Air Shock Swap
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Tourer
Joined: Mar 2007
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Air Shock Swap
Going to do a shock swap on my road king. Anything I should be aware of with the air lines ? I was figuring on jacking it up enough to get the rear wheel off the ground. Unbolt and and bolt up the new ones. Unscrew the air lines and attach them to the new shocks and pump a little air in them. Going from 13" to 12" Am I missing anything ?
Tourer
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 338
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From: Cali
Nope that is it , pretty straight forward. Just be sure not to spill any oil out of the shocks by keeping them upright till you install the screw in plugs on the old ones, and the connector fitting on the new ones.
Tourer
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 338
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From: Cali
Oh yah.....If you want to check for air leaks after you finish installing the plastic lines, a little soapy water mix sprayed on the fittings will bring up bubbles on a bad connection. Pumping the pressure to 45-50lbs will help find any leaks. If you haven't purchased an air pump for the shocks yet, I found the HD one works really well. If you use an air compressor the shocks can get damaged. Just make sure you get it on a discount cuz it runs like $47 msrp. It's nice to carry it with you just incase you decide to run two up at the last minute, or spring a leak. Not enough air will easily cause the shock to start bottoming out with the extra weight.
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2006
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From: florida swamp
If you install 1 side at a time (as recommended by the manual), be careful when taking off that second 13" shock as it will be compressed after putting the 12" shock on and tightening it before doing the other side. I loosened the bottom bolt first and allowed the shock to "pop". I put a rag over the exhaust pipe just for some protection if the bolt jumped out of the shock. The shock will not hit your exhaust. If you back out the top bolt before releasing the tension, the shock will smack into your chrome frame cover. Of course if you just take both 13" shocks off first then you don't have to worry. Maybe that's the proper way to do it with different size shocks but I followed the manual anyway and everything went fine. When you put the air lines back in, just push them in until they bottom out and give them a slight tug to be sure they are secure. I also lowered the bike down off the jack with a 1" piece of wood under the rear tire to make sure the jack would come out ( I used my SUV scissor jack and a piece of flat aluminum to lift the bike)
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