Richard's ST2 pages - fairing R&R

Information on this page last updated 08/17/01.

This was at first a time consuming job but I have now done it several times and get the fairing off in about 5-10 minutes and back on in about the same amount of time. If you do your own maintenance you will get used to this. Most of the fairing needs to come off to top off the coolant, check the battery, etc. Some tasks like changing oil only require removal of the lowermost side panels which can be done without removing any of the upper panels. But the middle side panels (the ones with the Ducati stickers) cannot be removed without first removing the upper fairing. And these cover the battery and radiator cap, among other things.

This is covered in the owners manual so I will be brief here adding a little bit of info that they do not mention.

• Remove the two small plastic trim pieces that surround the instrument cluster, these are held on with 3 3mm allen bolts.
• Using an 8mm wrench reach inside of the upper fairing and remove the two bolts that hold each mirror assembly and remove the mirror assemblies.
• Remove main upper fairing, this is held on with 6 3mm allen bolts. Slide it off towards the front of the bike and reach in through the headlight hole to unhook the turn signal assemblies. These rotate a quarter turn and release.
• The middle and lower side panels can be removed as a unit. Remove the 4mm allen bolts at the very bottom, the 3mm allen bolts at the very top that were hidden by the upper faring, the 3mm allen bolts under the headlight housing, and the 4mm allen bolts with the large gold washers near the middle-rear. The panel will wiggle out, take care with the tabs for the upper mounting bolts and watch the clearance around the radiator.

Replacement is the reverse of the above. The side panels take a bit of fiddling but after you have done it once or twice they will go on fairly easily. When replacing the upper fairing be sure to install the turn signal assemblies before pushing the fairing all the way on. And there is a bit under the headlight hole that needs to go between the headlight and the grill that covers the air intake.

As suggested by Rick on the ST2 Owners mailing list I replaced the stock nylon washers under the fairing bolts with some thicker, smaller diameter washers from Home Depot. They cost 5 cents each and look better for a couple of reasons - they do not squish and expand like the stock washers and they are closer in diameter to the bolt heads so they are not as visible.

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