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Howard Messner of Motorcycle Metal has a great write-up on the process of installing head bearings. It would be worth looking it up, as once your forks are installed he has a routine for 'settling in' the bearings.
That's a MotoIron springer I got from TC Bros. Looks heavy-duty as hell. With a bit of good fortune, I should have the front end mocked up over the weekend.
I was going to tell you not to run that springer...although it looks like a DNA springer...I see they fixed the deadly major design flaw the DNA had...be interested to see how it works out.
I was going to tell you not to run that springer...although it looks like a DNA springer...I see they fixed the deadly major design flaw the DNA had...be interested to see how it works out.
Yeah, the idea of butt-welding that joint was seriously dumb from the start. Hard to imagine what they were thinking.
I would have liked going with a better, USA made unit here, but I'm bleeding cash like crazy on this project as it stands. At $400 delivered, I had to give this MotoIron a shot.
All this worry about needing bearing cups with built in stops may have been wasted.
Turns out the forks already have them:
And that's a good thing, since it looks like I'm never going to be able to get the lower bearing cup dust cover/stop installed anyway.
It looks like this:
The problem is those mounting holes are up tight against the hole where the steering stem goes. What's worse, this is all welded together, so I can't get it onto a drill press, so I'm left free-handing these holes with a hand drill.
The required hole size is 10-32.
Here's a shot showing what I mean. I put little starter dinks in the four holes, then started drilling the one in the upper right. As you can see, it drifted into the steering stem hole. And even if it didn't, the resulting "wall" (between these mounting screw holes and the steering stem hole) is going to be crazy-thin, and I worry that they will blow out when I cut the threads.
So unless I get talked out of it, I think my course of action is to leave that lower stop thingy unattached to the triple tree and just pretend that the bearing cups I got don't have stops at all. The stops on the forks are enough. I may put some rubber pads or something on there, but otherwise, I think I'm good.
The other thing I learned is that I need to move my tank back about an inch and a half. Always something.
7 Surprising Harley-Davidson Products that Are Not Motorcycles
Slideshow: The bar-and-shield logo shows up on far more than motorcycles, some of the company's most unexpected products have nothing to do with riding.
Slideshow: From the troubled AMF years to modern misfires, these bikes earned reputations for reliability issues, questionable engineering, or disappointing performance.
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Slideshow: The Swiss custom shop has taken a Harley Softail and stretched it into something so long and low that it looks closer to a rolling sculpture than a conventional motorcycle.
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
Slideshow: Harley-Davidson's challenges aren't abstract; they show up in dropping shipments, shrinking dealer traffic, and strategic decisions that aren't yet translating into growth.
