Well, poo. The FLSTC wheel I bough off the 'bay turned out to be a '99 or earlier. So, back to the shop to return sealed bearings & spacers & buy a set of the tapered roller bearings & oil seals.

And.... I'd planned on re-using my stock front rotor (for now), but that ain't gonna work w/o a spacer, so a new Wilwood '84-'99 rotor is on the way.

My biggest question is on measuring for the wheel spacers. My cheap calipers ain't gonna fit/reach to give me an accurate measurement. Is it really as simple as using a stack of 1/8" thick washers? Is .125" really a fine enough measurement to get the spacer length right?

Got some time off after Christmas, so hoping to have 'er back on the road by New Year's.

The bearing on the 2014 FLSTC lower tree is pressed on. Even if it wasn't damaged it would have to be replaced anyway because the dust cap under it must be replaced with the Dyna dust cap to properly fit in the lower neck race.

The bearing is destroyed first by busting the cage and removing the bearings. Heat the pressed on inner bearing until you can hammer it off with a chisel. Very inelegant to say the least. The Dyna dust cap and bearing can be reused but will also have to be pressed on. I believe I used a section on gas pipe to tap it down on the stem.

The center of the upper tree also has to have .250" milled down to get the upper and lower tree distance from each other correct. This will basically make the surface even with the rest of the rougher looking surface. You will also have to grind the top of the neck smooth. This is the only way to get the tins to line up with the upper and lower trees.

This is much easier on 2005 and older, but it can be done. My front end is a complete 2012 FLSTC on my 2008.

Thanks AFMM3. I'll see if I can win the Softail trees on eBay. I won't need much more to complete the FL front end. 22 1/4" forks and sliders should be easy (and fairly cheap) to come up with. The tin sets seem to be relatively cheap on eBay. I was kind of determined to come up with a FLD front end but they seem hard to come by. FLD trees on eBay are about as much money as new from surdyke.

AFMM3, I understand milling a ¼" down on the upper tree but not sure what you mean by "grind the top of the neck smooth". Could you explain please?

Never mind AFMM3--I just went out and examined the neck on the front of frame where trees are mounted. It is uneven on the top for the dyna trees to function-your saying to grind that down so the underside of the top softail tree sits down flush on the neck. I also went back in your earlier posts from December 2014 and found a clear explanation of what your saying. Thanks for doing the trial and error to make it easier for me!

Carl - found an old post from Dec 2014 that explained the spacing issues I was having also:

Figured out my main issue. I was previously using a wheel from a Road King up front. I now have a 2012 Softail front end for 25mm axle. What I didn't realize was that Softails have a hub that is narrower on the brake side (because the trees are not as far apart as FLH) to get standard brake calipers to line up. That is why you had to space out your caliper.

Now that that is figured out, I assumed there would be all sorts of hubs or wheels available on eBay. I figured wrong. I also discovered that the wheel has to be 2008 and newer. Softails never went through the 1 inch bearing phase, they were 3/4" all the way to 2007. The 3/4" wheels will not accept the larger axle through the hub.

I will just have to use my best research efforts to find a reasonably priced wheel.

AFMM3, when I had my 04' Sporty, I swapped rear wheels with a guy that had an older Dyna with spoke wheels. I couldn't get the sporty rear axle thru the Dyna hub. So what I ended up doing was putting the whole wheel up on my mill and bored the pass thru out until I had clearance for the axle, never had an issue for the four years I road it after that. I would imaging there is enough meat in your hub to remove the overall .30"-.40" (.15"-.20") to allow the axle to pass thru with out the spacer, maybe even enough to allow the spacer. I believe (not 100%) that the only difference in the casting of the hub is the smaller hole and there is the same amount of material overall in the hub. The bearing is what is critical here once you have the space to allow an 1" or 25mm axle to be used. Just food for thought and save some money and search time. Worse case is the hub is not usable (already is, in your case) and you're still looking for a wheel, no loss really.

Apparently, for the FLST forks through '99 all need to be measured individually & the factory parts book shove 5 different spacers.

Bah, not a big deal. A little more effort & just that much more knowledge gained along the way. All in all, my set-up is/will be about as "plug 'n play" as you can get, with almost entirely factory parts.

Double post.