Yes Mark
Should have referred to it as the fork stem nut. The one where the forks pivot on.

Sorry I didn't make it clearer

 

Thanks....I will have a look at it but the bike is still under warranty and I think trhat means the forks. So I may have the dealer have a look first. Till then I will stay away from big bumps.

Thanks again....

 

Mark
It's really simple if you have a torque wrench to do yourself, the dealer will probably tell you "it's normal" which is what others have been told constantly. Why waste time with these lugnuts.
Remember, their staff is trained to "forget" all yesterdays problems at morning coffee, if you know what I mean. How many times have you heard them say when you pose a problem to them "gee, I've never heard of that before?" Meanwhile , the problem is a common one.

 

The manual for my Fatboy says 90 to 120 lbs. That must be what you mean by higher. My dealer has great service and I no the tech's as a matter of fact I will be doing this in Australia in a couple of years. From my backyard that is.

As I said I will look at it and may even torque it down but I am at the dealer all the time so I will ask them "a friend" as well...

Thanks....

 

They must have changed the torque specs in the manual finally, it use to be in the 40 lbs area, I found mine to be finger "loose" when I checked it. I think that's a bit loose.

 

Man! If yours was that loose I wonder what mine is? I'm at work and will have to wait till I get home to see. I caged in today...

The manual is funny in that it says Overtighting stem bolt will cause the bearings to wear excessivley Tighten bolt to 96-120 in-lbs. That's for the FLSTC and FLSTF models 2004

That's pretty tight!

Mark...

 

Mark

Be sure and let us know

 

Hay TCSTD, you were correct about the torque. Mine was torqued to about 40 lbs. I torqued it to 85 lbs and the Clunk was gone. Bike front end seems to ride better too!

I checked with the original owner of the bike, "I purchased it at 4,400 miles" He said the bike had always made the Clunk and that he had owned other softtails and they all did that. So I can only assume the factory isn't setting the bike correctly in some cases anyway.

Again the new service manual says to set it between 90 and 120 lbs. That takes a little muscle so I think I will leave it at 85 for now. I may be that if you don't torque it all the way it will loosen evenually.

Hope others read this post as I have heard others complain about Clunk! Clunk!

 

This is the biggest problem with clunks that I have seen so far. Glad it worked for you!
The factory was using a lower torque value until they found out that this was the problem , meanwhile all the bikes are clunking and banging on the road until somebody retorques them.
Don't forget to bend up the locking washer on both sides of the nut to lock the stem nut in place after you retorque so that it doesn't loosen and also check the little "finger" at the 6 oclock position on the lockplate to make sure it is in the hole and is straight. I often gets bent or sheared off when you torque the nut down. It really should be replaced when you retorque, but few do.