I read an article the other day on vtwin forums about the softail thud and they talked about how later softails needed to b torqued to 100 ft lbs so I decided to check mine because we recently took the front end off to powder coat it. But when I tried to torque it down the lock washer ripped and the little finger on top of the washer folded over I went and got two more and the same thing happened u guys have any similar problems??

 

There was a service bulletin that replaced that flimsy washer with a more substantial one. Part costs about $6, and the torque spec is increased as part of the bulletin. Bulletin M-1215.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hd+b...&client=safari

 

That is what I bought today at harley both broke

 

I just put a new one on my Softail the other day , and the dealer did not have the revised one.. I have heard of the revised torque somewhere on here, but I think it was way down from what you are quoting. I can usually get maybe two uses out of them before the get rough and once they do they grab and turn wring the tab off. I put a dab of moly gray grease on both sides. My manual says to torque 35-40lbs. That is plenty tight since even when I set the fallaway on my Softail to 1", it bumps it up to 2". Not sure if most know, but the Softail has the tapered roller bearing in the neck bearings. They do no need nearly the preload as ball bearing need. In fact, too much on them will starve the grease out of them. When you torque the 35 and bend one tab up on a flat, the setting will last a long time. Crazy as this sounds, my bike has a maintenance warrant only with the original owner. He had it serviced free before I put the paper work in my name. Been a long time ago and I always had a lot of front end clack. I got to checking since I would swear it was the springs slapping the side of the slider tubes on the rebound. The fallaway was way off. At least 6". He set it for the FX Softail springer since my bike like it has a hole in the fender. When I backed it off to 2", most if not all clack went away. Loosen the top adjuster till you have no load fall away and grease the bearings. Turn the adjuster till fallaway is about two times too much(just quick eyeball) and then back off and come back to your minimum. Tighten the top nut 35 lbs and then the pinch bolts (mine are 35lbs also) Bet you fallaway will be correct and will stay set life of the bike. Bend up the lock tab full width of flat making sure it is tight at bottom.

 

What broke? The replacement washer is just a thick flat washer. No tabs, and it's too thick to bend which is why the torque was increased. IIRC, p/n 45727-07.

 

see the ones they gave me had the tab still that goes into the hole on the triple tree. So your saying the new one is just a flat washer???? what locks the nut down???

 

The bent up one is my old with the tab that drops into the drilled hole on the tree, the lower is the revision???? However there are so many versions of methods for Harleys, it appeared it would lock nothing on my set up..

 

Is the nut locking???

 

Darn if I know, just grabbed the picture off the path in jcharts' post. Had seen it in the past and they just said it's thicker. My opinion was I want my nut locked with the tab. The bent tab lock washer is steel. Those saying it's soft and such have about the same engineering ability as a tree considering it is up against the aluminum surface of the top tree.

 

I don't know the why, just trying to help the OP. HD changed the flimsy washer for the thicker washer. There is no tab on the updated washer. I can only assume they increased the torque to compensate for the lack of a positive lock. Never had issues with the new washer, throw a little blue loctite on there if you're worried about it.