I'm going to be doing the front fork lowering kit installation tomorrow and I was wondering if anybody who has done this in the past has any tips to offer? Does anybody have a suggestion for an alternative to the fork tube clamp tool? I went to the HD dealer by my house and they wanted $140 for that tool!! It's only two pieces of metal with a "v" bend in them, two thumb screws and a piece of rubber to protect/grip the tube, and it's $140!!! I'm heading to Home Depot to see if I can fab up some sort of replica.

 

Had a guy come over to the house to do mine for....charged $40....he used a piece of pipe....no other special tools.

 

Same questions here? Any tips or tricks to it? I am doing mine Monday. What oil do u recommend? i saw where someone used too heavy of oil and it was a really stiff ride?

 

Used type "E"....works fine!

 

I removed mine myself and took them to the local dealer and they charged me $40 to rebuild mine (to powder coated black lowers) and install the lowering kit.

 

I purchased the HD lowering kit for the front of my 05 FLHTI & have been hesitant to install them, the rear is lowered 1 1/2" & on tight turns the boards scrape as is, what is it like if the front is 1 1/2"s lower?

 

Well I installed this kit over the weekend. Not that bad of a job really. Helps to have an extra set of hands, but could be done solo if necessary. There were a few things I came to find during the installation. The first is that I did not have to remove the inner fairing as the directions suggested. There was plenty of room to access the fork tube caps from the inside of the fairing (as opposed to the front of the motorcycle as the directions state). You do have to remove the outer fairing in order to get to the pinch bolts as well as the fairing cap. But these are a far cry easier than unplugging everything in the inner fairing and removing the entire thing. As for the special tools suggested in the directions, as stated above you don't necessarily need to have them although I'm sure they make the job easier. I was able to fabricate the fork tube holder from some stock metal and a couple 1/4-20 screws and wing nuts from Home Depot, cost less than $6 and 30 minutes of time to make. The fork seal can be set into place by using a 1 5/8" I.D. piece of PVC pipe, it a perfect fit. As for measuring the correct amount of fork fluid we used a straight piece of copper wire with a small o-ring on it placed at the 124 mm mark. We then just continued to fill the tube up until the fluid was just at the tip of the copper wire. The toughest part of the job was removing the dampener tube retaining screw at the bottom of the fork tube sliders without stripping them out. Why Harley uses hex head screws in such places and not torx heads screws is beyond me. Other than that it was a smooth job. I've only been able to ride the bike about 60 miles since doing the install so I haven't formed an opinion on the ride as of yet. I didn't notice anything unusual on my ride home Sunday and my ride to work today. If anything it seems a little easier to turn. The most important thing is that my feet are flat finally. So 1" shorter up front and 1 1/4" lower in the rear beyond the factory lo profile shocks and I'm finally there. Once I had a low profile seat like a Corbin or C&C Seat I should actually be sitting down on the bike at stand still.

 

Thanks for the great info. how long did it take you?

 

I don't have a specific start to finished time as I did several other things over the course of two days. I big chunk of time was spent reading the service manual between steps regarding removing the front wheel, brakes, fender and the inner fairing. It was during reading the manual on removing the inner fairing that I realized that I really didn't need to remove the inner fairing to access those tube caps. That really is the only reason the directions tell you to remove the inner fairing, there is no other purpose for it. Just guestimating I would think that someone removing their forks for the first time and then disassembling them and reassembling them with the lowering kit should budget about 6 hours total for the job. After you've done it once it can probably be done in 4 hours just because you'll know what you are doing.

Brian

 

I just put the chrome lowers on mine (so I had to take the forks apart) and there is no need for that special fork tube holder. You can slide the tube down in the tripple clamps enough to get a wrench on the fork cap, then tighten the lower pinch bolt enough to keep it from turning and start loosening. Once its loose remove the fork from the bike and do the rest by hand. Then just the opposite when you put it back together.