Steering geometry help
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,395
Likes: 153
From: Utah
Oh yeah... I forgot to mention... improperly lubricated training wheels.
Seriously, since it flops to either side I think you will have to find the right pre-load on the bearings... which you can only approximate with the bike elevated and test the fall away. In the case of a stock 2006 Softail, it is about 1" in either direction from center that will hold the wheel in position and one very light tap on the wheel will cause it to drop. The bearings must be free in their races and to make sure you first turn the wheel from right to left a few times but do not hit the stop. When you are testing the fall away, do not let it hit the stop. Slamming into the stop can **** the bearings slightly which will give you an improper reading, however slight. The fine tuning will have to happen with riding.
Anytime you add stuff to the front end (lights, apes, different weight wheel, dead squirrels, etc.) the fall away changes (gets shorter) because of the additional weight. You also have to make sure that your cables aren't causing any binding in either direction >when compared to stock< to use the stock recommendations. It really isn't such an **** process, but the more careful you are the quicker you get it right and get back to riding instead of tweeking. I would start with the stock recommendations for your bike and lower or raise the pre-load from there AFTER you ride it to see if you have too much clunk or too much twitch (opposite ends of the spectrum).
Some stock softails have a little hole in the rear bottom of the fender. You can often win a bar bet by asking someone if they know what it is for. It is used to suspend a plumb bob from to set fall away. If you don't have such a hole, you will have to improvise... but believe me, you can't eyeball it. You will be surprised, I think, to see how you can find a sweet spot and any little adjustment makes a big difference in the measurement of swing. It really doesn't make any difference how you do it, as long as you do it the same every time until you get the proper feel in steering. Once it is set, you will get to do it again in 50k miles or so... from the slight wear of the bearings.
Most of the ones that I have seen have the notched nut that you can adjust with a fine dead head drift just to get close. You can do this with the front end assembled. You then have to re-check the torque on the stem nut. Then you have to go back and check the fall away. Harley also came up with a new type washer to go under the stem nut on some models. Check with a dealer to see if yours needs one... they are thicker and will hold the torque settings better than the lock tab type.
C#
Seriously, since it flops to either side I think you will have to find the right pre-load on the bearings... which you can only approximate with the bike elevated and test the fall away. In the case of a stock 2006 Softail, it is about 1" in either direction from center that will hold the wheel in position and one very light tap on the wheel will cause it to drop. The bearings must be free in their races and to make sure you first turn the wheel from right to left a few times but do not hit the stop. When you are testing the fall away, do not let it hit the stop. Slamming into the stop can **** the bearings slightly which will give you an improper reading, however slight. The fine tuning will have to happen with riding.
Anytime you add stuff to the front end (lights, apes, different weight wheel, dead squirrels, etc.) the fall away changes (gets shorter) because of the additional weight. You also have to make sure that your cables aren't causing any binding in either direction >when compared to stock< to use the stock recommendations. It really isn't such an **** process, but the more careful you are the quicker you get it right and get back to riding instead of tweeking. I would start with the stock recommendations for your bike and lower or raise the pre-load from there AFTER you ride it to see if you have too much clunk or too much twitch (opposite ends of the spectrum).
Some stock softails have a little hole in the rear bottom of the fender. You can often win a bar bet by asking someone if they know what it is for. It is used to suspend a plumb bob from to set fall away. If you don't have such a hole, you will have to improvise... but believe me, you can't eyeball it. You will be surprised, I think, to see how you can find a sweet spot and any little adjustment makes a big difference in the measurement of swing. It really doesn't make any difference how you do it, as long as you do it the same every time until you get the proper feel in steering. Once it is set, you will get to do it again in 50k miles or so... from the slight wear of the bearings.
Most of the ones that I have seen have the notched nut that you can adjust with a fine dead head drift just to get close. You can do this with the front end assembled. You then have to re-check the torque on the stem nut. Then you have to go back and check the fall away. Harley also came up with a new type washer to go under the stem nut on some models. Check with a dealer to see if yours needs one... they are thicker and will hold the torque settings better than the lock tab type.
C#
Last edited by cwsharp; Feb 21, 2014 at 08:24 AM.
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