I feel kinda dumb now I didn't realize there was a pinned topic in the DIY section about this problem.

Has anyone had anysuccess from simply tightening the nut a little extra?

 

My 07 does it too, but it has to be a fairly hard bump or very seriios braking.

Jim

 

Yes, that's exactly what I experience.

 

My buddys 03 wide glide does the same thing. I'v had everything apart, whole front end, changed bearings, back to gether and it still does it. Dont know what it is but a lot of them do it. If it were any other model id say get it looked at, but this seems to be a inherited Dyna problem.

 

Well, I'm just gonna give the nut a tightening...that FAQ post said the dealer overtightened his steering nut for himafter he complained about it and itonlyrarely clunkedafter that. If that doesn't fix it I guess it will just stay that way. I don't feel like messing with taking the forks, front wheel and the triple clamp off to do the teflon tape mod just to fix a clunk. I'll just steer around the bumps and only brake hard when necessary and minimize the clunking.

 

mine does it on big bumps ... irritates the hell outta me .

 

Mine appears to do it all the time........even on small bumps!Bothers the hell out of me.I am going to check tohe steering head bolt.

 

Hey fellas,

Update for you guys if anyone is intersted.

It looks like Ihave solved my problem for the moment at least. I pulled the bars off it real quick and removed the cap that covers up the steering head nut. I bent the lock washer out of the way and got a 1 1/2 inch socket on the nut. I don't know what the torque spec for this thing is, but mine was less than 10 ft/lbs for sure. I bet I could have nearly loosened it with my fingers that's how loose it was. Is it really supposed to be that loose, or did someone make a booboo while putting my bike together?

Anyway...I tightened it exactly 1/12 of a turn and then bent the lock washer back up to hold it to it's new spot. Took me about 5 minutes.

Then, I went out and put 250 miles on the bike, and nary a clunk was heard. I even tried intentionally to get it to do it by riding over big bumps and also by putting the front brakes on until the front tire was locking up, but still no clunk.

 

I'm not sure what harley calls out for that torque spec,? But with my aftermarket front end I have mine at about 45 FTLBS to get mine to handle correctly and not clunk and vibrate my hands to death. When I removed my factory frontend . My bike wasn't handling that well ( The bike had 5000 miles on it) it was also loose like yours.when I put the new frontend on I replaced all the bearings and had to retorque it 3 times before everything seated correctly and now it handles great .

Jim

 

Hey Jim thanks for the replies. Sounds like we both have been de-clunked.

I was just thinking that although I did not use a torque wrench because I did not know the correct number, but I'd say I gave mine about 40 or 50 ft/lbs if I had to guess.

The bearings in there probably wore out prematurely on yours from all the clunkingdue tothe nut not being tight enough. I feel kinda dumb not knowing how the little chrome nut cover came off at first. lol.