Fall Away test

[Andy56]

I have a 2017 XL1200T with ABS.

Having just greased the neck bearings I need to set the tension on the steering neck screw.

What is happening for me is with all the pipes and stuff the forks just have a mind of their own to spring to the left with no fall away to the right.

Having carried out this FSM procedure on a 2008 bike I do see how it is supposed to be.

In a thread when I first joined the forum I made mention of fall-away and someone came in with a different method that wasn't the HD FSM way.

I could be mistaken and it wasn't here but I hope so.

My question is therefore if you don't do a fall-away test how are you setting the torque of the steering stem screw or bolt?

[shanneba]

This thread has a mention of setting fall away by torque settings-
You also have to Loosen the two lower bracket pinch
screws and the fork stem pinch screw.

When complete - (2013 Service Manual)
Tighten the fork stem pinch screw to 30-35 ft-lbs (40.7-
47.5 Nm) and tighten the lower bracket pinch screws to
30-35 ft-lbs (40.7-47.5 Nm).

http://xlforum.net/forums/archive/in...t-1816631.html

sportysrock 13th September 2014, 19:44

Lossen stem bolt, tighten to 23-27 ft-lbs,
loosen again and tighten to 72-96 in-lbs
this is directly from the 2007 FSM assembly/installation instructions for fork stem and bracket assy.

[Andy56]

Thanks shanneba. In order to get at the bearings I loosened both sets of pinch bolts such that I could lift the top clamp up and push the lower triple clamp down the forks. When I put it back together I only tightened the top triple clamp pinch bolts. So yes I caught that part of the procedure.

The 2017 manual has the same torque settings. With the fall away test calling for the XLT to have 7 to 9 inches I have set the final torque toward the higher end. It feels nice and smooth and I don't feel inclined to tighten just to feel it hungup in any way.

I have been reading that for the new softails they have a pull test on the forks using a spring scale to see how many pounds it takes to get the forks moving. That is so simple it would be great if HD could come up with figures for all bikes. Maybe I will get a reading after setting mine up and use that test in the future.