Rattle in the front end!?!?

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May 15, 2012 | 03:52 PM

HDexplorer

Thread Starter

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Joined: Jan 2012

Posts: 83

Likes: 0

From: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Rattle in the front end!?!?

I noticed a rattle or at least the feeling of something loose in the front forks and or trees. It happens when I go over a bump or small pothole. It feels like something is coming loose most likely in the steering head/neck. I read a bit about the steady bearing but not sure if that is it or even what part of the stearing contains the steady bearing?

The bike is a Fat Bob with only 5000 miles on it. The warrenty is done and my funds are tight but I am self proclaimed handy. Do I simply need to tighten something? The brake calipers are solid and no rattle while braking just when I hit something uneven on the road or parking lot.
Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

May 15, 2012 | 04:03 PM

kcblaze

Cruiser

Joined: Oct 2009

Posts: 151

Likes: 5

From: Iowa

Front end Rattle

I just went through this with an 07 Street Bob. There is probably a star nut under the top triple clamp inside the neck that adjusts the bearing tightness. I had to remove the chrome cap on top the neck, loosen the 1 1/2" nut on top and then loosen the lower triple pinch bolts. This allowed the forks to drop so you can see/adjust the star nut. There are a couple posts in here about this but if you have a service manual for your bike you can do it in about an hour.

May 15, 2012 | 04:17 PM

stilup

Road Warrior

Joined: Dec 2010

Posts: 1,629

Likes: 46

From: East Hartford, CT

Raise the front wheel off the ground. I use a bike lift and raise the whole bike.
Loosen the cable adjustment and remove the clutch cable from the handle bar.
using a strap wrench or a very good hand grip, remove the cap over the seering nut
in the middle.
loosen the top nut and adjust to tighten a couple notches and see how much the front end moves side to side just letting it fall freely.
on the SB it is 3 1/2 to 4 inches total.
it is called fall away.
My SB front fender is 4 inches and that is what I use as a guide.
You need to have a make shift a pointer in the middle of your fender to check
Tighten the top nut and recheck to total fallaway again it may tighten as you tighten the top nut. If it does then just back the adjustment a notch and check again.
reattach the clutch cable and adjust the slack out to 1/16 to an 1/8 play at the cable end to the control lever.