I need to change the spring on my wifes 96 1200. Any special tip? Never done this before. Any and all would be appreciated.

 

put kick stand down and load the spring with pennies. put kickstand up and spring will come right off.
bend new spring and load with pennies. put on the bike with kickstand up. put kick stand down and pennies fall right out.

hint: make sure you have a friend hold the bike for you.

 

I just changed them on both of my Sportsters.

Strapped the bike horizontally to the walls of my garage for stability (while on jack)

Removed the Pretzel clip from the pivot pin and tapped it out. This let the stand fall out releasing the Spring.

Put stand back in using new clip (or cotter pin)

Stretched the new spring in place using a Automobile "Drum Brake" spring tool.

About 5 minutes not counting lifting and strapping off the bike.

HJC

 

[QUOTE=xFreebirdx;8225024]put kick stand down and load the spring with pennies. put kickstand up and spring will come right off.
bend new spring and load with pennies. put on the bike with kickstand up. put kick stand down and pennies fall right out.

That's just what I did. The hard part was bending the new spring to insert pennies. Wear thick leather gloves and, while bending it, have someone else insert the pennies for you.

 

I like the penny idea. How do you spread the new spring open enough to get pennies into it?

 

Someone should make a youtube video of how to do this.

 

Might as well replace the bushings on the pivot pin. Here's a new one next to one that's about two years old.

 

wear eye protection!

 

So i used the pennies and got the old spring off and the new one on. Seems like the spring wasn't the problem after all. I needed a new one anyone since the old one was rusted. The new one seems a little better but the kickstand still wiggles around a lot when it's up. There's a lot of play in it. This might be beyond my abilities. I think I'll call Harley tomorrow to make an appointment for them to look at it.

 

Replace the pivot bushings to take up any slop. Make sure the spring hooks are oriented properly. I know the hook orientation thing sounds like bullshit, but it seems to have made a slight difference in how snug the jiffystand retracts.


Below is before I replaced the spring and bushings. Also, the penny trick (I used thick washers) works perfect for removing the old spring, but when I tried that technique replacing it, it seems the spring got tweeked and wasn't the same. I had another new spring laying around and I installed it by brute force and needle nose pliers. Now, the jiffystand sits against the rubber bumper.