Still working on going through 1996 Fat Boy. Got all the 3 holes drained and refilled. Now working on FRONT END. Went to drain fork oil. Looked at manual and it seems to allude (if I am understanding it correctly) that I need to take the whole fork tubes out. I went to local HD shop to get some fork oil (big mistake) thinking they could also give me some guidance. There is several type of fork oils available. But Harley is very illusive as to the WEIGHT of their oils. When I drove this bike home after purchase, I noticed 2 things I did not like at all (remember - I'm 1st time Harley Owner). 1.)Front end seemed to soft and had to much dive on braking. 2.)This thing stops like ****. Will get to that later. Planning a brake fluid drain, different brake pads and stainless steel lines. Anyway, there is a lot of chrome caps, covers accessories on there. Plus previous owner told me he had the front lower fork tubes chromed, and lowered 1 1/2". So, my question for today IS 2 fold - 1)Can't I just drain the fork oil WITHOUT taking the fork tubes out of triple tree? Since I don't know how owner had it lowered (progressive lowering springs or just cutting 1/ 1/2" off of spacer) or what weight oil is in there - I am going to go with a different fork oil than Harley stuff (because they don't seem to want you to know the viscosity) I am going to go with Bel-Ray10W or Amsoil Fork Oil 15W. I've used those in my other metric bikes and liked the difference it made from their factory 5 - 7W fish oil. Any guidance and personal experience here will be greatly appreciated.

 

what you want to do is drain the oil and keep an exact mesurement of the amount and then replace the same amount with a little heavier weight. get you a manual and see what the recommended amount is since this amount should be the same unless there is a seal leaking. not sure of the weight on a 96 but if it's 10 then replace with a 15 weight oil. it will make a difference.

 

One way to remove oil is to use a big syringe and a piece of tubing to reach to the bottom of the tubes. You can get the syringes at southern states, tractor supply or anyplace that carries vet/horse supplies. you can remove about all of the oil this way, then put in 15 wt name brand for oil or the HD SE oil. It will take some time and will be a bit messy, but beats the hell out of pulling the forks. I estimate that HD saved about a dollar a bike by removing the fork drain plugs.
If you want to increase ride height, just cut some longer spacers from pvc.
Good luck.

 

Or be done with 1930's oil bypass technology and put some sealed monotubes in. Makes a MAJOR difference in ride quality.

 

Before I put monotubes in my Fatboy, I just removed the drain screws on the end of the forks, went to lunch, came back and replaced them with new drain screws and filled them up to the manual specs.

 

100% Agree.

 

Me Too. Upon further inspection, it looks like there is a small screw on the back side down low on fork tube. Can I get so lucky?? Will find out tomorrow when I take it out. If so, I won't even have to take the wheel off. ;-)

 

Found a couple good articles on fork oil on forum. Looks like 15 weight for me.

http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=44716.0

http://www.*****************/forums/...endations.html

 

No monotubes for this guy. I will change oil viscosity before that.

 

I've had my '09 FXSTC from new and it was very lively on the front end when stopping.


Long story short,
when I drained the oil neither leg had the correct amount, one leg had only 1/3 of the correct amount and the other had only 2/3, and before anyone asks, no it wasn't leaking out!
The difference with the correct amount of oil in the forks was unbelievable.