Oh OK, I've seen those - fork lift style right?
How is it for stability?
Got any pictures of the bike on it?

 

Correct. It's ok. I'd give it a 3 3/4 out of 5. Definitely not as stable as a a typical floor jack with the cross members, but you have so much more space. I couldn't do it with just the normal style floor jack. And for $140 with a coupon, you can't beat it. No photos.

 

If I'm not mistaken, J.D. uses the same or something very similar when he installs 'em. I was pretty sure I saw one of these lifts in use on one of his youtube vids when I was on the fence as to whether to buy one, and what it would take for ME to install it. (Turns out, I did it the same way JAM did his... twice - once on my Slim, and my wife did hers on her Lo). Still considering one of these lifts or a table lift for my shop - either one would be really helpful for a lot of other things aside from this installation.

 

Note that you mention it, I've seen that too...

 

Like many of us I decided to add the Shotgun Shock (SS) but have little to no experience working on bikes. Seems most of the comments on these seem to say it’s a job most anyone can do and I agree. You need to have some clue for simple mechanics, a bit of patiences and the right tools, especially a proper jack to get your bike off the ground.

Sure the shop can get this done in 2 hours,.. someone with the know how probable 4,.. me, well it took me 3 days. Like I said, this was all new to me and I knew I needed to take my time to get it right. I was also doing this alone and in my underground garage at my apartment with a headlamp for working light (they work great by the way).

The instructions that come with the shock are fairly basic but don’t give all the details a noob like me really needs. What I’m hoping to do is provide a few missing pieces to help the next person wanting to add the shock. I have a 2013 Slim (w/abs) and the details/photos below are for this bike, though I’m guessing it’s not much different from other softails.

Shotgun Shock Installation Instructions - ABS Models

** Before you start, do you need to change your transmission fluid?? The SS will cover the plug and will need to be partially removed to do the fluid change. The manual for my bike says every 15K miles, if you are close then I highly suggest you change the fluid along with the shock install.

1.Raise bike with lift, support rear wheel
- You will need a proper bike lift which you should have if you are changing your own fluids. As for the rear wheel I used my cars jack. You need to be able to adjust the rear wheel up/down in order to get the shocks out. Don’t worry about placing this shock yet, you don’t need to until you complete a few other steps.

-Here’s the rear wheel with the car jack under it. I used a metal dish to give some surface area. Get the splash guard and shock bolts off before placing this jack under the rear tire.


2.Remove seat, battery and splash guard
-The first two are easy enough. As for the splash guard I had no idea how that came off. It’s actually really simple. There is 1 small bolt at the bottom which will take an allen wrench. With the bike in neutral remove the splash guard bolt. Once removed you can wiggle the guard off and slide it down. With the rear wheel able to spin it helped when removing the guard.

-Here is a photo of the splash guard. Notice the 1 bolt at the bottom.


3.Remove stock shocks
-You’ll need a 19mm closed/open sided wrench for this. This 19mm will be your main wrench for both ends of the shocks. I’m sure there are several methods to getting these bolts loose. I found by using my foot and leg to push I was able to get these loose. At this point you don’t want to completely take the bolts out, you need to undo the front bolts/nuts first.

-Here are the shock ends attached to the swing arm. These are the bastards that take a bit of work to get off.


-Here the method I used to get the bolts loose. Remember.. Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosy.



-You’ll need to use a ratchet with a 19mm socket to get these nuts off. Go ahead and remove the nuts, no need to remove the bushings, you’ll need to use them for the install.
-Here are the 2 nuts. You won’t be using them for the intall of the SS


-Now that you have the front nuts off go ahead and remove the rear shock bolts, you will need to use them for the install
-After you’ve removed the bolts go ahead and place the car jack (or what ever you have) under the rear wheel. You’ll want to use the jack to move the tire up so you can remove the shocks. The shocks wont just fall out, actually if they do then great. I found that I needed a bit of patience to get these out. I noticed that by getting the left shock (bikes left) out first the right was able to come out.

-As you can see even though the bolts are out and the swing arm is out of the way (jack pushing rear wheel up) the shock still needs to be taken out with a little work.


4.Install SS with airline plugged in to fitting on shock body, use stock shoulder bolts with ‘red locktite’ on threads and ‘never seize’ on the shoulders.
-Remember when installing the SS the shock needs to have the air hose and SS name/logo facing up.
-Go ahead and attach the air hose making sure it’s secure. You don’t want to cut the hose at this time, you’ll want to do this during the compressor install.
-Go ahead and adjust the rear tire jack so you are able to attach the original bolts. Remember to use the loctite and the bolt threads and the never sieze in the area where the bolts go through the shock. When I attached the bolts I didn’t use the original washers. I actually found the bolts didn’t sit against the shock ‘shoulders’ like they did on the original shocks when tightened them so the washers would have been loose.
-Once you get the bolts in you’ll notice the shock hangs. This is needed because when you need to change your transmission fluid the shock needs to swing out of the way.

5.** The next set of instructions provided (lines 5,6,7 and 8) are all part of installing the front hex bolts and the compressor. I’m not going to include the instruction text here since there it would make this post even longer. Just look through the instructions and I’ll provide a few additions in the bullets below.
-Route the SS air line towards the right side of the bike (away from belt). The line will slip through an opening where the compressor will be.
-You want to make sure to adjust the rear wheel jack so you get the front side of the shock close enough to where the hex bolts will attach to it.
-Once you are ready to attach the hex bolts you need to start with the right side. (Right side of bike. When looking at the picture below this would be the bolt on the left side since you are looking up at the bolts.) Just get this bolt started, you’ll want to make sure you can get the other bolt in before tightening.
-Now the bolt on the left side of the bike (belt side) needs to be attached along with the bracket from the compressor, don’t tighten down. Though you are provided 3 total washers I found that I was only able to fit 2. In order to attach the compressor I needed a bit of room to move the bracket and this little bit of room provided that.

-Before moving forward with adding the compressor take a look at the photo. You’ll see the air line coming through the slot and the bracket which is used to attached the compressor. As you’re putting the compressor in just take a moment and think to yourself, I’ll need to remove all this and the compressor when needing to change my transmission fluid..


-Now that you have both hex bolts on and the bracket in place, feel free to tighten the bolt on the left side of the bike (non bracket side). You need all the room you can get and having this flush will help.
-When it came time to attach the compressor to the bracket I found I needed to loosen the band around the compressor in order to connect everything to the bracket.
-Ok so before you attach the air line to the compressor make sure and test fit the compressor. The elbow piece where the airline attaches faces up and on the right side of the bike. The elbow will fit into the slot where the air line is coming through. This is also the side/location where the wiring will go through. Once you get everything in a position where you can attach the compressor your ready to size and cut the air line.
-I took about 3 or so inches off of the hose. I held up the compressor and just made sure I had some room to zip tie the line to the right side of the frame (loosely). Make sure your cut is straight so the hose will fit firmly into the compressor.
-Now fit the air line into the compressor, lift the compressor into position and attached one of the screws to attach the compressor to the bracket.
-Once you get the screws attached to the compressor and all that is tight you can now tighten the hex bolts

9.Wiring Install
-The instruction provided as part of the install packet is good. Follow those with the few below bullets as some extra detail
-The section of wiring that connects to the shock and compressor should be routed up through the battery box. This will leave the little plastic box to be zip tied out of the way of the swing arm. I have this in a spot where it sits behind the splash guard (once it’s reattached) . I also zip tied the section attached to the shock/compressor zip tied out of the way. You’ll figure it out.
-The switch assembly attaches to the front side of the horn, at least thats what I did.
-I would suggest lifting the gas tank (undo back and front bolts, it’s simple) so you are able to route the wiring under the tank so it’s out of the way. Do be careful of the switches. They are attached to the bracket and can snap if you place to much force on them (yes this happened to me).

I’m sure there are a few things I’ve missed but hopefully this long *** post will help. The shock has been worth the effort. JD was fantastic as I needed to contact him for help. If you’re in my neck of the woods feel free to PM me if you need help and I would be happy to stop by.

 

The beauty of a Harley is that it's simple to work on. I'm a mechanic by no means but I feel I have a better grasp than your average Joe on how to work on cars and bikes as I've always modified my vehicles and generally done most of the stuff outside of complicated engine upgrades on my own.

I did my shock over several days as I took my time and worked on it after work. After doing it the first time and seeing how everything goes together, I feel like I could do it much quicker now. 2-4 seems like an average quote for time.

 

I agree and pretty much how I am mechanical wise. Just knowing the order of how to put one of these shocks on and how to get around the tough spots now would drastically change the time needed for the install. I believe most anyone could add this shock to their bike. Might be a bit daunting at first thought but there really isn't anything that anyone could do to mess anything up with their bike.

 

OK, so I got another shock on and it's holding air. Looks like I'm finally set up.

So, this part I know is an adjustment issue and I'm still trying to find the sweet spots but does anyone have an issue with bounciness? I'm trying to find where to set it so I don't get this. It doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally I'll get a bump that will set the bike bouncing 2-3 times after. If this just an air shock thing and something we have to live with or will making a bit stiffer combat this? The ride is otherwise great.

I rode two up with the girlfriend Saturday evening and had a few issues, but after tweaking the settings a bit, it rides good. I did bottom out a few times. I was trying to make it low enough to flat foot with the sundowner without going too low.

 

If it is too bouncy, try letting some air out of the back switch.

 

I don't agree.

The shock works by having air either side of the piston in the shock body. You change the height of the ride by changing the relative amount of air in either side (if you increase air on both sides, the height stays pretty much the same).

The bike bounces less the MORE air is in the shock.

If there is little to no air pushing the bike down, then either the ride will seem very firm as the bike is at maximum height and your weight can't push the piston against the air pressure, or it seems very soft because there is unsufficient air in the shock to support your weight. You are more likely to "top out" than bottom out.

If you want to firm up the ride, you need to add air to BOTH sides of the shock (up the front switch and down the rear switch). If you don't add equally, then you will either increase or decrease the ride height in the process.

If the ride is bottoming out, you need to add air with the front switch (up). If the ride is "topping out", you need to add air with the rear switch (down).

If the ride is otherwise too firm (just not bouncing enough), then you should let air out of the shock. If you use only the front switch (down) you will also lower the bike in the process (beware bottoming out). If you use only the rear switch (up) you will also raise the bike in the process (beware topping out).