MY Top Mechanic at North Texas Harley showed me the easy way to remove and install the Road Glide Fairing the easy and Fast Way , First is remove Fairing , lift up straight , and wiggle a little , then remove the headlight assembly, by squeze in the Adjusters blocks with a long pick , and remove headlight assembly , then you see where the fairing goes on the dreaded hooks , line up fairing , assemble with all screws , then lay headlight assemble on front fender ( use a towel on fender first ) , then plug up bulbs wires to wires in fairing ( I use DDM Tuning 's , HID bulbs and slim ballast $ 70.00 , lifetime warranty ) , line up adjusters blocks and push in , and make sure they lock in done , Gary Saia

 

I used to do it that way but it's more work than necessary. I leave the headlight in place. Now it's even easier.

 

Yeah, I've always done it that way too, except why remove the headlight rather than just unplug it?

 

I remove the headlights, a lot easier to put on the hooks when you can see them, but the Sharknose is still a PITA compared to a Batwing, but I love my Fugly.

 

I have a nice adjustable bench that just slides up under the fairing and above the fender so just unhook the fairing from the bike and set on the table top.. now dont even have to pull the wire connectors from the headlights.

 

Last step is to wipe fingers prints off the fairing.
just sayin.

 

Where are these "hooks" you speak of?

 

On top of the radio chassis. They can be difficult to hook onto because you can't see them. This is why we remove the headlight assembly so you can see what you're doing. The hooks are supposed to carry the weight of the fairing but if you do a search you'll see many posts complaining about the chassis digging into the fairing. I beleive HD finally changed the chassis to allow more clearance in 2012.

 

I've had 2 RoadGlides..... I have had fairing on and off so many times, I lost count. The secret is to know how far above the inner, the outer needs to be to just clear the hooks. I can reliably assemble mine first try almost every time now.

 

That's how I do it.
I find it takes the same time if I take the headlight assembly out or leave it in - time saved by not releasing the 3 tabs and removing it is consumed by blindly locating the hooks. But that's just me.