I bought an 07 fatty about 3 months ago and started hearing a rattle somewhere in the front end about 2 weeks after I bought it. It occurs at lower speeds (too loud to notice at higher speeds) when I travel over any type of bump or inconsistency in the road. I have had it into the dealer 3 times to fix, but they can't seem to find it. They have tightened the neck bearings andreplaced the inner fork tubes to no avail. Bad fork tubes seems to be the popular culprit for this rattle on most fatboys.In fact, after they changed the fork tubes the rattle became more prevalent. It sounds like a bb is bouncing around inside the headlight. I have removed about every piece of the front end that I can (including the headlight), and the rattle is always still there. I suspect the problem must be in the forks since it worsened after the dealer worked on that area, but I am stumped as to what it could be.... and it drives me crazy. I understand this to be a common prob on new fatboys, but I intend to track it down one way or another. Any suggestions?

 

Take a look under the thread (on this forum) started by iclick. Not much help but reassurance you are not alone. My money is still on the damper tube assembly as this seems to be the main thing that has changed with the 07's - the top bushing appears to be a crimped on fixture now instead of a seperate part. If the crimper was having a bad day....... Did you notice any loosness when you stripped yours down?

 

Had the same problem with the wifes 07 Deluxe, dealership finely replaced both front forks, the entire assembly. Rattle gone.
Hope this helps
03

 

I just got my bike back from the dealer for the third time and the rattle is still there. They told me that their most experienced mechanicwent thru the entire fork assembly checking all moving parts for any looseness or possible rattle and found nothing and he re-torqued every possible bolt. Every time I pick it up, I ask if they test road it to verify that the sound is gone and they tell me," we couldn't hear anything"..... I have minor hearing loss and I can still hear it.... At least they tell me to bring it back if its not fixed,butI get the feeling that if its gonna get fixed, It's gonna be me tracking it down.
Couldit be in the front caliper housing?? Has anybody ever had a rattle occur there. I'm gonna take it off tommorrow and see if I can get it to rattle, once its removed fromthe bike. If that doesn't get me anywhere, I guess its going back to the dealership on Tuesday, but I'm quickly losingfaith that they will be able to fix the problem... frustrating.

 

I have this little rattle from time to time..like a little clink(from time to time only on acceleration).. I think its my excess wires I stuffed inside the nacelle.. but could be wrong... I just changed my whole front end to chrome sliders and cowbells..but since I did the work... heh I better figure this out

 

It starts as a clink...... I also thought it was cable connectors in the nacelle, but have eliminated that possibility. There seems to be universal agreement that there is an internal problem with 07 Fatboy forks but no apparent smarts on what is causing the noise. My money is still on the damper tube and bushing....

ps - your forks look cool.

 

Just got my bike back from the dealership for the fourth time regarding this issue and the problem seems to have gone away! It seems that all they did to remedy the problem was lubricate the mating surfaces of the front of the nacelle (primarily the plate just behind the headlight).... so simple, but one thing I had not tried. The dealers told me they had two other fatboys in-house making the exact samenoise and this fixed them as well,one of which had just been un-crated. Obviously it could come back, but I think I can handle sprayinga little teflon lubricant every once in a while.I can't say I'm too happy that it took four trips to the shopdo it, but I am just happy to have the noise fixed. Anybody else out there having this problem might try this easy fix before suspecting the worse.

 

Gday.rattles can be springs internally hitting inside the fork tube.and/or a fix is to run 15 or 20 weight oil in the forks and add an extra 30cc to quiet down the crack on hard bumps

 

Love Tool stinkfist...

 

i have an 07 fatboy with noise, dealer said that the culprit is defective forktubes with a loose insert they are going to replace both forktubes.