Guys, I've got a 1998 FXSTC and I want to get the fork sliders chromed. The manual says to remove the entire fork assembly from the bike, but surely there is an easier way to do this. Can I leave the fork tubes in the trees and just remove the sliders from the tubes? When I re-install the sliders, can I just slide the fork sealup the tubes, put the slider on and then use a piece of poly pipe cut in half to drive the seal into the sliders?
Also, when I first start her up, I pull the enrichener out all the way and don't touch the throttle (as this disables the enrichener circuit). The bike will fire but will labour getting up to speed before cutting out. It will take a couple of attempts to get it to fire and idle. I only let it idle for a couple of seconds with the enrichener out and then I push it back in and use the throttle lock. Once it is running it runs beautifully so I'm not overly concerned, but it used to fire on the second compression and idle with no problems. Any suggestions or is this about normal?The bike has screamin eagle pipes and rejetted carb and 15,000 kilometres on it.

Cheers, Bill.

 

If you try and pull the oil seal with the tubes still in the trees you will pull the tube right out of the tree and you will have a big oily mess not to mention a dent in your garage floor from the slider slamming into it. I would suggest following the manual instructions. You can use 2 - 2" PVC couplings to hit the new seals home though.

I think there is something wrong with your enricher. I can rev mine all day with the enricher pulled out (not that I actually do that though).

 

Believe me...you'll want to remove the tubes from the trees. It makes dis-assembly way easier. And it's pretty much a necessity for assembly. Oh...and that's definitely an off-season project.

As far as I know, there's nothing wrong with using some throttle with the choke, I do it everytime. Use the throttle and she'll fire right up.

Every bike is different. I leave the chocke full on for about 30 - 45 seconds. Then sometimes all the way off with throttle, sometimes half choke. It all depends on how much gear I've got to put on.

Good luck.

 

You can do it without removing the legs from the trees. That is how I do it. Most of the bikes I do are FL's, so all the"guts" have to come off for me the replace the uppers. I remove the slider, then separate the bushing at the bottom of the leg to get theguts off the leg. I swap the upper and then reinstall the guts, including the seal.

BTW.....I only replace the seal if it is leaking. I reuse the old seals if I'm just swapping to chrome lowers and they weren't leaking. I have never had a reused seal leak.

Mtmlvr.....Off-season project? Why? It's only about a 2 hour job.

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Cause it sounds like he want to send his out to get chromed. That's gotta take at least a week.

 

My local indy shop charged me 2 hours labor to swap the lower sliders and put in new oil and seals. It's one job I just didn't want.

If you can do it my hat's off to you. Maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age.

With the bike getting a bit older I liked the idea of getting new seals and oil anyway, so what the heck, change the sliders...

Obviously the whole front got serviced with new wheel bearings etc. but I was going there anyway.

Labor was still just 2 hrs.