Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man Black Death 41mm fork build

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:01]Hey everyone, just kind of wanted to show how to build a 41 mm fork from scratch. And obviously this is going to be for a Black Death.

[00:00:12]So we've got a 2625 fork here. This is in show chrome.

[00:00:18]And when you're buying show chrome forks, which is what the movie bike used originally, you can do hard chrome and it's fine.

[00:00:25]Show chrome is really what the bike had and it really kind of sets the front end off.

[00:00:29]Kind of makes the whole front end chrome and beautiful.

[00:00:33]The Here's the problem and this is kind of a little PSA. When you buy one of these kits, your end cap here, it comes with this huge oversized O-ring.

[00:00:44]And what happens is is when you try to get this cap into these threads in the end, that O-ring wants to wad up. It's too big and you can't get the forks put together. I've I've battled this before.

[00:00:56]So what you have to do is is you you get yourself one of these kind of handy O-ring kits and you find the O-ring that's a little thinner and um you go with that. You can still I'm still getting a rubber stand off here. I mean I can still So there's going to be this is still going to seal inside that fork. This it wads up and it's it's just oversized.

[00:01:19]It won't it does not want to go in inside this fork tube. So anyway, what we're going to do first things first, put yourself and I'm kind of doing this one handed and so I don't really have a good setup right now.

[00:01:32]But we're going to put fork oil on this damp on these little dampener seals.

[00:01:37]We're going to put this in first.

[00:01:38]Obviously we got to take our end cap off.

[00:01:40]This is going to be the classic 6 mm.

[00:01:42]And I would recommend tool wise, get yourself um some long shank 6 mm Allen sockets because it just makes life a whole lot easier on you when you're trying to work with these things.

[00:01:55]You can get them at Harbor Freight or whatever, know, just just some long shanks. And uh um so we're going to drop we're going to put fork oil on here. We're going to drop this down, take this off, drop this down into the tube first, we're going to come out the bottom.

[00:02:09]Then we're going to put our spring in.

[00:02:11]And then the way I like to do it, you got one of these tables like this, which they're cheap, you can take your end cap, kind of put it down in this table, lock it in tight.

[00:02:23]Just kind of lock it in.

[00:02:25]And then I'm going to turn the fork over. And here's your So, these are up you know, 2-in over forks.

[00:02:31]You're going to put this spacer tube in.

[00:02:34]Put your fork upside down, keeping everything together, and use the leverage from the top.

[00:02:40]And once you get it over that O-ring, you can feel that thread, start turning it clockwise, get you a couple threads started, tighten that end cap up with your wrench, and then you're going to be ready to put these down inside the slider.

[00:02:54]And this kit comes It's all inclusive, so it comes with, you know, everything you're going to need. Fork seals, um you know, ev- everything's in here. I think except for the top rubber boot, which you're meant to buy separately, but this is going to be for like a 41-mm Softail.

[00:03:12]And uh but anyway, I just wanted to show you I recommend highly unless you want to fight this, change that O-ring. And I'll um I'll show in a little bit how to actually go in and put the seals in the sliders on here, but that's how it all goes together. And I'll show this all put together.

[00:03:29]So, you can see what I did here.

[00:03:31]You got this fork up in the air, dampeners in, springs in.

[00:03:35]That's locked down in there. And you just turn and twist.

[00:03:40]Now, we're going in.

[00:03:50]Once that's all in, tighten up your end cap.

[00:03:55]I got my spring in here. Don't forget your spacer.

[00:03:59]And lube that O-ring and the inside lip top of that fork just with some fork oil.

[00:04:06]And it's going to go together like butter.

[00:04:08]Just don't Be careful not to cross-thread it.

[00:04:11]And it's all going to go together good.

[00:04:12]And now we're ready to put the sliders on and the fork seals in.

[00:04:18]All right. Let's um Got this one already put together.

[00:04:22]But I'm going to show you how this all goes together.

[00:04:25]So, we got our dampener in here. We got our spring. We're tight there.

[00:04:29]So, we're going to go ahead and take the smaller one.

[00:04:34]He's just going to snap in right there.

[00:04:37]And this will go in later.

[00:04:39]You always want to make sure you got your cap on your dampener rod.

[00:04:44]We're going to slide in here nice and easy.

[00:04:49]Like so.

[00:04:52]Take our 6-mm. This is the long one. In some like later models, you really need one this long because it's bolts away up in there.

[00:05:00]Feel that get it started. Don't tighten it up. Just get it good and started. I can feel it seat right there on the copper washer. Back it off a little bit cuz we want that we want that dampening rod We want this fork loose cuz it'll make this go in so much easier.

[00:05:15]Now, we're going to drop him in from the top.

[00:05:19]And kind of give it a little wiggle.

[00:05:20]Kind of get it started down in that slider.

[00:05:24]And what we're going to want to do now is we're going to want to put this washer on top like that.

[00:05:35]But we're going to want to go and put our fork oil all around here, all on the inside, and get him really, really greased up. The more greased up and slick he is, the easier he's going to want to go in.

[00:05:48]So, this is on.

[00:05:51]We're going to put our washer on top of that.

[00:05:56]Get our seal here good and lubricated up. Already put a little oil in the inside.

[00:06:02]Cuz the slicker this is, if you try to put it in dry, it's going to get bound up and you're going to end up ruining a brand new fork seal.

[00:06:09]The best thing is with this is to make sure it's going in straight and not to force it.

[00:06:15]Kind of get over the top here.

[00:06:19]And then I like to kind of take my fingers and go around with my fingers.

[00:06:27]Push it down.

[00:06:28]Kind of So much you have to kind of wiggle it.

[00:06:30]That's why you leave that bolt bottom on that bolt loose on the bottom because it it allows you to really get this in there good.

[00:06:38]So, if you've got I always like to have a spare one of these washers. This is what went actually below the seal.

[00:06:45]But if you have one of these, it keeps your seal driver from messing up your new seal.

[00:06:51]Little trick I learned. So, you put him on there.

[00:06:54]And then really what I like to do is is just let the weight of this seal driver do the work for you. Cuz if you start pounding down here and get in crazy with it, you're going to end up messing that fork up.

[00:07:10]You can see it going down in there.

[00:07:13]Nice and easy.

[00:07:16]Cuz all of our fitments are good.

[00:07:17]Everything fresh and new.

[00:07:20]Just the weight.

[00:07:22]Nice and easy.

[00:07:24]Let it slide.

[00:07:27]And I'll bet one more. That's probably got it.

[00:07:32]You want to take your washer back off.

[00:07:37]Take our little clip here.

[00:07:39]This is just your retains that seal.

[00:07:41]keeps it from coming out.

[00:07:44]Work it in here. Real simple.

[00:07:47]And you'll hear that click.

[00:07:50]Screwdriver.

[00:07:52]You hear that click?

[00:07:54]Makes a nice little clicking sound.

[00:07:56]That means it's in that groove.

[00:07:58]There you go. Hear that click?

[00:08:00]We're good.

[00:08:02]Fork can't come apart.

[00:08:04]And what you're going to do lastly is tighten up your bolt down here.

[00:08:09]Fresh fork boot.

[00:08:11]12 12 and 1/2 oz 12 and 1/2 12 and 1/2 oz of 20 weight oil is what I like to use. You know, depending on your size, you may want to use, you know, 10 weight or whatever. Everybody likes something different. 20 is usually good for me.

[00:08:22]These things are ready to go into the motorcycle.

[00:08:25]Simple.