Rebuilding the Front End of my Harley

I had a random oddball thing happen a while back. One of the fork seals blew out on one of my Harleys. I was about to put in new seals and oil…. But I got a heck of a good deal on a modern springer front end.

I’ve always wanted a springer, but the costs of an aftermarket front end were just too steep. I found a complete front end for a price I couldn’t pass up, so I snagged it.

I started tearing down the old front end. It was sort of rusted in place, and was a bear to remove. When I say “I”, it’s more of a “we”. My neighbor is a Harley mechanic and we basically wrench in the basement with a bottle of scotch on occasion.

The old bearings and races were replaced with new ones from Timkin.

The springer came off an earlier New Evo model front end, but it bolted up to my Twin Cam just fine.

This was much cheaper than a brand new aftermarket set up, and it was complete.

I kept the original handlebars and risers. The springer front end was the same length as the factory fork tubes — so this was almost plug and play.

Everything worked out great except for the headlight. Without an extension, the old headlight wouldn’t fit. I have one on order and it should be here next week.

I kind of like this set up. It’s almost like an early version of the HD Crossbones. So what do I call this thing now ? What started off as a Night Train now has a springer front end….. so do I call this thing a Night Bones ? Or maybe a Cross Train ? Hard to say….. but at any rate I’m loving this set up.