Vibration

I am trying to chase down a vibration problem in a 1993 Heritage Softail. It vibrates and shakes when you take your hands off the handlebars. The neck bearings seem fine and I was told the fork oil was already done by a "qualified" mechanic as well as a wheel bearing service and new front rubber less than 2000 miles ago. I am considering changing the oil again just to get it out of my head because I know just a slight difference in one side could make a big difference going down the road. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Have a riding buddy with a 2001 Heritage - same problem. Tried everything - HD shop trued & balanced all kinds of things. They said it might be his riding style and that some shaking was "normal" (bulls***!). He finally got so disgusted he went to another HD shop. They lent him a new front wheel and tire - bike worked fine. Turns out the tire on his wheel had a broken cord. It balanced fine and trued right up, but under load it developed a shaking harmonic just like you describe. He swapped to a new Dunlop and the problem went away. This was AFTER he wasted a wad at the first shop. You didn't state whether the problem predated the original tire. Hope this helps.

The problem was there before the new tire as well. That's why he replaced it in the first place. It's a Dunlop too. He's already wasted a bit of money at two different shops. He was told it is an "inherent" problem with the Heritiage and that he can buy a dampener to help. That's also bull. I've been on and seen enough Fatoys and Heritages to know that this is not normal. That's why we are trying to figure it out ourselves. Thanks for the input.

Check all your motor mounts. The top one had a tendency to break which causes alot of vibration. Believe it or not, a loose primary chain will cause vibration also. Good luck.

max

If you still have the problem after trying everything. Check the windshield if you have one. My 2004 super glide shook the handle bars after taking it off and remounting it. It wasn't lined up (three fingers between the handle bars on one side, two fingers on the other ) very well. After realining the windshield the shake has gone away!

Larry

By shake and vibrate do you mean head shake or wobble? Or shaking and vibrating like something is loose?

Does the bike track true if you remove your hands from the bars or does it turn one way or the other?

Neck bearings do wear and need replacing. If the original bearings are in there, they will have flat spotted after years of being pounded by the forks. This will make setting fall away pretty difficult. Even if the neck feels smooth I would inspect or just replace the bearings and races.

A tweaked triple tree can cause weird handling issues. If it is tweaked just a little the bike will want to drift toward that side making you hold opposite pressure to keep straight.

If the wheel is wowed out i.e. out of round or not running true, it will cause handling problems.

Personally I would start by replacing the neck bearings and races and setting the fall away. As you disassemble and reassemble you may well come across the problem and will for sure verify that every thing is correct.

Thanks CD,

I was on vacation last week so sorry for the slow reply. We have tried everything suggested so far with the exception of replacing the neck bearings. The bike wobbles when you let go of the handlebars but does not pull to one side or the other. The bike was purchased brand new in 1993 and has had this problem from day one. The bike also has never been crashed so I don't believe the neck is tweaked unless something happenned during transport or something. The wheels were checked for true when the new tires were put on so I think they are OK. We read through the manual and checked the fall away point and it didn't appear to need adjustment so we left it alone. We figured it's getting near the end of riding season here in New England so we are going to wait until winter to take it apart for the bearings. It's the only thing left so I hope it works. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll let you know what happens if we ever figure it out.

Finally

We just put the Heritage back together two weeks ago and everything is great! I want to thank everyone for their input. I basically used it all.

Come to find out after wrenching for a bit and a few beers, the bike had all it's regular services from 93 through about 99 done at the Harley dealer where he bought the bike. The bike has had no service done to it since except tires. I thought it had all of it's maintenance done and up to date.

Here is what we did and found. First, we put the bike on the lift and re-checked the fall away. We weren't getting any fall away in one direction. This is the second time I checked it. The first time, I didn't remove any of the accessories. This time I removed all the chrome trim, headlight, running lights, etc. Also, I checked the torque on the neck bolt and it was over torqued. I think someone else looked at it after me and simply tightened the bolt. I loosened it and re-torqued to 35 lbs. and thus have fall away in both directions. I had to loosen to the minimum 30 lbs. to get it adjusted within the specs.

Next, we removed both wheels and pulled the bearings. They didn't seem very worn but were quite dry, like they haven't been greased in quite some time. We replaced the bearings with new including the races.

Finally, we brought the tires/wheels to the local wrench (not Harley) who checked the spokes and balance. The balance was fine but he did slightly adjust a few spokes. He said they weren't bad enough to cause the problem we were having though. We also adjusted the primary chain, and changed the fork oil along with some other basic fluid changes.

We finally had the opportunity to go for a fairly long ride last weekend and everything seemed fine. I'm not sure if there were a combination of things or if it was one specific thing but the problem seems to be gone. If it comes back over the summer, the only thing left will be the neck bearings.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions. They were very helpful. If anyone is going to be in North Eastern, MA drop me a line. I'll by you a beer, get you out of the rain, feed you a burger, whatever. The owner is disabled and can't afford to go the dealer. He is very appriciative for what you all and I have done to get his ride right.

Ride Safe!