I decided it was warm enough to change the fork oil today so I popped the Fatboy up on the jack and went to work. I always check the manual and in the case of the fork oil cap the manual warns you that the cap is under extreme spring force (preload) and make sure your face is not over it and that you keep downward pressure while removing the cap......but when I removed the cap nothing, the cap just fell off in my hand. This normal? I'm thinking because I had it up on the jack and the load was off the fork there's no preload force.

 

There should have been some pressure.

 

I think its normal, I had mine off (09 fatty) and there was not much pressure.

 

If it was in the air you'd think the pressure would be off, but who knows?

 

Wasn't much pressure on mine in the air either.

 

You removed the filler cap, not the fork cap.. the top of your forks has another cap on it (that thing with the hole in it), and if you remove that piece, then the forks will come shooting out at you a bit. It's a bit of a shock, but it's not going to send the cap through your ceiling.

if you look in to your triple trees, around the edge of where that cap screws in to.. you'll notice there's flat edges on the top of the cap, that's to get a wrench on

 

Yea that's what I'm thinking, since I had it off the ground the preload would be low, I just didn't think it would be zero!

 

Lol Sgt Jim has a helluva point

 

That makes sense.......the manual doesn't. In the manual they have a white arrow pointing to the (what you are calling) filler cap saying "it" has a preload. If you look at the picture I attached you can see the arrow. The manual calls it the fork tube plug.

 

yeah the first time I did my forks and removed that cap, i was pretty much balancing my entire body on it to keep it from shooting upwards.. then when it just came off, i let out a resounding "Aww" of disappointment.