Maybe I'm missing something, but how does the oil weight cause front end clunking? Unless the forks are bottoming out, and I think that would be a bit more than a clunk, then my money is on a loose steering head bearing.

 

man I have been battling this front end clunk for about 3 years. after tightening, chainging stem bearings and several tries on different fork oil, I gave up. Still riding with the clunk and it sucks. But I do love my bike. Would give anything to get rid of the clunk..

 

Only had a clunk once,, wasn't the oil used... but,,, rather the amount.

Had my Indy change fork oil at 25k and he added 2ozs less the mine needed (different yrs use diff amounts). After he added two more ozs, the correct total amount,, issue gone.

My forks felt soft bouncing up and down and had a clunk when they rebound upwards when hitting a bump, it is because of the LOW OIL in the forks than the Weight of oil used..

different oil company's have different weight standard,, In BelRay (what my Indy uses) they have 10-20-30 weight fork oil, which is light, med, and heavy..

I ended up using the Med (20) which is a little heavier the the stock HD Fork oil that came in my Heritage,, at first after the correct amount was added I thought it was a little toooo stifff... but after a few miles I like it better....



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I agree with John that it's the steering head bearing. I had the clunking every time I went over railroad tracks until I tightened mine.

 

I believe the clunk the O/P is referring to is because is front end is lowered, he is bottoming out over certain bumps. The clunk is that sound when the shortened suspension bottoms out. Thicker oil, or oil at the proper level will help stop the forks from bottoming out as easy.

 

I can't speak of the "clunking" problem you are having, that's hard to say when your not actually there to hear it and whats going on when you hear it. I do have to say this about "bottoming out" though. I have always had lowered bikes and I have never bottomed out. If you know you are lowered and can have a bottoming out issue you drive accordingly. I think a person should always ride according to the road conditions, I learned that driving truck many moons ago. If you are on a lowered bike and you see some RR tracks up ahead, get out of it, crawl over the tracks then get back up to speed on the other side of them. You see a pot hole, go around it. Your on adverse road conditions, slow down. My front end is down an inch now and I am going to drop it another inch while it's in the shop since I have the Shotgun and I'm putting on the Samson's. I don't anticipate any issues or bottoming out -2" on the front end. With the gas monotubes, -2", I am going to use the SE heavy duty and I am 100% sure I won't have any bottoming out issues at all. I will just ride accordingly. I had someone PM me and ask me what my honest opinion was on this issue, well, this is my thought process on this issue. I can't even ever recall bottoming out even with someone on the back. Maybe I'm just an old fart now and I drive to slow...naw...that ain't it! I think most bike accidents that does not involve a cage is almost always due to drinking and driving or a person going to fast for road conditions or both. I hope I do not jinx myself but in my 40 years of riding I have never gone down. I don't think I can attribute that to anything else other then only riding as fast as road conditions allow and always leaving myself with a way out of a jam or keep myself from getting in a jam in the 1st place. I don't claim to be better than anyone who has ever gone down, I just don't ever ride any faster than road conditions allows me to ride. I have never openly admitted this but I am afraid to death of going down at any speed over 20MPH so I do every thing within my power, use the knowledge all these years of riding that I have gained and even learning from others mistakes. A perfect example is this, one of the 1st things I taught my Son, if you can't see all the way through a curve you get out of it. So many guys go down in curves, that seems to get most riders or be the #1 cause of biker accidents. If I can't see the other end of a curve I am out of the throttle before I even get into the curve and commit myself. Not only do I not want to hurt myself or anyone else, that's the #1 reason I ride like I do but tied with that is I just couldn't imagine seeing my bike in a pile of wreaked and twisted metal. To much time, to much blood, sweat and tears and to much dang money in it. When I allow my Son to ride my bike I get scared to death for him every time he takes off. It's not because he doesn't belong on a bike, it's because he has yet to gain those multiple years of riding experience. Bottoming out and scraping is one of the 1st things I went over with him. I taught him that if he bottoms out or scrapes he is riding to fast for the road conditions he is on. I do think that the monotubes gives one the best chance to keep from bottoming out. With these two suspension mods I don't think I have ever been on a better riding bike, more firm and much more responsive with what I am now riding on.

 

And in the Monotubes the oil is for lubrication only NOT up and down travel suppression.

 

The dealership addressed the washer issue per the bulliten! But they replaced the for oil with type e, I previously had the SE heavy duty, I think I will be going back to it. I like the stiffer ride also.

 

Could it be your rebound springs. Mine does it. I checked the neck bearings. Tightened the front tank bolt (was loose and made some difference but I still have a clunk) Mine does it on the rebound. (wheel dropping down) I personally think Duece and Customs does it more then Fatboy. I have not pulled my short rebound springs. Know my bike came with progressive lower SE ones installed by dealer and I put original back in. Should have fished the short ones out to see what they looked like. Is it possible dealer took the short ones out? I noticed Fatboy does not have the short ones. What do they have?. Just a rubber stop?

 

I only had a clunk if I hit a bad bump once in a while, so I had the neck bearing and washer issue taken care of per spec. At the same time she was due for fork oil change, and the front end is clunking more frequently now. The front end is definitely softer now also. I think the SE heavy duty or even the SE racing fork oil will be my next weekend project!