Have you checked the pinch bolts on the forks for a broken one?

 

try to compress the forks without applying breaks. Alot of times there is play in you break pads that can cause a clunk or sound. If you didnt tighten the pinch bottles prior to installing the axle you shouldnt have to worry about the fork alignment as the axle would be sliding on the front right lower not pulling. Double check your fork tubes are equal in the triple trees, if still making sounds I would double check the oil levels... also sometimes if the fork seal is not seated fully you could be hearing the metal bushing washers under the seal moving slightly and rubbing the tubes.

 

My first thought was the fork seals. Have you recently had any of the front end apart? Also, kind of a long shot, but are you sure your bars are tight in the risers and triple trees? Good luck.

 

For what its worth. I had a very similar sound coming from my forks recently. The creaking was getting quite loud. Was at the dealership one day and asked about it. Their lead mechanic looked at it and noticed my tubes weren't even in the trees. (One was a bit higher than the other). I rode home and adjusted them so they were correct and it solved the loud creaking.

Good luck.

 

Yea, I will pull the wheel off and take a look at the bearing and the axle to see if there is any kind of wear or damage happening. Hopefully I can get to this this week.

Back in June/July I pulled the whole front end off the bike. I did not disassemble the legs, I painted the lower legs and bottom tree and replaced the top tree with a none Street Bob style tree (no built in riser). When I painted the legs everything was taped off so not over spray could get in to the seals. When I reassembled the front end I installed the trees, I greased the neck bearings and left the neck nut loose enough to use the legs to line the trees up, used a straight egde and made the shoulder on the top leg caps flush with the to tree (only the nut part sticks up). Then I pinched the top leg into the top tree so when I tighten the neck nut to spec the bottom tree could move freely up the legs if needed. Then I aligned the axle points to to each other with the axle and made sure everything was flush, this did require me to rotate the lower legs a little on the upper leg (I hope this is not a issue). Then I installed the front wheel, note that I did not use the bar in the axle hole as already noted when I tighten the axle nut, I just used an allen wrench (not the hole size) to hold the axle while I tighten the nut. Tightened the pinch bolts on the trees. Installed the brake caliper and verified I had free rotation in the wheel and that nothing was rubbing when the wheel spinned. Then I loosely intalled the new risers and installed the bars to make sure the riser where inline. Snugged the top riser clamps, tightend the riser bolts to the tree and then loosen the riser clamps to make sure they didn't twist while tightening the riser bolts and then final installed the bars.

I road the bike for a couple of thousand miles without any issues. I did drop the bike on its side at an intersection during that time doing around 10-15mph. Slick spot on road, bike came out from under me. No mechanical issues where found by my indy when I had him inspect it after the drop. I have riden around another 1000 or so miles since then and just started noticing the "creak" within the last 300-500 miles. I think it became more noticable when I installed the wind screen because it reflects the noise and amplifies it.

Like I said, I will disassemble the front end as soon as possible and go over everything again. I have never pulled the front forks legs apart. I am worried about f'ing someting up and being with out the bike, my primary mode of transportation. I do do most of my own maintenance on the bike, I am just hesitant about jumping into something new that I haven't done before, sometimes it goes smooth, other time not so much. I have not seen any fluid or leakage where the lower and upper legs meet, I would guess that if I had a bad seal issue, I would see fuild leaking here. Can I just unscrew the top legs cap and check my fuild leves this way. If I choose to change my fork legs fuild, do I need to disassemble the whole leg or can I just do it from the top? I know the answer is in the service manual, its at home and I am not, so I can't look it up right now.

 

I would start with taking the front apart fender off break off, then undo the pinch bolts and slide the legs off slowly. Then you just need to pop the top nut off and turn them upside down for a hour or so. Give them a wipe down put in some new oil and put it back together. For the street bob you should have enough oil to have a 3 inch gap from top of tube from oil level at full compression. Pump it a few times and get back together and ride out. If you need any specs let me know.

 

Btw you'll find the hardest part is the damn fender those bolts are loctited like no ones business

 

Are you sure it's not the front motor mount?

 

what about the neck bearings? when they go bad they pop and have a crack sound

 

There is no back and forth / side to side movement and there doesn't appear to be in up and down movement in my steering head. So I don't believe it is my neck bearings.

I will look at my motormount to see if it looks worn out.

I am pretty sure it is my fork tubes. I am going to try and put together a "Quick Lift" so I can just lift the front end of the ground, it is a pain in the ars to line the motorcycle lift under the frame in my stone driveway. Once I get the front end lifted I plan on first lossening the axle lock point on the right side and loosening the axle nut to see if maybe I did end up with the forks being drawn together when I installed it last time. If that doesn't do anything, then I will remove my wheel and readjust my legs in the trees and verify that my neck bearings are good. I am sure it just a simple mismatch of alignment somewhere, its just a mattet of me taking the time to find it.

Thanks for all the ideas you all have thrown out there, I will go through them all and when I have found the problem I will let everyone know.