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FLHX inner fairing hitting tank

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murgas1

Member
Just had my 2014 FLHX knocked over by anonymous person or persons in a parking lot. Found the right upper corner of the tank dented in from the inner fairing. I've taken the fairing off and although there is some other damage underneath the bar stops look intact and not bent. Also the forks when loosened slid right out of the triple clamps so I don't think they're twisted. Anyone have any clearance issues with full lock right hand turns and they're tanks?
 
put the front wheel in the air and the handlebars should go from lock-to-lock with little effort & no binding> OH! you already knew that.
check out the service manual
 
I've seen a lot of dented tanks, and at full lock everything seems to have sufficient clearance. Sometimes a fall will cause the forks to spring a little past the stop, then return to normal. That may be what happened to yours.
I can only imagine how you felt when you saw it on the ground. :17:
 
Even now it is interfering with the tank. I have everything disassembled and still cannot see anything bent or twisted. The only possibility is the new inner frame for the fairing might have become distorted so it now allows the inner fairing to hit.
 
I would venture to guess that the fairing brackets are twisted and allowing it to hit, especially if its only on one side where it's interfering. Bummer that you had it vandalized.
 
Have everything exposed and the new brackets are pretty stout. I believe now that the upper clamp fork stop is bent just a little which translates into a lot of movement out at the end of the bars. Looks like a new upper triple clamp will be on order.
 
Was the bike tipped over on it's right side, or left side? The forks can get twistedin the triple trees, very common on dirt bikes when crashed. Nothing gets bent, and thumping the front wheel against a stationary object often gets things realigned. It is unlikely with the stout FLHX front fender acting like a fork brace, and you said you had the tubes loose in the clamps, but might be worth looking at to see if handlebars and wheel point exactly straight together.
 
I'm a bit confused here. What are the "bar stops" being referred to? Did HD change that stuff for the '14? In previous model years, the stops were rubber sleeves that fit over the fork tube between the upper and lower triple trees, and they stopped side to side motion when they contacted the frame/steering neck. The only way to bend the "stops" was to dent the gusset at the frame/neck joint. I have seen that happen when a bike flips end over end, but never from simply falling over. If the new bike are different, please enlighten me...and my condolences about what happened to your bike. That really sucks.
 
I was thinking the same line as Jenmarr. I looked it up in a parts finder but couldn't find the Rubber bumper until earlier years. The must have eliminated in '09 with the frame changes. I went and looked at my '12 UC. to see how it stopped. It was hard to tell with the tank on it but it appears there is a 1/2"(=/-) block/tab on the neck that the top tree hits. There was no rubber bumper.
tourbox
 
No rubber stops any longer, just metal stubs sticking down from the upper tree which contacts the aforementioned metal gusset on the neck and backbone of the frame. The stubs have a machined face on them and the only thing I can see is that the one on the right side of the bike is not perpendicular to the upper tree, but not by much. It's pretty stout but Harley machined it in such a way as to cause a stress riser in the area which would allow it to bend. Should have ball end milled it to increase strength.
 
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