I have 2 things that I questions on. Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

1) I want to lower the front and the rear of my bike. The main question is how low should I go? I am a larger guy, 6'3 285, and I dont want to bottom the bike out while riding. Any suggestions on how low I should go on the front and rear? As far as lowering the bike the rear seems to be rather simple with a standard lowering kit. Is the front nothing more than removing the current springs and replacing them with shorter ones?

2) I am either buying new custom painted tins or I am taking my stock tins off and having them painted. I need to make some calls before I decide which way I want to go. Question is how difficult is it to remove the tank? This is a carbed bike so no fuel injection to worry about. Is it as simple as removing the fuel line and carb cable and the front and rear bolts and you are done?

Any advice would be appreciated. Never removed a tank before and I have never lowered a bike before. Thanks a lot for any info that can be given.

 

On the lowering front.
You are a big dude, lowering kit , you would not be comfortable any more than 1" lower.
2" lower would be painful unless you get air ride (too expensive) or buy a used Progressive 422 (they will make your 1" lower ride comfy and 2" possible without being too painful).

On the front, do not go lower than the rear, weight transfer is not your friend, too much weight on the front will get the rear light under breaking and could fishtail specially in wet conditions.

 

As per above on the suspension.

I swapped the tins on my 07 Softail but it is fuel injected. The only difficulty I had was disconnecting the fuel pump in the tank... you shouldn't have that problem.

A few other things you'll come across is disconnecting the crossover pipe in front of the tank and disconnecting the fuel gauge.

I'd recommend unplugging the fuel gauge under the tank and wait until the tank is off before removing it from the tank. I cut my wires but knowing what I know now I would have taken apart the connector on the end of the wires.

 

This is from the manual for a 2004 Softail. I would assume the instructions would be very close if not the same. If you want to PM me your email address, I can email you this section of the service manual in PDF form so you will also have the diagrams that go with these instructions.

1. Remove acorn nut and washer on
instrument console to separate console from fuel tank.
2. Disconnect the fuel gauge sender connector
[86] (3) on top plate.
3. If tank is to be disassembled, remove all T20 TORX
screws (2) from top plate. Remove plate and attached
sending unit. See 8.26 FUEL GAUGE.
4. Remove seat.
5. See 1.27 FUEL SUPPLY VALVE FILTER: CARBURETED.
Check to be sure fuel supply valve is in “OFF”
position. Remove fuel line from the fuel supply valve.
Drain fuel into adequately sized, approved gasoline container.
6. See Figure 4-15. Remove the rear T40 TORX bolt and
washer (1).
7. Disconnect crossover line (5) and continuous
venting vent line (12) and vacuum hose (11).
8. Remove the acorn nut (6), flat washers (2), and front
mounting screw (1).
9. See Figure 4-14. Slide fuel tank to the rear and disconnect
fuel gauge connector [117] located under left side of
fuel tank.
10. Remove fuel tank from motorcycle. Remove rubber trim
(13) to access connectors along frame. Remove bushings

and grommets (3) if necessary.

 

I gotta agree with 1". I'm 5'6" 160lbs, and I'm lowered about 1.5" and I bottom out pretty frequently and my preload is turned up kinda high since I ride my wife on the back alot. You're also gonna be sitting pretty low just from your weight when you sit on it too so you'll still be benefiting from the "lowered look" when you're on it. Just not gonna sit that low on the kickstand. It's all how much you're willing to put up with really.

 

If you lower it with the bolts or collars, you're going to probably want to jack your shocks up to their highest preload. I have 2" drop collars at full stiff and I bottom out with a passenger. I'm about 210 now and just dropping it with no adjustment I was bottoming out when I hit bumps on the interstate.

 

That would be great.....labman1275 at g mail dot com. Thanks

 

Done! I sent you the gas tank removal section as well as the section covering maintenance so you would have it.