Hey gang, I'm taking my front end apart today so I can get it shipped out to Joe for some powder work. Everything was pretty much what I expected, although I wanna thank pkellymc I believe for the idea of cracking the 12mm lower tube bolts loose before dismantling everything else, man those suckers did crack to come loose.
Anyway, on to my question, when I disassembled the the lower sliders, I noticed both sliders have what the moco calls bushing guide (item 20) and I was a little surprised at all the copper showing on mine, both sides were the same. I cleaned em up, and I'm not a bushing/bearing expert but the reddish color is not rust it appears like coppor, don't know if it's a copper bushing with nickel or some other metal plating that has rubbed some of the surface metal off? Not sure myself, but, did you guys that removed yours see the similiar situation? The only thing I bought from the dealer last week in prep for this job was new oil seals, cap o rings, and my 2 quarts of amsoil 10w fork oil shipped in.
I'm half tempted to just go ahead and replace those bushing guide things from HD, but then again, they feel smooth so maybe it's perfectly normal. What did you do? Thanks for the ideas....
Russ

 

To be honest, I didn't even pay much attention to anything other than the parts I was removing and replacing. I used info from pkelly, bberck, and sc-longhair and it was great. If I would have had to follow the manual step by step, I likely would have never tackled the job myself and would have a lot more money tied up in chroming my front end than I do. I purchased a set of new oil seals and some HD fork oil and a 12mm hex wrench from Sears and that was it besides the HD chrome front end kit. My toughest step was reinstalling the fork seals. I tried using a PVC pipe split on one side to drive the seals in but it just wouldn't go far enough. So, I used a wide, fairly blunt, long scew driver and took my time tapping the oil seals down without damaging them working my way around until they were seated properly. Good luck getting it all back together. I know Joe will do you right on the PC job.

 

That is a lot of copper showing. Those parts are not expensive as I just looked into them myself. I can't say how they affect ride quality. You may get a better answer from your local service tech or indy. I don't know if Howard from MotorcycleMetal is still around. I remember him posting something about that. I want to say his suggestion was t replace them. Again, cheap parts.

 

yeah replace them.

 

I would just replace everything while you have it down, I think all the bushings, o rings, seals and glide rings and seal/bolt kit is less than $60. all that copper showing as described sounds like you have a few miles on it, so the parts are cheap and youll have a rebuilt front end.

 

i would replace them bud

 

Thanks Amigo's, as usual you guys are spot on with my thoughts.

Disassembled front end like I've never done before... DONE

Ordered front end hardware... DONE

2 46508-01 O-RING All Models
2 46080-01 BUSHING, slider
2 46512-01 SEAL DUST
2 46514-01 SEAL OIL
2 46515-01 SPACER SEAL
2 46516-01 BUSHING GUIDE
2 46615-06 PACKING SEAL (brass Washers on bolts)
plus a few other goodies...

Reassembly... Pending, it's all in the master powder pro's hands now...

I'm stepping out on a limb on those oem parts. I normally pick that junk up at the dealer but pretty common, one dealer has some, the other, has some but no same dealer has all, without ordering, so growing tired of driving around to different dealers, I just ordered all of it through a third party. Place is called cycle parts.com I believe, hopefully they don't muck it up too bad.

 

Mine looked about like yours, Red. Had about 10K when I was adding chrome lowers and decided to just reuse mine (seals, too)...but I am a CAS*. When I replaced the front end of the Road King last month, I used all new bushings,seals, springs, etc. The new fork tubes came with it all installed/included. Looking back, I'd probably replace with new, though I've had no issues with reusing the original parts; sets are cheap on ebay. Glad to have been of assistance.