2002 roadking frame/motor clearence

Happy New Year to ALL! Hope someone can shed some light on a few things about my roadking. This is my first touring bike , bought 3 months ago (also have custom fatboy) and I'm having the typical vibration issues that seem to be part of ownership. A quick run through...was replacing many bolts with a chrome kit and checked all the normal issues, motor mount, stabilzer links, etc. All are fine but I'm a little concerned about the clearence between the motor and the frame on the left side. It is touching the frame towards the front. How much clearence should there be between the frame and the motor? The right side is fine and the mount is good. Could the top link be out of whack it is leaning the motor to that side? I am assuming that it should not touch the frame so fixing this needs to be done first. The motor looks straight but I have no idea what to attack first. Any suggestions? P.S. bike has 12,000 miles Thanks Jimmy

I would bet the front motor mount is bad. Oil from filter change dripping on it eats it up. It's probably dropped down. There is an after market company in California that makes the best replacement. Let me know and I'll get ou their name. Ask me how I know this? LOL

It's not the mount, have a new one and it does the same thing. Even when I remove the bolt to the mount the motor lifts but still touches the frame. I wonder if the top link could be the problem and it's making the motor lean over? I'll keep looking, thanks for the input.

never thought about the swingarm bushings. will give a look at what I have, but I'll assume that they are original. do they have a tendency to go bad with so little miles, or is it that they are 10 years old and maybe dried out? can they be changed without removing swingarm? being it was 14 degrees today it's a good time to do any work! thanks

and yes I have the Harley manual, was looking at the way to align the motor yesterday. want it right for springtime.

will explore this weekend....thanks

Ok...a couple of questions. What part of the engine is touching the frame? I'm assuming it's the rocker box cover. As HRK said, you have a 3 point rubber mount. However you should have 2 stabilizer links, (heim joints), one on the top of the engine and one located on the lower left front of the engine. Has the bike ever been dropped, and have you checked to make sure the down tube of the frame is not bent?

As you probably noticed, one end of the stabilizer link is attached to the engine and the other end is attached to the frame. These links are adjustable and actually use the engine and transmission assembly to align the rear swingarm and wheel assembly in the vertical and horizontal planes. They function very much like the tie rod ends on you car, which are adjusted to properly align the front end.

The swingarm pivot shaft passes through the frame, swingarm bushings and the tranmission housing. The rubber donuts are fitted into the the frame and the swingarm bushing assembly seats in the donuts. The heim joint on the top of the engine allows the engine and trans assembly to be moved left to right in the verticle plane. The heim joint on the lower front of the engine allows the engine and trans assembly to be moved left to right in the horizontal plane. The rubber donuts allow the swingarm and pivot shaft to flex horizontally and vertically.

Proper alignment is critical to the way bike handles and rear tire wear. Proper lignment is defined as follows: With the bike standing upright, 90 degrees perpendicular to road surface, the swingarm pivot shaft and the rear axle are parallel horizontally with each other, are perpendicular to the vertical plane, and their center to center distance is equal on both side of the bike. This ensures that the tire and wheel assembly is aligned straight forward and is not tilted side to side in the verticle plane.

If the rear tire is showing wear off center to one side, the wheel assembly is misaligned vertically, if you have a lot of cupping, the wheel assembly is not aligned straight forward. The top heim joint adjusts the vertical alignment and the lower heim joint adjusts the foward or side to side alignment. if there is black rubber oozing out between the swivel ball and the housing of the heim joint, it is toast and needs to be replaced. Your service manual should have a detailed section about alignment and what to look for.

A little long winded, but I hope this info helps you.

Hey everyone, was away for work so I wasn't able to play with bike for awhile. Came home motivated to fix problem and with some clear thinking found the source of my trouble. First I would like to thank everyone for their input and time. Second I would like to say I thought about not saying what I did wrong, but decided to man up and hope this stupid mistake will help others. As stated in first post I am new to touring bikes so when I took apart the motor mount and plates for cleaning I did not reinstall for a week or so. When I put everthing back I put the motor mount to engine plate on top of the mounting tabs, not underneath where it belongs. So I caused all my own problems by not looking carefully when I disassembled. You will never know how painfull it was to admit this but I owed it to everyone who put the time in to help. OK...let it rip!

It happens, that is why I will take notes and pictures even on the easiest of jobs the first time I do them.

Your a good man Jimmy C.