FLH Forks?

[45grum]

Hi All
I am rebuilding my forks on the Glide (mid 70's single banana type) and I have got a few queries regarding the top bolt, the top cap that retains the spring and locates the fork leg in the top yoke has a large internal thread for the main fixing bolt and it also has a 5/16" tapped hole, which on mine had a bolt and large dia washer fitted from the underside which effectively blocked off the the breather and filler holes and stopped you being able to fill with oil unless you removed the top cap, This all seems wrong to me as the top bolt is vented with a small hole up the middle which joins to a cross drilled hole in on of the spanner flats, can anyone shed any light on why I have got bolts blanking off my breather and filler holes? I cant see these bolts and washers in the Harley manual it just shows the top cap, the top bolt and a seal.
Cheers Graham.
Also any reccomendations for fork oil.

[robbiemac]

Could it be that the gubbins for the air assisted suspension went into those holes and they have been removed and blanked off.
Banjo bolts and fittings with the pipework to the handlebar and crash bar plus solenoid. Not really sure if they had this on your bike though.

Type E for fork oil ?

[45grum]

No I dont think they had air assistance on the 76 models, lucky to have damping.

[robbiemac]

Graham, is this of any help ?

Hopefully it will have attached.

[45grum]

Cheers Rob, I think that this is for the earlier Drum brake forks ( I know it says 77 but the pics dont show caliper mount) but it does show a breather valve under the top bolt and a upper slider thingy fitted below the top cap, I will have another look at what I have got and see if I can work it out.
Thanks again
Graham.

[panheadpete]

Originally Posted by 45grum

Cheers Rob, I think that this is for the earlier Drum brake forks ( I know it says 77 but the pics dont show caliper mount) but it does show a breather valve under the top bolt and a upper slider thingy fitted below the top cap, I will have another look at what I have got and see if I can work it out.
Thanks again
Graham.

Hi Graham; don't be misled by the fact that the drawing shows fork legs that are apparently earlier - it seems H-D only changed their drawings back then when it was necessary; they would just update the original drawing to show components that were functionally different.
My '74 FLH manual shows drawings that are obviously Panhead, but if the bits were the same regarding assembly etc that was good enough for them!
Cheers,
Pete

[panster]

Hi Graham, you should have those same internals, the little breather valve isn't under the top cap, it's pressed into the bottom of it, the rubber seal is just a square section ring to seal the top cap to the fork tube plug.
What you do need are the baffle assemblies that fit under the fork plug and into the top of the springs, without them oil sprays out of the breather, maybe yours were plugged to stop this, the forks do need to breath or the seals will eventually blow.
Hope this helps.
J.