Here goes (kinda long).....Over the past few months, I have been arguing with the motor company on having an fairing alignment issue with my 2014 SGS. My problem starts eight months after I purchased the bike new in 2014. The problem was documented when the bike was in the OEM configuration and up until last year, it remained that way. I was told by the service manager that if it is not visibly broke or bent, the motor company will not start putting new parts on trying to guess whats wrong. So I started to change out OEM parts for aftermarket hoping the I might find something while making improvements.

As you can see form the video below, it appears that the alignment of the fairing is tighter on the right side between the tank and dash than on the left. The fairing has been adjusted quite a few time with same results.


Next I compared my bike with a friends stock 14 Street Glide side by side and noticed something funny. As you can see from the pictures below, I am getting 3/16" difference from the left side to the right while his is even side to side.

















While I did bring this to the attention of the service manger and motor company representative, both agreed that measuring to the crash bar is not a valid point. Also they can not provide an actual reference measurement from two known points to check. They said that there are none. We also measured a few new Street Glides on the show room floor and all of them were even side to side.

As of today, the motor company representative is stating that in his professional opinion, there is nothing wrong with my bike. He determined this by only riding the bike and not measuring anything. While this is not acceptable in my book, they are not going to look into any other possible issues as nothing is visibly broke or bent.

So, has anybody ever had the same problem? If so, what was the fix? My opinion is that something could be wrong with the pivot shaft or bushings in the swing arm assembly, but I don't know of a way of check. Any help is greatly appreciated as I don't know were else to look.

 

Lift the bike with the rear wheel off the ground, then pull the bags and wheel. Pull the top shock bolts and try to wiggle the swingarm assembly. If the bushings are bad it will have side to side movement.

 

Not sure if this would help - and the circumstances were different - but, this worked for me.

I had a house built by a well know builder. After a year, the driveway cracked. The builder shared that it may be because of the cold weather in Ohio or that there was too much water in the concrete. I got lots of reasons. His bottom line was - the wear was within acceptable guidelines and he would not fix it.

I sent the owner a letter and picture. My comment was, I would accept his final decision is he would simply let me know if this was within guidelines if it were his house. The bottom said, just give me the answer ad I will post it.

A few days later, the driveway was replace.

 

I am not sure why you are looking at a swing arm issue when you posted that your fairing is out of alignment, and why you are measuring from the rear to a crashbar that doesn't even bolt to or have anything to do with the fairing unless the frame is bent.

 

IMO, it's the forks that are out of parallel alignment.

Try jacking the bike up to the point that the front wheel is just about to leave the ground, but still barely touching, and then loosen the 4 pinch bolts on the triple tree where they grip the fork legs and the front axle pinch bolt. This will allow you (or a helper, which is easier) to hold the front wheel straight while twisting the fairing/bars into alignment, to the left in your case - they might even just spring back into perfect alignment on their own. Tighten the pinch bolts to the specified torque while holding the bars in the desired position & you're done. Loosen the pinch bolts just enough to let you accomplish this, not so much that the fork legs try to slide up or down.

I've had to do this on a couple of H-D's that I've owned and I've seen this same issue posted several other times by others on this and other forums. The MOCO's people are universally and totally clueless about this issue or how to deal with it, just like they are about pretty much everything else - they're not the brightest bulbs in the box even under the best of circumstances - so they just claim that "It's normal, they all do that" and cheerfully head back to their little cubicles. Pretty pathetic!

Good luck,

JP

 

Check this. The fairing may be straight but the handlebars are bent which makes the fairing look crooked. Level bike frame and put a straight edge along the ground on the front wheel to hold it straight. Take measurements. First you can measure bars from the fairing to give you an idea. Bars are easy to bend and could be from being used as a tie down point, lifting bike when tipped over etc. That's where I would start first and I'm looking at the picture thinking that. Also in your video the camera is not dead center of the bike it's off to the left which give an optical illusion to begin start with.

 

I was about to ask the same thing..

 

Friend of mine bought a new ('17) Tri Glide, he kept looking at it from the rear and it looked "off". He took it back to the dealer a few times, they finally brought in a factory rep who said the frame was out of alignment. Dealer re-aligned the frame (whatever that involved) and all is good...good luck!

 

The reason it could be in the swingarm is because it is like a pickup with a broken main leaf spring. Ever see a vehicle going a little sideways down the road? Its called 'dog tracking'.

 

True, it could be that the axle isn't set perfectly perpendicular to the swing arm. If that's the case, then it should try to turn if you momentarily let go of the bars on a straight, level road with no cross winds.

Try having a buddy ride (or drive) behind you to see if it's tracking straight. As far as it appears to be out of line in the video, it should be really obvious to the observer if this is the case. If it's not tracking straight, then adj. the rear axle till it does.

If it's already tracking straight, then try my suggestion outlined above.