64 Front End Questions

[fishican]

Hi All,

A couple of months ago, I picked up a 64 FLH and have started getting it ready to ride for next year. I've rebuilt the engine and tranny and she runs like a champ. Now I'm working on the fron end and it appears that it has been changed quite a bit. The bike has a Hydra-Glide headlamp and tin covers. The tin covers are only bolted on at the top of each side because the bolt spread on the triple trees is different from the holes on the tins. The hole spread is 6-7/8" from the top triple clamp bolt hole to the lower triple clamp bolt hole. The hole spread on the Hydra-Glide tins are 6-5/8". The parts manual that I have says that the 64 had a nacelle housing. I have an old nacelle housing and although I'm not sure what year bike it came from, the bolt holes are spaced at 6-5/8" which means they will not fit on this bike. The triple clamps on my bike are chromed and I'm not sure that they are stock. Does anyone know what the bolt hole spread is on a stock 64 or can you tell me how to tell if my forks and clamps are stock? I'm not completely restoring this thing but I want to put it pretty close to the way it was born.

I will appreciate any help you folks can give me.

[Hog54]

Where are the casting numbers on the bottom tree?Even if thier chromed,you should see them in front of the neck or to the side of the neck on the tree.

[Hog54]

And if there is no casting numbers,thier not oem.

[VPH-D]

It is also possible that you have an incorrect neck bearing set up, which causes the extra length. Compare yours to the parts book. The top bearing shield is a 2 piece thing on a stocker.
VPH-D

[RUBONE]

There could be various things going on with your front end. The head cups and bearings for pre '60 models have a shorter stacked height than '60 and up, so if the early cups and bearings are installed in a later frame the nacelle will not fit. And the same going the other way, if later cups are used on early frames the tins do not fit. Any mismatched combination will cause a problem.
Do you have the correct style trees for a nacelle with the rubber mounts in the top tree? Even if they are aftermarket trees they will still work if the correct parts are used in the correct order.
Robbie

[panhead_kicker]

... The hole spread is 6-7/8" from the top triple clamp bolt hole to the lower triple clamp bolt hole. The hole spread on the Hydra-Glide tins are 6-5/8". The parts manual that I have says that the 64 had a nacelle housing. I have an old nacelle housing and although I'm not sure what year bike it came from, the bolt holes are spaced at 6-5/8" which means they will not fit on this bike...
I will appreciate any help you folks can give me.

I just measured my 69 (which will be the same as the 64) and center to center looks to be 6-5/8", as your nacelle measures.

tree1.jpg

Here is basically what you should be seeing (minus the horn!)

tree2.jpg

As others have noted, casting #s should be present on under side of OEM top tree, here is an earlier example

tree3.jpg

Yours should probably be somthing like a -60 casting #, like this(harder to see)

tree4.jpg

Here's a bottom tree cast # placement

tree5.jpg

[RUBONE]

As a side note, all the nacelle spacing is the same from '60 up. If you have a wider spacing something is assembled wrong!

[Bigincher]

It's possible your trees are stock, and the casting numbers were ground away so they would polish up nice with the chrome plating.
So... just because there are no casting numbers present, doesn't mean they are not stock.

[fishican]

Wow! Thanks for the help, fellas. Sorry that I am so late in getting back on here. I've been out in the barn taking the front end off.

Hog 54 and Panhead Kicker - I took the trees off and there are no casting numbers top or bottom. The only cast marking is on the the bottom of the top tree with a globe-looking logo and the word "LifeLine" so I guess this is an aftermarket setup. It's a shame because whoever chromed them did a beautiful job. I did not see chrome trees listed in the parts manual. Were all trees only black in 1964? The fork tubes are 1-5/8" diameter. Is this the stock size? I could not find any part numbers on the tubes or on the sliders. Did they mark them in any way?

VPH-D and RUBONE - I measured the bearing stack-up and the height from the top of the upper bearing to the neck of the frame is about .090". I would think that this sounds about right for clearance. The bottom bearing measurement is approximately the same. Do those numbers sound right to you?

I tried to attach some pictures of my trees and the bearing installation but it says that my pictures are too big. I'm not really good with computers so I'll have to figure out how to make them smaller. But thank you, all of you for your help with this. I guess I'll be in the market for some stock trees soon.

[fishican]

Almost forgot...RUBONE - Yes, the top tree has rubber inserts for the risers.

Also, there is a clamp that looks like a cable clamp on the front of the left downtube of the frame just above the crash-bar. Can anyone tell me what cable this is supposed to hold?

Thank you again.

[panhead_kicker]

...
Also, there is a clamp that looks like a cable clamp on the front of the left downtube of the frame just above the crash-bar. Can anyone tell me what cable this is supposed to hold?

Thank you again.

There should be a small clamp at that point to hold the timer coil. Sorry, but it was too dark to get a good pic of my 64, but here is the clamp you need.

timer_clamp.jpg

[fishican]

Thanks for the clamp info and picture, Panhead Kicker. The old cable was hanging out in space but I'll be sure to route it properly when it goes back together.

I haven't had much luck finding original triple trees but I did find some aftermarkets. Does anyone have any recommemdations on KC International parts? I found this at the site below:

http://www.kcint2.com/product/95-TT-49- ... 49-91.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I apologize if I am asking dumb queations. I'm learning as I go. Any suggestions by everyone will be much appreciated.

[RUBONE]

Why are you even thinking of replacing what you have with other aftermarket trees? There is no sound reason why yours should not work. Post pictures of them and all the parts you have with them. I suspect there is a problem with the way they are assembled, not the trees themselves. All the aftermarket ones I have seen still allow the stock nacelle to be used.
Robbie

[panhead_kicker]

When I bought my 64 back in 94, I knew nothing about oem parts catalogs, service manuals, .. and to say nothing of the internet and resources like this...My bike was a mishmash of oem parts of different years, and aftermarket parts. That made it VERY difficult to find replacement parts... since I had no clue what type/year I was trying to replace. That's a Custom world I didn't like. I wanted to be able to bolt functional stuff on and have it work as a system on the bike. After years I finally made the decision to go bone (almost) stock. That meant figuring out what I had was oem and correct for the year and what wasn't, then hunting down the correct oem parts , new or used. While that path was/is not cheap, it would have been less expensive in the long run to not have bought custom crap that did not fit or work as well as oem. oem parts and service catalogs are almost indispensable for this task.
So long story made short, if you have any intentions of holding on to the bike, making a dependable rider, have it retain some value, and you're not looking for a custom ride, then do your self a favor and learn what OEM you have, and start the hunt for what you don't have.
With resources like this board and the internet in general, you've the knowledge at your fingertips.
Ahem!... sorry to ramble so long, just my humble opinion based on my limited past experience of course!

[fishican]

Thanks you fellas for the advice. I guess I got locked in on one train of thought and stayed there.
Robbie, it makes great sense that the trees that I already have wouldn't be any different from other aftermarket sets that I could buy. I have tomorrow off from work so I'm going to get back in the barn and put the trees back together to see if something looks wrong. I learned how to resize the pics (thanks, Panhead, for the "how to" section) that I took earlier and will submit them at the end of this post.
Panhead Kicker, your thoughts rang true and I'm embarrassed to admit what I was going to do. I think I have a real good bike to start with and it deserves to be done right. As far as I can see, the front end and the floor boards are the only non-OEM parts on it so me getting cheap or in a hurry will not do this bike justice. Thanks for getting my head right.

Here is a pic showing how high the top bearing sits in the seat:



Top of the upper tree:



Side of the upper tree:



Lower tree:



Front of the lower tree:



Back of the lower tree:



Bottom of the top tree:



I'll look at it more again tomorrow and let you guys know what I find. Thanks again for the help. Sorry that I need the spoon feeding.