Last night, my brother and I installed the HD Knockout wheel and fork kit in his 2017 CVO SG. The wheel installation was straight forward and just consisted of jacking the bike up and down to position things correctly and insert the axles. Now the forks were a challenge in and of themselves and required some thinking on our part to come up with a way to get the fork tube caps installed. Those that have done this know that it is near impossible to do this without a vice of some sort and a real life Hercules or Hulk for brute strength. In our case, we used the wheel chock in his motorcycle lift to hold each fork leg upright while we installed the caps.
Here is what we came up with as a press to compress the springs while we installed the fork caps.
Cut one piece of 2X4 lumber 20" long and drill a 1" diameter hole in the center using a hole saw. Place the fork cap under the 2X4 and have one person grab hold of each end of the wood and press down hard as hell, while the other person takes one hand and pulls up on the fork tube as he/she uses a rachet with a makeshift Allen tool to tighten down the fork cap through the hole that was drilled through the wood. Hit the fork caps with an impact wrench to torque them down and you're done. We would never have gotten the fork caps installed without this idea, as the spring pressure is too great to overcome. See pics to help put things into perspective.
Here is what we came up with as a press to compress the springs while we installed the fork caps.
Cut one piece of 2X4 lumber 20" long and drill a 1" diameter hole in the center using a hole saw. Place the fork cap under the 2X4 and have one person grab hold of each end of the wood and press down hard as hell, while the other person takes one hand and pulls up on the fork tube as he/she uses a rachet with a makeshift Allen tool to tighten down the fork cap through the hole that was drilled through the wood. Hit the fork caps with an impact wrench to torque them down and you're done. We would never have gotten the fork caps installed without this idea, as the spring pressure is too great to overcome. See pics to help put things into perspective.
