Ed

A statement you made above made a light light ...

Here's what you check...

Loosen the right side (as sitting on the bike) axle cap (2 bolts) at the end of the fork tube. Lock the front brake up and bounce that front end as hard as you can up and down about 4-5 times. Retorque the axle cap bolts again and check how much clearance you have now. See if it increased by doing this. The caps are sometimes tightened without the sliders being parallel with each other and as they compress, they are pulled together in direction. The more they are compressed, the closer they get until your cowbells hit the fender under hard breaking. The front end will also feel much better after this alignment is done as the sliders are working in the same plane then. Something that is very often overlooked and I have seen misalignment often.

Also don't give up on hounding the dealer AND hd for a replacement fender especially if you find this to be the cure as it is an assembly misalignment problem then. The squeaky wheel gets the oil

Let us know if this helps the problem out.

 

Mine has about 1/2" clearance on both sides ('05 Heritage Classic).

[IMG]local://upfiles/1638/314E3A86F104423BB64FECC948EB16E4.jpg[/IMG]

 

TC,

Thanks for the suggestion... Once the dust settles and the BBB / Lawyers have made their calls I'll try your suggestion... For now I'm not riding the bike for fear of dinging something and giving HD any ammo to say it was my fault due to an accident.

fxstcguy98, the bike has never trailered or had it's front end strapped down and compressed. I have strapped it to my lift, but I strap to my engine guard bar with the bike in the air... No strut compression...

Speaking of "lights going on", I wonder if my dealer straps the bike down when they work on it??? They obviously got it out of the crate and also did the 1,000 mile check.

Edmo

 

Is it not normal for the sliders to be VERY close while compressed? When I check mine, there is room between the forks while sitting there, but when compressed the sliders, if they made it down far enough, may touch or be very close. Is this the norm? I want to catch this before I am fighting with HD.

 

If you do the proceedure that is outlined in reply #21 above, it may yield you something.

 

I now have this same problem, just notice today after cleaning the bike, bike is 1 month old; I remembered seeing this post so I did search to find it.

I am very curious as to the out come of your complaint to HD.

 

Here is what has happened so far with reference to HDs response...

First attempt at warranty repair (remember 6 month old bike and no damage... not even dropped) HD told me the misaligned fender/cowbell is not covered by warranty. When you look at the fender, the damage is obviously a fit & finish issue from the factory.

Now I'm awaiting the outcome of HD's "Product Review Board". By my estimate, this is the "Supreme Court" of HD warranty claims and will review their repsonse to my claim... More to come.

OBTW, they have not responded to the Better Business Bureau's initial inquiry from my claim. 14 Feb is their deadline for a response. Will the BBB have any teeth to do anything? Not likely, but it will provide me with more documentation and show that I tried all avenues when attempting to settle this out of court.

Bottom Line: The $500-$1,000 it will take me to fix my fender if I were to "knuckle under" will be spent on lawyer fees. If they claim they have a warranty which is good for 24 months/unlimited mileage, they have an obligation to honor it or see me in court. I didn't pay the "Harley Tax" to have them tell me to go pi$$ up a rope. How may others have been turned away for legitimate warranty work?

For those of you who thought you bought a bike with a warranty, have another sip of the orange & black Kool Aid... I'm not drinking anymore.

More to come...

Edmo

 

Edmo,
If this ends up in court, and you win, (which you should) they should also have to pay your costs in recovering your damages. Lawyers fees included. It just blows me away that HD would rather fight this and lose in the end, and endure the bad publicity then pay what is obviosly their flaw. It sure does no good for their reputation, that is for sure. I see there is another bike posted here with the same problem. Seems to me there will be more to come. This sucks. I think it is much dealer support related. My dealer agreed to fix my warranty problems sight unseen. I will be watching my front end very closely. Did you do the test TCSTD suggested? Let me know if that helped.

 

So far I have not done any adjustments or checks. I don't want to give HD any reason to say it was my "monkeying" around with the front end which caused the problem in the first place.

My dealer has fixed two minor warranty issues in the past without blinking. For some reason they referred me straight to HD for this problem. They have been sympathetic, but haven't stepped in to fix the problem directly. I thought they might fix the bike and take the warranty claim to HD as the dealer, however they haven't. They have offered to "buff the spot out", but buffing will not fix the scuffing on my fender's clearcoat. The service manager started the additional paperwork to have HD relook at the claim which took all of 5 minutes at most, so they haven't really expended much effort to assist me.

Unless HD changes how it covers this claim, I will never buy another new HD... Ever... I love my bike and have waited for years to get one. I think HD bikes are the bike of bikes however, I will not give the Motor Company any more of my hard earned money and will not buy any of their HD brand accessories if they don't honor their word. My dollar vote will go to a company I can trust and who respects & wants my business... It might even be one of those darn metrics rigs!

I'll keep you posted on the proceedings... OBTW, does anyone know what grit paper I should use to sand the "Harley Davidson" advertisement off the side of my tank?? [sm=icon_flaming.gif]

Edmo

 

Update on what my dealer said today.

I just returned from the dealer and after talking to the service writer and sales manager and showing both the problem with cowbell scraping the left side fender this was there reply.

“This should not be happing, this is a new bike and obvious there is a problem here and its Harley’s problem. Warranty will cover this; probably will have to order a new fender and fork slider and when parts come in you can bring it in for repairs. Bring it back on Tuesday when Downey (service manager) is here and he will take care of you, don’t worry.”

Well I will be there on Tuesday to see and let all know what’s up.