Front Fork Instructions Harley Davidson

Clark Creative Designs Rev. 1.
02 Feb, 29, 2008

4 and 5 Inch Ram Front Fork Slam Kit
Installation Instructions
1: Inventory Parts: Please lay out the parts that were included with your kit to insure you have
everything you need before starting your installation. Depending on which kit you purchased,
your kit should appear like one of the pictures before.
2: Prepare: By using a straightened coat hanger or a welding rod, bend a .5” to 1” hook at one
end. Then measure 14” to 14.5” (15” to 15.5” for 5” kit) from the hook and make a mark on the
rod with a marker or file. This rod will be used later for retrieving a washer in the fork, the stock
spring (only for 5” kits) and measuring the oil level.
3: Stabilize: The bike should be secured on a lift that will raise the front wheel just off the
ground to uncompress the shock (and their internal springs) as much as possible. Since you will
be asserting your own pressure on the front end of the bike the disassembly process, it is very
important that is it stable and secure when on the lift.
4: Gain Access: On some model bikes it may require that the handlebars and/or the risers be
loosened or removed to be able to extract the fork cap, spacer tube and possibly spring, straight
out the top of the fork tubes. I would also suggest that you remove your airbox cover to prevent
any damage if any of the fork components are dropped during the removal or installation
process.
WARNING!!! While the installation of the kit is quite simple, preparing for it by removing parts in
your existing forks can be very dangerous. Even with the forks uncompressed by raising the
bike on a lift, the spring and spacer within the fork tube is under a great deal of pressure.
Special attention, patience, and safety equipment must be used during the removal of the fork
tube caps. The cap and spacer will be coming out with a great deal of force as the tension is
released. NEVER place your head or body behind the cap during the removal process.
5: Remove Fork Cap: BE CAREFUL! Using 1-3/8” socket, wrench or adjustable end wrench,
begin to remove the fork cap until the O-ring is fully visible (A) and no further at this point. You
should now put on a heavy set of gloves or at the very least, place a shop rag over the cap.
Then, using the heal of your hand, with your arm positioned in a straight line with the fork itself
(B), apply firm downward pressure and continue turn the cap counterclockwise until the cap is
free. You may find that you can use you free hand to aid in the turning. It is not unusual for the
cap to POP out once the last of the threads were reached so make sure you have covered
anything that may be damaged by the cap falling.
6: Remove Parts: Once the fork cap has been removed, the spacer tube will be protruding out
the top (C) of the fork already. Simply remove the spacer tube. Using the rod you fabricated
earlier, reach down into the fork tube with the hook end (D) and extract the washer that is
resting on top of the spring. On 5” kits, use the rod and hook again to remove the spring itself.
Repeat steps 5&6 for the other fork.

7: Insert Spring: For the 4” kit, you should have just left the existing spring in place. On the 5”
kit, insert the shorter spring that was included with the kit with the more tightly coiled end facing
downward (E).
8: Set Oil Level: Since the ram cartridge assemblies take up much more volume than the stock
spacer tube, oil much be removed from the shock in order to prevent the finished assembly from
being too firm. Be sure the springs are in the forks before setting the oil level. Using the rod that
you fabricated earlier, use it like a dipstick (F) and determine how much oil needs to be
removed. You may use any method you wish to remove the proper amount of oil, such as a
turkey baster or oil transfer pump.
Instead of removing a portion of the oil, some may wish to drain all of the fork oil at this time and
replace it with fresh HD SE heavy duty fork oil. However, this does take a bit more work and you
should refer to the service manual for the procedure which involves removing the front wheel
and axle.
9: Install Ram Cartridge: Once the initial oil is set on both fork tubes, take a small amount of oil
and lightly apply it to the O-ring that is on the cap of the ram cartridges. Compress the ram
cartridge and insert it into the fork tube (G). Once in place, screw in all the way down a tighten it
with the wrench that was used to remove it. There should not be any spring pressure working
against you at this time.
10: Attach Air Lines: At this point you should cut and route the 1/8” nylon tubing from each of
rams fitting’s, through the top triple tree and into the side covers, much the way the throttle
cables and clutch lines are routed (H). If the fittings on the top of the caps are not in the
optimum position for routing the lines, you can swivel them by rotating the black portion of the
fitting, the silver metal portion will stay in place. The lines will simply be pressed into the fittings
by hand. You will feel a small amount of resistance as the line is seated into each fitting. Once
you cannot push the line in any further, you are done.
With the lines in the airbox area, attach the ‘Y’ fitting to the line comes from each ram (I). From
the end of the ‘Y’ fitting run additional 1/8 nylon tubing to your air source and attach it to the last
fitting which is many cases will be the 1/8” tubing to 1/8” NPT male fitting that was included with
the kit.
11: Completion: At this point the installation of the kit is complete. Of course you may still have
a fair amount of work left tying into your air source and rear suspension. Replace any items that
were removed to aid in the installation. Save your removed caps, spacers, washer and possible
springs in case you wish to return to a stock suspension.
You may also choose to move your fork tubes back down in the trees if you had previously
raised them to lower the bike which will add a margin of safety in case the air pressure is lost.
If the ride is too soft, you may be able to firm it up by adding additional oil to the forks. You
should only add about 1oz at a time until you find the desired ride. Don’t forget to put the bike on
a lift and let out all of the air pressure before removing the caps to add the oil or you will be
fighting the spring pressure again.

Front Fork Instructions Harley Davidson

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Clark Creative Designs Rev. 1.

02 Feb, 29, 2008

Repeat steps 5&6 for the other fork.

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