I was reading through the service manual for my Ultra Classic and came across the section on alignment. I was unaware of the vertical and horizontal alignment and adjustments for the Ultra Classic drive train. Has anyone made these adjustments? I understand the checking of the horizontal alignment but I didn't understand how you know when vertical alignment is out? Thanks.

 

I've got mine set better than the dealer had it, or the factory before them (if they even tried to change it from the factory adjustment). I'm sure it's still not perfect, or even if it can be made so.

I've got an excellent idea for a device for checking/setting alignment and plan to build a prototype sometime in the near future. It will be something any trained monkey will be able to use and won't involve clamping anything to the wheels or frame. And no lasers or straightedges, either.

 

For the drive train alignment I thought you just loosen all of the mounting points let the engine run for a few seconds, then tighen everything back up. I think you're talking wheel alignment.

 

And for what it's worth if you aren't getting excessive vibration don't fool with any of that ****.

 

That's what you do just prior to buttoning up the front mount.

There are actually two alignments. One is the rear wheel relative to the engine/tranny. This should be taken care of automatically by the cams on the axle. The second is the entire drivetrain which controls the relative positions of the rear and front wheel. The manual calls for the centerlines of the front/rear wheels to be no more than 1/16" apart and both to be in the same vertical plane. In practice this is very hard to establish. My FLHRC left the dealer when new with the handlebars/front-end pointing to the right while going straight down the road, with the rear tire tracking a good 3/4" to the right of the front.

 

In practice this is very hard to establish. My FLHRC left the dealer when new with the handlebars/front-end pointing to the right while going straight down the road, with the rear tire tracking a good 3/4" to the right of the front.[/QUOTE]

How did you fix your bike? My front end points to the right too.

 

My front end points a little to the right also. I used to think it was just me, but after reading these few posts, I realize I'm not the only one.

I can tell you this. I'M NOT F****G with it!!!! The bikes rides great, has the common and acceptable vibrations, and doesn't seem any worse for this situation.

 

If the front end is pointing to the right, that means the bike is constantly turning right just to maintain itself going "straight" down the road. It also means the rear tire is tracking to the right of the front. It also means that as you go over a bump, not only does the bike jockey front-to-back as it goes over it, it also jockeys left-to-right. I'm entirely confident that this is the source of the "wallow" that most everyone calls a "wobble" (which is what the handlebars do in response).

What did I do to "fix" it? I've not actually "fixed" it yet. I have made it considerably better, though, by almost painstakingly-enough adjusting the links and front mount.

I saw on some 09s the other day that the upper positioning link is fixed-length. They must be pretty confident about the new frames. Having half the parts and being robotically-built probably has a lot to do with it.