I'm in the process of removing the forks on my '89 FLHS and 2 questions have come up.

First, I was able to remove the ant-dive stuff but now I have a few loose wires that came off it. Do I just tape them off and leave them there? Do any of them need to be rewired to something else?

Secondly, as the air manifold is gone, will I need to find shorter bolts to screw into the end caps, or maybe cut/shorten the ones that were there?

Thanks!

 

Those wires operated the solenoid, which shut off the air reservoir in the handlebars, when applying the front brake. You could simply trace them back to where they start out from and remove them. Just make sure you don't disturb the front brake light wiring.

As for the fork caps, the holes now serve no useful purpose, so either use short bolts to blank them off, or swap the caps for later ones without holes. If you use short bolts, use a copper washer under each to provide a seal, otherwise you risk an oil leak.

 

The solenoid is operated by the brake light switches, one wire is hot when you apply either brake. The other goes to ground. You can simply cap the hot wire and you will be golden.

 

Thanks for the replies! I realised that on the anti-dive manifold was a ground block with a few wires attached, I thought they were part of the system at first so those are the ones I was wondering about. I ended-up relocating that block, removing the ground from the solenoid and capping off the positive from the brake lights.

Got the wheel, calipers and fender off today. Pulled the screws to let the oil out and letting them drip out. Next step will be trying to get those caps off, it's pretty tight inside that cluster-dash-not sure what it's called!

 

Order the fork cap socket made by Motion Pro Tools. You can get it for under $20 on eBay. It makes the job so much easier

 

That's how you do it, right there. Sounds like you got it!

 

Ok, back to working on the hog.... had zero problems getting the top cap bolt off and the bottom allen. Now, I can't get the cap (the one that holds the spring in) off. I have the lower slider off and just lowered the top tube out of the upper part of the tree. I retightened the pinch bolt to hold the tube while I wrestle with it.

I cannot get it to budge. I even tried hitting the wrench with a hammer, nothing. My next idea was to heat it, but I'm afraid to.

Anyone have any tricks to get these to crack loose???

 

Extra pair of hands and more leverage. Or the proper socket and an impact wrench.

 

Plus penetrating fluid on the threads. And tons of patience.....

 

Is there a "proper socket" for that? It's not a hex shape, it's more like just 2 flat sides. I did spray it a few times with penetrating oil but i can't imagine it getting to the threads, it's sealed tight.