest and most harmful gunge from the bottom of the forks that way.

Once I've poured out the oil and let it drain for 15 mins or so, I put 1/2 cup of new fluid in, swill it around, then let that drain for a few mins too.

One tip to get the caps back on more easily:

With the spring out, place the cap on the top of the fork. Rotate the cap whilst occasionally tugging up to find the bite point where the threads just engage, then back off 1/4". Make a mark with a non-permanent marker across the cap and down to the fork. Now when the spring is back in, you line up the marks, push down firmly and rotate the cap that last 1/4" until it bites.