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[Twolanerider]

Just got a phone call from an acquaintance asking a question I don't know the answer to.  He's got an 04 Road King and is replacing the front mount.  Using the new style rev. D motor mount. 

I've seen the mounts in person but never installed one.  He's saying the new mount isn't "as thick" as the original.  So mounting bolts are all too long and when the jack is removed from beneath the engine the mount plate doesn't even come all the way back down to the mount itself.

Haven't seen it so only can share the hearsay description.  And no pictures.  Can anyone who has replaced the A or B revision mount with the new describe what (if anything) else had to be done to complete the installation of the mount? 

Spacers to raise the mount?  Shorter bolts?  Is he brain dead?  Any guidance will be appreciated.  Then I'll run over to his place later this evening and help him get it buttoned up.

[Boatman]

Can't help with the mount Don, but is the same friend you helped with the horn a few years ago (I think he was pushing everything else but the horn button)??   

[Twolanerider]

Can't help with the mount Don, but is the same friend you helped with the horn a few years ago (I think he was pushing everything else but the horn button)??   

No, different guy Bob.  That was Rob and he's not allowed to have tools close to anything with wheels including a lawn mower or a match box car.  He doesn't even have a bike anymore.

Just came back from looking at this Road King.  Got to say that it's got me stumped right now.  I think the mount that came out was a Velva mount.  1/2" thick center aluminum plate.  The stock mount has an 1/8" thick center steel plate.

The differences in the center plates aren't an absolute guide though.  The center body of the mounts could be different too and the bad mount that came out was so torn up there's not much to compare against.

What I do know, however, is that if I bolt this new HD 16207-79D mount in the bike it pulls the engine down too far in front.  Front piple isn't touching but gets too close to the right down tube and the oil filter does just contact the regulator.  Zero clearance and a slight bit of pressure.  Something there wouldn't survive in long term service.

There's not any kind of spacer between the frame and the mount on the old Rev A and B mounts.  But I've never installed one of these Rev C or D style mounts before.  So while I can assume ...


Wait a second.  Dammit.  Think I just thought of it.  The stupid things you don't think of when you don't do this stuff everyday and not all the pieces are always familiar to you.  Dammit.

When the thicker Velva mounts are installed the top mount plate moves up from below the front engine bosses to on top of them.  With the thinner OE mount that plate would have to go back underneath.  Those engine tabs are at least a 1/2" thick.  That will raise the engine back up.

I was just putting it back together exactly like it came apart.  I've got to move the top mount plate back down below the engine mounting tabs.  Chit.  I'm an idiot. 

Thanks for the sounding board Bob.  You got going in the right direction .

I know he's still up.  Going to go finish that little bastard tonight.

[Boatman]

I hope your idea works but I didn't move the plate to the other side of the mounting bosses when I put in my Velva a couple years ago.  Let us know how it works out.

[Twolanerider]

I hope your idea works but I didn't move the plate to the other side of the mounting bosses when I put in my Velva a couple years ago.  Let us know how it works out.

I think it will.  Will know in a bit.  Waiting for him to get back from Braums (his kid needed an ice cream). 

I know the plate originally goes below mounting bosses.  I know this one was on top.  I'm as sure as I can be short of actually bolting it all back together that changing the plate's location back down underneath is going to fix it.

I don't know that the plate was supposed to move up for the Velva mounts.  That was just the sudden thought I had when I added the plates location on this bike to the fact of its old Velva mount.  But it's been at least five years since I last touched a Velva mount and that's not nearly enough familiarity to trust the memory.

I'm confident moving the mount plate down below the engine where it was stock will solve this though.  Anything else is just curiosity right now.  That's what I get for putting crap back together just like it came apart without thinking about it.

[Twolanerider]

One ice cream cone, one beer and one motor mount later home again.  Road King is done.  Makes tremendous difference when everything is put together not where it was but where it belongs .

[Boatman]

Great to hear.