Clunking Front End- (Softails) Info Wrong?
#1
10-04-2012, 06:38 PM
Clunking Front End- (Softails) Info Wrong?
Read the closed thread from a tech advisor that leads off this section...and I disagree with it. Which means perhaps I am wrong because what do I know. Or it means the tech guy is wrong. Somebody straighten me out please.
He says on a Deuce you can get rid of clunk by just tightening the S**t out of the stem main nut. I say you have to have the pinch bolt screws (the torq head ones on the legs) LOOSE and whack the lower triple tree with a rubber hammer---so that as you start applying more and more tension on the main nut you pull the lower tree up snug.
If you do NOT loosen the legs then when you tighten the main stem nut down you are doing very little except perhaps bending the entire top triple tree downward. I have read a LOT of the complaints on this site about how the dealer adjusts somebody's fork fallaway and two days later it is right back where they started. I think this might be the reason it happens in some cases. If the assembled gap between the two triple trees is not shortened up, you really haven't done much to tighten the bearing gap and keep it tight.
On my Deuce I tried it HIS way. That is, I turned the wheel nut to set fallaway, tightened up the legs and THEN locked her up. Well, in a few days the adjustment wheel backed off and loosened up my bearings again.
THEN I tried it by leaving the legs loose so that the lower tree could shimmy upwards as I tightened the main nut. This decreased the space between the trees and took out the slack. When I tightened up the main nut it stayed put and the fallaway hasn't loosened up even a tiny bit since...
So how does torquing the s**t out of the main stem nut DO anything if you don't free up the legs so the lower tree can move upwards???
Reading the Harley technical shop manual is no use whatsoever as it is very vague about this whole procedure especially the sequence of events. It basically tells you "if loose---tighten it" which is pretty much obvious. I say the order is CRITICAL. Leave the legs loose until you are done and have let her down off the lift. Those fork leg pinch bolts get tightened up LAST.
Anybody?
He says on a Deuce you can get rid of clunk by just tightening the S**t out of the stem main nut. I say you have to have the pinch bolt screws (the torq head ones on the legs) LOOSE and whack the lower triple tree with a rubber hammer---so that as you start applying more and more tension on the main nut you pull the lower tree up snug.
If you do NOT loosen the legs then when you tighten the main stem nut down you are doing very little except perhaps bending the entire top triple tree downward. I have read a LOT of the complaints on this site about how the dealer adjusts somebody's fork fallaway and two days later it is right back where they started. I think this might be the reason it happens in some cases. If the assembled gap between the two triple trees is not shortened up, you really haven't done much to tighten the bearing gap and keep it tight.
On my Deuce I tried it HIS way. That is, I turned the wheel nut to set fallaway, tightened up the legs and THEN locked her up. Well, in a few days the adjustment wheel backed off and loosened up my bearings again.
THEN I tried it by leaving the legs loose so that the lower tree could shimmy upwards as I tightened the main nut. This decreased the space between the trees and took out the slack. When I tightened up the main nut it stayed put and the fallaway hasn't loosened up even a tiny bit since...
So how does torquing the s**t out of the main stem nut DO anything if you don't free up the legs so the lower tree can move upwards???
Reading the Harley technical shop manual is no use whatsoever as it is very vague about this whole procedure especially the sequence of events. It basically tells you "if loose---tighten it" which is pretty much obvious. I say the order is CRITICAL. Leave the legs loose until you are done and have let her down off the lift. Those fork leg pinch bolts get tightened up LAST.
Anybody?
Last edited by rleedeuce; 10-04-2012 at 06:45 PM.
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