Nothing's Shocking | 1996 Harley Davidson Softail Springer Suspension Lowering

08. The Burly Springer lowering kit consists of shorter compression springs and solid spacers. In order to install the kit the springer fork (front fork assembly) had to be removed. We started by raising the front of the bike so it was off the ground and then removed the front wheel.

09. The headlight assembly was then removed followed by the stock Springer shock absorber.

10. Next, the Burly springer compressor tool was installed. The tool is comprised of a threaded metal block that is bolted between the lower shock mounts (red arrow), a piece of threaded rod (blue arrow) that is slid through the hole in the top shock mount and threaded into the block, and a coupler nut (yellow arrow) that is threaded over the top of the rod.

11. As the nut is tightened against the top shock mount it sucks up the springs.

12. To keep the springer fork leg (front legs) from snapping forward upon disassembly, a zip-tie was strapped around the rigid fork legs (rear fork) and springer fork legs. The front rocker pivot bolts were then removed.

13 Back up top, with the springs compressed, we were able to remove the acorn nuts, washers, and spring bridge (red arrow), upper spring restraints (yellow arrow), and upper rebound springs (blue arrow).

14. We were then able to remove the springer fork assembly and swap out the stock compression springs (red arrows) for the shorter Burly springs (blue arrow).

15. With new compression springs installed, the springer fork assembly was reinstalled and then the solid Burly spacers were installed.

16. After reinstalling the stock rebound springs, the directions called for screwing the spring restraints down until 5/8 to 3/4 inch of threads were exposed.

17. We then reinstalled the spring bridge, washers, and acorn nuts, and torqued the nuts to spec.

18. After removing the compressor tool, we then installed the new Progressive Suspension Springer Damper and headlight.

19. In a couple of hours we had our Springer sitting about 1 1/2 inches lower front and rear. While it did reduce ground clearance and lean angle a little bit, we were very happy with the ride quality of the updated suspension. The new Springer Damper seemed to take some of the pogo effect out of the frontend and the rear shocks were definitely much smoother compared to stock.