Sportster Steering Neck Service

My Owners' and Service manual calls for this service every 10K miles. What this amounts to is removing the steering neck bearings, cleaning the old grease out of them, re-packing them with new grease and re-assembling the steering neck. I have done this a few times now, but this time I decided to document this procedure. It is not as scary as it may seem, but neither is it as simple as I have described in the previous few sentences. There are a few tips and tricks to know to make the whole thing go smoothly. So, let's get started.

Lifting the bike

First thing that needs to be done is the bike needs to be lifted on the lift in such a way as to have more weight on the front. This is important as we will be removing the front fork and wheel assembly off the bike and therefore lightening up the front part of the bike significantly. If the bike is off balance without the front end it could fall off the lift backwards. I tied the bike to the lift with ratchet ties at the front down tubes, but still, why tempt faith. Put the lift as much towards the rear as possible.

Preparing the Front End for Removal

Now that the bike is securely lifted off the ground with more weight to the front it is time to prepare the front end for removal. This involves removing all the tings that can possibly prevent the front fork and wheel from being removed as a unit. Basically, this amounts to brake caliper(s). I first pressed on the caliper towards the wheel so as to compress the pistons a little and create a small gap between the brake pads and the rotor. This makes both the removal and installation much easier. I then  used a 12pt 10mm socket to undo the brake caliper mounting bolts. I have an all-flex stainless steel braided brake line on my bike, so I just undid the brackets holding it to the steering shaft on the bottom and the top tripple clamp on top freeing it completely from the fork assembly. I used wire ties to secure the caliper to my engine guard (see picture).

Now the only things attached to the front end that are also attached to other parts of the bike are on the handlebars. I could have taken the handlebars and the headlight, both of which are attached to the top triple clamp. That's OK, because I will be dropping the forks from that top clamp anyway, so we are ready for the next step.

Removing the Front End

This is when it gets interesting and the way you lifted the bike will be tested. First loosen the triple clamp pinch bolts as well as the center stem pinch bolt (T45 torx bits are used for that). Then I used a 24mm socket to remove the stem bolt from the top triple clamp. This bolt is not the actual stem, but rather a short bolt that is used for adjusting the neck bearings by tightening or loosening the fit of the bearings in the bearing cups. Once the top triple clamp pinch bolts and the center adjustment bolt are off there is nothing holding the fork tubes to the handlebars. In fact the top triple clamp can now be taken off and laid aside hanging by the wires and throttle cables. Now the top bearing is accessible (see pictures).

I took the top bearing out and loosened the bottom triple pinch bolts now. After the lower pinch bolts are loose you can slide the whole triple clamp down the fork tubes. This is the time to be careful and make sure the balance of the bike on the lift is good without the front end. Once that triple clamp is lowered the whole front end ends up in your hands separate from the rest of the motorcycle. With the bottom triple clamp out pops the bottom bearing (see pictures).

At this point I rolled the front end away, put it aside and removed the bottom bearing from the stem. The bearing hung up a little on the fork lock hole (this hole is only present in rubber mounted models). It required a little gentle persuading with a plastic mallet, but it came off without much coaxing.

Cleaning the Bearings

I used gasoline in a small plastic container to wash the bearings one at a time. I soaked them in gas for a few minutes, then took them out and spun the rollers all around, soaked some more and spun some more until there was no trace of old grease left on the metal. Then I let the bearings air dry. The clean bearings looked like this:

Repacking the Bearings With Fresh Grease

I used Harley Davidson Wheel Bearing Grease, but I am sure any old wheel bearing grease will work just fine. I put the dry, clean bearings in the tub of grease and worked them with my fingers (I use nitrile gloves when working on the bike) until I felt that they were loaded up.

Reassembling the Front End

Reassembly is pretty much reverse of the disassembly. I first put the lower bearing on the shaft, then slid the whole front end back into the frame, then put the top bearing on, then the top clamp, then the center bolt just to catch the threads on the shaft. Once everything was held together loosely, I gently lowered the lift ever so slightly to force the front end into its place by having the front wheel touch the ground lightly. I then made sure everything was aligned and tightened the center bolt to where it just stopped turning (almost no torque on it yet). At this point the front end is almost home where it belongs. I now put more weight on the front tire by lowering the lift a little more. After making sure everything is where it's supposed to be, I lowered the lift to the point where most of the weight was on the front wheel, but the bike was still level and not leaning on the kick stand. At this point I followed the service manual's torque specs for tightening the center bolt. First tighten to 20 ft*lb, then release and tighten to 130 in*lb. Then tighten the pinch bolts to 33 ft*lb.
That pretty much did the trick.
It may be a good idea to check the fork alignment and read this just to make sure the fork is all straight and even.