Need to replace my front fender

I went out to get gas last night and heard a bigger thump when going out to the street. I have been hearing some soft thumps lately and couldn't figure out what was causing it. I was sure something was loose when hearing this noise but couldn't pin-point it. Well, I stopped to look again and sure enough the back part of my fender has a huge crack in it.

So I will need to replace my fender and am not riding it now. I will order it and replace it when the part comes in. All motorcycles shops are closed around here on Mondays so I will order it tomorrow. I will also do a "Pictorial" on replacing the fender too. It seems it is only about 4 bolts to remove so it seems easy enough. But who knows it may be a real hassle if other things are wrong. Not sure how I cracked it but it sure it cracked.

Do you have any type of extention on your fender?

Mother Honda is having problems with the GL1800 front fenders cracking and is turning folks down for warranty claims if they have an extention fitted.

I have a replacement on my 04 GL, the fender and the side supports failed around 20k

http://gl1800riders.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165583&highlight=fender+warranty

Ron

I've replaced it on mine, and it was a pretty easy job. For some reason I had a little trouble getting everything lined up the first time I installed my replacement, but subsequent removals/installations have been very easy - probably a 15-20 minute job if you don't run into issues. My only "suggestion" would be to start all of the bolts before tightening any of them down (this probably goes without saying...).

Ron,

I don't have anything on my fender and I really think that when I had the front tire replaced it was damaged then. But there is no way I can prove it and it isn't worth my time to fight it. It has been at least a couple of months now.

Ed,

Thanks for the advice and it does seem simple but since I haven't done this before, I always plan on something happening. At least it will give me a change to do another Pictorial on how to do this. I haven't done one in awhile and I plan on doing one when I change my coolant too.

JeffR wrote:

At least it will give me a change to do another Pictorial on how to do this. I haven't done one in awhile and I plan on doing one when I change my coolant too.

Your pictorials are always greatly appreciated (it's nice that some people can actually remember to take pictures during a project :-) ). If you haven't already seen it, this post is worth looking at before the coolant change.

Ed,

Thanks for the link to the coolant change. I am going to do that this year and will do a Pictorial on that.

I just removed the old fender and installed the new front fender and it is really easy. I will post the Pictorial when I finish it, probably Monday, but there are only 4 hex bolts and it is very simple. It would take about 15-20 mins if you just change it, without taking pictures.

p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }


Jeff,



When you do the coolant change pictorial, one thing I'd be particularly interested in is how you address emptying the reservoir. The manual seems to make it sound like it's no big deal to remove it through the right glove box opening, but it seemed like it would be a real pain to get the bolt(s?) and tank in/out that way, so I just ended up sucking it out the top. But if there had been a lot of dirt or sediment in the tank, then I don't think I would have been able to effectively clean it. At any rate, it's a potential hang-up to keep in mind.

Here are a couple of pics before I get a chance to convert the word doc into a .pdf file.



You need to remove the reflector before you can remove these 2 hex bolts.



Remove this nut using a 10mm open end wrench.



This is the final picture of the fender after it has been installed. But the Pictorial will list about 10 pictures with much better detail of how to do it. It is a very easy job though.

x

bigbird,

I just put it in the Pictorial section. I found out that I can convert word docs to a .pdf file on my home computer.

x

I had those installed just months after I bought my SWing. I didn't have the tools and I live in a condo and just didn't know if I should have taken on that job.

x

bigbird wrote:

JeffR wrote:

I had those installed just months after I bought my SWing. I didn't have the tools and I live in a condo and just didn't know if I should have taken on that job.

Did you watch the install? Did the whole front end have to come off, including the windshield garnish, windshield, left and right front fairing and radiator protector? At least now I can get the front fender off competently
Any tips?
I'm not sure I want to do this one myself without any guidance.

Bigbird,

I just did my fork seals + hyperpros a couple months ago. The front end does not have to come off (I didn't take it off), but it's a little tricky getting those 4 (2 per fork) upper pinch bolts tightened again at the end - I wasn't able to torque the lower ones to the specified value (just went with "as tight as I can get them"), and I had to use an extension with a swivel socket through those air ducts to torque the upper ones (swivel+extension probably threw off the torque value so much that I would have been just as well off with a regular rachet).

Beyond that, I ran into some trouble the bolt on the bottom of the fork that holds everything together inside. It was spinning, and the manual says to keep the spring and everything installed if that happens, but that wouldn't have been enough to get it loose if I hadn't been using an impact gun. I also ran into the same spinning problem when I was trying to tighten it down again, but a quick hit with the impact gun seated it and then it could be torqued down by hand.

I also don't have a vice, which would have been very helpful.

Other than those issues, everything went according to the service manual. But I wouldn't want to attempt it without access to an air compressor and a good impact gun.

x

On the subject of impact wrenches:
friends who do bits on their maxis but don't have 'professional' tools, especially air-compressors, find the relatively-cheap electric ones do the trick for the amount they use them, usually not much more than attacking variators nuts.
In fact, some have bought them from Lidl or Aldi when they're on special offer and found them adequate for the job.

Jeff,
RE the front fender, when I replaced the front tire this spring I ran into a problem. My fender had phillips head screws in the positions behind the fork. There was a lot of corrosion on the back side, so they were a b**ch to get out. Although sucessful I changed them out for cap head (hex) bolts so next time I wouldn't strip out the heads . I also added some anti-seize. In the picture you already have the hex bolts there so you will not meet the dame difficulty I did. Good luck!