Hey you guys , I’ve had my 98 Electra Glide classic for a couple of months now. I put on tires , rebuilt the carb . Bike runs awesome now but when I ride over a bump in the rode I bottom out or scrape the Ki k stand. I went to add air to the front and back but it wouldn’t hold the air. One shock won’t hold the skinny black tube in the red locking devise. The Fronts just don’t pump up. What are people doing to fix this ? Is there a rebuild kit ? Thanks guys

 

Those air shocks have always been problematic, replacing them with regular shocks is the answer.

 

1st thing is to find out where they are leaking to know what you are looking at. Tubing, schraders, the shocks themselves? The shocks are 30 years old and due for a replacement.

 

Get you some better shocks, a set of Bitubo’s from DK Custom products .. Or, get a set of newer air shocks off of a newer bike. Like a 2014 or so.

 

You might be able to cut a small piece off the skinny black tube then reinsert it. That may grab it. Use a hand pump to put air in or if you use an air compressor set it to 30 psi. So you don’t do any damage if they are not damaged already.

As for the front forks, yes there is a rebuild kit.

 

Dump the air shocks. Even the cheapest Progressives are "way" better. It's criminal Harley got away with that junk for so long.

 

HD air shocks, wait, most HD shocks are junk.

Go after market and be done with it.

 

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You have many choices depending on your budget. New aftermarket shocks and fork internals to a set of newer take-offs on ebay and a rebuild kit for the forks.

I went with a set of 13" take-offs (not air) from a post 14 tourer and have been happy with the results. If you like the air ride, just look for newer take-offs if that's your problem...

 

Seeing a lot of throwing out the baby with the bath water going on here.

Short version, front forks need to be rebuild about every 30K, and when you rebuild the front shocks, make sure to use 15w fork oil at OEM levels.
Myself, have a lathe that I can lathe the fork tubes up in to check to make sure they are not bend, and lap polish the tubes as well,
but unless you see deep scratches in the slider plating during rebuilding that need to be polished out, can just roll the tubes on a flat surface to make sure not bent.


On rear shocks, if not leaking oil under the boots, then just need to fluid change them to 10w at 10.5oz.
Hence oem front shock fluid is 10w, shocks 7 weight, so changing fork oil to 15weight, need to change shock oil to 10 weight to keep front and back damping matching. And the reason that your changing the fluid weights, the 10/7 have the suspension too marshmallow,and the thicker fluid slows the dampening rates down.
If shocks are leaking under boot, then Honda has the parts to rebuild them, and seal kit for both shocks is about $20. Hence the same shocks that are on the HDs, where used on the older road glides as well.



As for air lines, you will have enough slack in the lines, so when removed, will see that the line will have a crimped point about 1/16" from the end, cut the line at his dent square, push the fitting nipple in all the way, put a drop of fork oil on the end of tube, push tube all the way in, then pull the release ring end back with your finger nails, then pull the tube back to really lock the tube in place in the fitting claws. Once you have the air lines back on, use shock pump to pump the shocks and forks up to 10lbs, then us soapy water in a spray bottle to check for leaks. If leaks are at lines to fitting, then will need to pull the ring and line harder to allow it to seal correcttly, and if leak at is fitting to what is screwed into, then need to pull fitting to re-dope (teflon tape) the seals.

As for air pressure front and back, it only used to set pre-sag, not to change the dampering rate of the shocks that the weigh of the fluid does isntead.

Last one, when rebuilding the forks, the washer that goes over the the upper seal driven in bushing (bottom left), flat side down on washer (top right), rounded outer edge side upwards towards seal that is going to be pressed in next.

Don't forget to pick up two copper washer for the bottom bolts.

The top rounded side of the washer that goes between the top of bushing and bottom of seal, allows the bottom edge of the seal to slightly expand as it being driving against the out rounded sides, and the flat bottom inner edge of the washer, helps to keep the upper driven in bushing seated in place as well.

And, while you have the forks off the front end, good time to pull the triple clamp to clean, re-grease the head set bearings, and set the bearing tension as well.

 

What's a rode?