Custom Vehicle Discussions > Screamin' Eagle® Deuce®

30,000 mile service spring is almost here

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Richyunker:
Love my 03, but here its time for the 30k service. I have the service manuals, purchased the oil, filter, o-ring and a gasket from the dealer.

This will be my first time I will do the service on my own bike, although I am and have been an automotive tech for decades...

What my concern is, the dealer gets $350 labor to do this service so what do they know that I am unaware of? How long does it take really at home to do this service? or should it be done at the dealer? Is there a real reason to avoid doing this myself?

Fired00d:
If you have the service manual and do all the items listed then most likely you will be doing more than would be done if you had the dealer do it. IMO the reason the cost is so much higher at a dealership is they have more overhead and people getting a piece of that charge. For example... if you were to compare prices at an independent you would probably find a lower price and depending on the "indie" better service.

 :pumpkin:
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 :fireman:

grc:

--- Quote from: Richyunker on February 09, 2016, 10:57:32 AM ---Love my 03, but here its time for the 30k service. I have the service manuals, purchased the oil, filter, o-ring and a gasket from the dealer.

This will be my first time I will do the service on my own bike, although I am and have been an automotive tech for decades...

What my concern is, the dealer gets $350 labor to do this service so what do they know that I am unaware of? How long does it take really at home to do this service? or should it be done at the dealer? Is there a real reason to avoid doing this myself?

--- End quote ---

I assume you have read all the details for the 30k service listed in those manuals.  Is there anything on that list that you don't think you can handle?  Is there anything on the list that you don't have proper tools to accomplish?  If your answers to my questions is no, then my answer to your question is also no, there in no real reason to avoid doing it yourself.

I have no idea what your mechanical capabilities are, but if you've been making a living as an automotive tech I would assume you are already several steps ahead of the average Harley dealership employee.  Some are no doubt very good, but many are an embarrassment to the profession.  The truly good techs are rarely given the service interval work, since they are assigned the more difficult tasks instead.  If you actually know the people at the local dealership, and know a truly good tech and can arrange to get him assigned to the job, great.  If you're like most people and have no detailed knowledge of the staff's capabilities and just let the shop assign the work to whoever happens to be available, be prepared to spend a lot of money for things that may not be done at all, or done poorly. 

JMHO - Jerry

Richyunker:
Twenty five days until spring, so I decided to start my 30k service at home. I started by going thru the manual, made the list of tasks to do, watched videos of stuff that I had no clue of. I decided to do the entire job including removing and inspecting the steering head bearings.

Tonight I started by running the bike getting it warm and then jacked it up, and drained the engine oil and primary oil, just touched the surface of the job. That's it for tonight. Next up probably on Thursday is dismantling to gain access to the steering head bearings.

Richyunker:
Worked the bike again today, did the run out check on the front rotors, in spec and good. Proceeded to tear down the front end to expose the steering head bearings. I also decided to get the front forks overhauled, took them into the dealer for that service.

The steering head bearing races show wear more so on the upper. I intend to remove the bearings off the shaft tomorrow at work, the service manual tells me to chisel off the case and heat (torch) the race so it expands and comes off.

I gave minimal effort in removing the races, no luck, will bring home a slide hammer puller from work and go at them again.

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