I think I have everything. On paper this all works and I should have it done by the end of the day (Saturday, June 27).

Jack it up and take a before pic...


Got it off! This is actually happening....


Dafuq? Its pressed on? What the hell...I thought I could use my old bearing and dust cover.


Maybe its just rusted on...I'll try prying it...


Got my tire mounted...holy **** I'm excited.

 

Called several shops that were open at the time in the area and none of them had the damn bearing...well might as well get as much as I can done while I'm waiting for another to come in the mail.

Grinding...


WARNING: Do not use a dremel for this ****...not only does it take forever, but metal shavings went EVERYWHERE. (Of course, I should've forseen this, but I never claimed to be the smartest.


Neighbor comes over and we try getting the bearing off (He owns a tool shop) no luck...so he lets me borrow an angle grinder and some other various tools...

By this time I'm running out of daylight, so I figure I'd do a dry run to see what else I'm missing...

 

So I gave up for a few days...Ordered my parts on Sunday; they were supposed to come in on Thursday. Around Wednesday I finally decide to try to throw the caliper on there and see if everythings ok.

Of course not.


I didn't take pics from here on because I was busy trying to get this damn thing back working...

Buddy of mine came over on Thursday and we worked on it all day; he made it work by pointing out that my forks weren't lined up in the trees...The caliper fit.

He realizes I'm missing the tree nuts...but the bottom for pinching the bearings, and the top for keeping the top tree in place. We head over to my new favorite parts shop and pick them up.

We get the legs together and the seals in and the oil in. Put them in the trees and lined them up; put the wheel on etc...then we were faced with a dilemma. The Dyna neck is 7". The tree's neck pole (dont know the proper name) is 8"...minus some for the bottom because I was adamant on not grinding my frame...we had to get a I forgot what its called....its a nut that's not hexagonal, but thats round with some ridges in it....we used a pipe wrench on that ****. Its shorter than the hex tree nut, so I could get the top nut above the top tree.

This is what it looked like when I was done with it;

I used the old bolt as the lock for the top nut and threw a line so I could monitor it....after a few weeks when I'm convinced its not gonna back out I'm gonna throw my old bolt cover on it.

After we got that figured out it; I needed to grind more off the trees to get a proper turn radius. So I did that and got it EXACTLY where I wanted it...

I didn't tell the guys at the FL-Dyna group this, but I ended up grinding it while it was still on the bike...it was too easy with an angle grinder.

 

So after I got it all together and did the initial roll out.

It rolls! I started it up and started slowly riding around the parking lot to see what needs adjusting... It was tight...too tight. The turning sucked. I was fighting with it...****.

I ended up grinding a notch out of the bottom of the fork stop on the frame...once again, did it with the trees on; angle grinder for the big grind and the dremel did the fine grinding...rolled it around...PERFECT! I did add some washers between the trees and the cowbells; because of the way it sits or whatever they were tilted into the inner legs.

I didn't lose any of my turning, my maneuverability, and my front end felt 10x more solid than it did.

After another trip to ace to get some more nuts and bolts, I get it together and decide to make its maiden voyage over to my buddies (~10 minutes on backroads).

So riding around is fine...but bumps...I should've adjusted the pinch nut below the top tree after I ground the fork stop off...SOMETHING is loose.

By this time its getting to 6pm on Friday, and I'm supposed to be at my in-laws at 8 for some stupid reason...so I took some pics and threw it in the garage...I'm still itching to get back and adjust that nut and take it for another short spin around town; trying to work out all the bugs...

Heres some pics!



The graphic on the fender. That white is a paintchip, but I had planned on getting everything repainted one of these months...



Definitely thinking of getting the nacelle painted...


I was kinda skeptical of the Trucklite at first, but I think I'll keep it.


All-in-all I'm REALLY happy with the way it turned out. I couldn't have done it without the FL-Dyna guys, specifically Robterra.


My buddy coined the term, "Redneck Roadking" and I think it stuck, because we were talking about how its gonna confuse the **** out of the old harley guys who look at it.

 

And I'm still working out a funny nomenclature for it...

Current ones are:
FLD
FXLD
FXYXD
FXDLH
FLHD

 

Fixed the clunking. Now it seems I have a slight side-to-side sway while going between 30-50.

Still working out bugs

 

Any questions? Comments? Concerns? Anything?

 

Nice write up and result looks good. Hopefully you'll get all the performance issues sorted out. Did you avoid using an FLD front end for any particular reason? Only asking as I've heard it's a direct swap vs grinding, etc. Might consider relocating the speedo to clean up front now that you have such a nice front end there. Speedo kind of interrupts the flow. Congrats on taking this on and sticking with it through the bumps and hurdles. Love the FL Dyna.

 

Price. I couldn't find an FLD front end (or even trees) for the budget I was looking at. I was hoping I could find a blown up FLD or wrecked with no front end damage that I could harvest the front end from that....but my current 39mm forks were leaking even after changing out the seal. My buddy said there was more side-to-side play than there should've been so I needed a new leg/possible tube. Thats why I moved up this project to this year.

I would love to relocate the speedo, but the only place I'd like it is on the tank...and thats a whole new tank.

I've gone about 70 miles on this front end hoping the "Sway" would work itself out (pretty sure its my being not used to the fat tire/wind/whatever). I think I'm gonna go home, jack it up, and loosen the pinch bolts and bang around on it with a rubber mallet...I have a feeling that the forks aren't equal on their load....just slightly. So this should give it a chance to equalize.

If its not that; then I'm gonna swap out the rotor for the other rotor I got with the wheel. This one just slightly isn't round and I can hear it lightly grinding against the bottom of the caliper on the inside...if that makes sense.

I got a poker run this Saturday I'm hoping to make it to, and I'm gone tomorrow and Friday for work...so I'm hoping I can get it figured out today.

 

I can understand cost being a factor. Doubt the sway is from the wide tire. Wider rubber tends to want to lean less, not more. Something not equal/straight sounds likely. That could contribute to your rotor scraping too. Check if the rotor spins free without contact when its up on the lift. The hammer/settle method is worth a try otherwise. Don't want to ride with a front end that isn't 100% sorted out, and they don't usually just sort themselves on the road .