I’ve seen this described a few times around the web but since I had to remove mine to change out fork seals I thought I would document the process and offer it here for others to use. It’s a pretty easy proedure, but there a few “fidgety” parts to be aware of.
Tools you will need: 8mm socket or driver, 10mm wrench, Philips screwdriver, pliers (if your little brass fittings are stuck to the speaker screws) and a flashlight to look into the fairing.
1) Start with removing the speaker housings. There are 4 Philips screws that hold each speaker pod, and two wires to each speaker. My wires had quick disconnects.
The screws go into pressed-in brass fittings in the plastic fairing.
The brass fittings are notorious for slipping or coming loose and allowing the screws to spin like a stripped nut or screw. If this happens to you, gently (thoughtfully, carefully) pry up on the speaker housing near the fitting to pull the brass fitting out of its little “socket” in the plastic fairing. Take special care not to crack or break the plastic around the brass insert. If it breaks off, then you are looking at a potentially significant repair.
Once the screws and brass “nuts” are free from the fairing you can remove the nuts from the screws (and pods) with a pair of pliers. They look like this:
To get the nuts to stay in the plastic fairing when you reassemble the fairing, you will need to use some sort of epoxy to glue them into the little cups in the plastic fairing. NOTE: be sure to let the epoxy fully cure before re-inserting the screws. If you epoxy the screws into the brass fittings and the fittings into the fairing you will have a mess trying to get it loose next time. If you look carefully at my pictures you will see a slight copper sheen on the screws. This is anti-seize, I use it anytime I join two different metals, in this case steel screws and brass fittings (steel screws into aluminum is another example). It helps to control corrosion between the two metals.
2) Once the pods are off you can then remove the windshield. This step is not technically necessary, but it does make handling the fairing less awkward. If you want to leave it all assembled, then skip down to #4. Otherwise, pull out your flashlight and look up under the inside of the fairing where you will see 4 small screws that hold the chrome bezel trim piece that runs along the bottom of the windshield. Remove them.
Looking up into the fairing:
Note these are NOT the same as the speaker pod screws (pod screw is on the bottom):
EDIT: Steve (SCain) points out that on his interstates the screws are the same:
...I wanted to mention that on both of my Interstates all the screws are the same for the speaker pods, windshield chrome garnish and the speedo bezel. Steve
Thanks Steve.
Once all 4 are off then the chrome trim strip will lift off. By now you have a collection of several tiny screws and maybe some brass fittings. I recommend a small container or baggie to keep all these pieces together. These are annoyingly expensive and hard parts to get if you lose them.
3) Now go to the front of the fairing and remove the 4 8mm nuts that were hiding under the chrome trim strip and toss them in the baggie/bucket with the other screws. Watch out when the last screw comes out, the windshield will fall off if you aren’t holding it. There should be rubber grommets and washers pressed into the holes in the shield, don’t lose these, they will fall out if you aren’t careful. There should also be a rubber strip between the shield and the fairing that you need to make sure goes back on.
4) To remove the fairing, you need to remove two 10mm nuts on each side that hold the fairing to the fork brackets. In the picture there is a long black rod that runs parallel to the forks, you can see the two nuts on the “ears” on this rod. The black rod comes off with the fairing. I found the clearance on the bottom nut too tight for a socket, thus my recommendation of a 10mm wrench. YMMV.
I recommend you cover the fender with a towel, when the fairing comes off it can scratch the fender if it gets away from you. Keep in mind there are still several electric connectors holding the fairing to the bike even without the nuts.
5) The electrical disconnects are fairly straightforward and are all different shapes and colors to keep you from getting them confused (or you can label them). The plugs are located inside these weather sleeves.
The only plug that was kind of different was the tach cable. It took a hot minute to figure out the disconnect was up under the fairing and not “in line”. This is a picture of the plug where it goes into the back of the tach. Notice the little tab:
And that's it. Install is just the reverse.
