Chris...
Here is what I would do:
Drop both fork legs out of the head set.
Take off the head bracket and remove the upper bracket and remove the stem bracket at the same time. Watch out for the bearings and be sure to count how many there are. These bearings are loose and they will want to roll everywhere. I would put a greased rag around each bearing race to catch these. If your machine is a 1974 or earlier, the bearing count will be 28 on top and 28 on the lower race.
Clean all of the parts and bearings. Inspect the cleaned bearings and especially the bearing races and cups. The way to check the races and cups is to do this:
Take a ball point pen. Click it on and run the ballpoint end around the surfaces of both races and both cups where the ***** travel. If you detect ANY ROUGHNESS whatsoever, then the races/cups/bearings of that set needs to be replaced.
What happens is that when the headstock bearings get loose they can brinnel (deform) and that will ruin the races. If you are lucky, the surfaces will be smooth when doing the ballpoint test.

To re-assemble and adjust the headset, coat the races with grease and the cups with grease. Place each of the bearings into the heavily greased cups, counting as you go. When done, it should look like there is still room for 1 more bearing. Thats the way you want it.
Tighten your stem nut until you feel it bind lightly. Back off the stem nut a quarter turn and retighten lightly. You want to feel just a very slight click of looseness when you rock the bracket back and forth. When you reach that point, you are almost done. Continue to tighten until you just detect that movement disappear. That's it. Zero play has been accomplished. Remember, you do not want this tighter than Zero adjustment. That will brinnel the bearings the same as being too loose.
Install the fork tubes and tighten the pinch bolt(s). I do not think you will have to do this again. Any questions, give a shout....pg

 

Not knowing how this all comes apart, I am hesitant to continue on without first asking some more questions. The first thing that I'd like to try is to tighten the stem sleeve (or whatever part accomplishes this), but I'm not sure of what I'm doing here. Please read on:

Looking at my manual and also having talked to some folks, I thought that this "top nut" was a nut and there would just come off. As I unscrew this nut, the part underneath the bottom tree comes out. I'm afraid that if I keep unscrewing the nut the whole front end will fall off the bike. Could someone kindly explain to me what is going on here and if I'm okay to continue as I have been? I want to check the races and bearings and replace whatever is needed.




As an aside, my wife and I were in Zion National Park the past few days and rented an Ultra Classic while we were there. It was quite a different experience as compared to the Sportster (which I cannot wait to get back onto the road).

 

Okay, I discovered that I can unscrew that top nut to where I can tell that it is loose/free, but it will not come out of the top bracket (tree?). I'm guessing that I need to take the fork tubes out in order to get all of this apart and so I tried to do that but couldn't geet the fork tubes out. How do I do this? I removed the front fender, brake, and wheel. I then loosened the pinch bolt on each fork tube, but couldn't budge the tubes. Do I need to knock them out (hammer & wood block) somehow?

 

Chris,

When I replace the fork seals on my '77, I found out that the top of the fork tubes are tapered a bit, (like a sharpened pencil w/o the led). Since it was "stuck", once I loosened the clamping screw on the bottem tree, I loosened the top nut a few threads and then knocked the top nut with a rubber mallat.

Rich

 

Thanks, Rich. That was exactly how it was. My local shop opens tomorrow (closed on Sundays & Mondays) and so I hope to get the new parts I need and get her back on the road.

 

Chris...Are you aware that the trees on your bike are aftermarket ones? I ask because normaly shops don't stock parts for them.

 

That changes things a bit. I wonder if I'm going to have to replace the trees themselves in order to replace the steering stem. I've been looking around, online, and haven't been able to find just stems, but I have noticed that they (stems) appear to come with new trees when you buy them.
Thanks for pointing that out. It'll change the parts that I take to the shop with me and also the questions that I'll ask.