According to the service manual, I need to do (or have done at the shop) a service on the steering head, disassemble and inspect. So what all is involved, and is this necessary? About how many shop hours is this work? I can do everything else for the 30,000 mile service by myself. Thanks.

 

I wondered the same thing. But then I got to thinking. How many times does a steering head fail? If it does fail, what are the consequences? I decided nothing very bad was going to happen, and that the cost of scheduled maintenance would be far greater than the cost of replacing the thing if it ever became necessary. Regularly servicing this thing sounds like just a way to put some money in the service manager's till. Same for the rear swingarm. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.

 

I have over 140,000 miles on an Electra Glide.....never messed with steering head. Guess what....no problems to this day. The bike is equipped with a fitting.....and it was greased at 80,000 miles. I would skip this so called maintenance item.

As for the rear forks/swingarm.......skip it as well. However, I do recommend inspecting the bushings though. Bushings can fail over time and leave you with a wobble. Pull the chrome cap and just visually inspect....simple as that. A loose nut or a worn bushing is much more common than a bad bearing.

 

I'll take note of your comments on the swing-arm bushings. Easy to do there. Thanks.

 

I am going to have to disagree. I think the steering head bearing service is extremely important. If that bearing fails all sorts of fun things can happen, usually with the same outcome you giving the pavement a kiss. Google harley wobble, you'll find that the cause to most of this is neglect of the steering head bearing.

P.S. I also disagree with not replacing the swingarm bushing.

Ride safe guys, just not near me...

 

the last time my 85 fl had the steering head bearings greased was the day it was built. if the bearings ever do go bad i'll replace them then. if i have to take it appart to inspect them and grease them i may as well replace them. it just doesn't make any sense to me to spend $200 to look at a set of $10 bearings. if if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

You could at least put the bike on a lift and check for for any play/roughness and go from there.