Major Upgrades, part 2 of 3 (part I was Progressive 412s and Pirelli Sport Demon tires, part III is the dual-disc conversion this coming weekend). More info @ http://chornbe.com/motorcycles/sportster/

Part two of this is the front suspension upgrades. This is a multi-faceted job. I purchased the Race-Tech Gold Valve kit and springs. The Race-Tech comes with instructions on how best to adjust the valve, which oil to use, spring preload spacer sizes, etc. In my case, I was also replacing both lower fork sliders because my Sportster only came with disc brakes on one side. Part 3 will be the full front brake upgrade, and a new right-side slider is part of that. I purchased both new sliders in black; black is cool. So aside from the fork work for the suspension upgrades, they had to come apart for new sliders anyway.

frontsuspension_0001.jpg - The disassembly was done earlier, so these pictures only show reassembly, and only on one side of the forks. The first side was a walk-through, seeing what should be photographed and what not.

So... we started with fork tubes. Shown here is one upper-end and one lower-end.



frontsuspension_0002.jpg - Shown here - fork tube caps, top-out springs, damper-rod seating bushings, damper-rod piston rings and damper-rod mounting bolt copper washers. I tossed the mounting bolts since I replaced them with new ones. They fought me pretty good coming out and I buggered up the bolt head a little bit running them out with my impact gun.



frontsuspension_0003.jpg - The damper rods had to be modified by drilling more holes. I ended up with 6 holes total, each being 5/16-inch diameter. The Race-Tech instruction page calls for "at least 6 holes, at least 1/4-inch each".

The damper rods were drilled, then deburred with a hand file, deburring tool and some emory cloth.



frontsuspension_0004.jpg - Reassebly starts with reinstalling the damper-rod pison ring and the top-out spring. This spring cushions the forks internally if they should happen to "top out" (become fully extended).



frontsuspension_0005.jpg - The damper rod is reinstalled into the fork tube, fed through the bottom, then the damper rod seating bushing is slipped on the end.



frontsuspension_0006.jpg - The fork tube and bushing-seated damper rod is installed into the fork slider. Lightly coating the tube and bushing helps ease assembly.



frontsuspension_0007.jpg - Run the fork tube all the way in. Be sure to keep the assembly from tipping down so the damper rod seating bushing doesn't come off.



frontsuspension_0008.jpg - The damper rod retaining bolt should be installed using removeable-type thread lock.



frontsuspension_0009.jpg - Start the bolt by hand to prevent cross-threading.



frontsuspension_0010.jpg - Tighten the bolt fully using an impact gun to ensure a quick run-in, thus preventing the damper rod from spinning over and over.



frontsuspension_0011.jpg - Once t

 

Very usefull info.

 

I gotta say, the black shocks and sliders (and the pending calipers) look BAD *** on that thing.

 

I've been playing with the idea of doing that to mine.

 

I can give you a full part number list if you like.

 

(info moved to separate thread)

 

Please do! Thanks!

 

parts list is here, mrbones:
https://www.hdforums.com/m_2905969/tm.htm

 

Nice job and great pics. Thanks

 

Nice work, looks good.