Gas, tires, oil.

I’ve been using my ‘89 sportster as a daily commuter for about 2 1/2 years, and while it’s had some problems, it’s never left me anywhere. I thought this had changed the other night, the starter had been making some strange noises when the bike was cold, but it had always started. But when I tried to leave work, it wouldn’t crank the motor. It made a noise that indicated that something was turning, but not the motor. Eventually I was able to push start it, and ended up taking the ‘55 to work for the rest of the week. Last weekend I pulled the primary cover.

When I hit the starter button, the ring gear turned, but not the rest of the clutch basket. It wasn’t obvious from the manual how the ring gear was attached, so I pulled the clutch as an assembly. The manual gives instructions that involve disassembling the clutch (using a special tool to compress the clutch spring), but not removing it as a unit. First I removed a snap ring and the clutch adjuster bolt and bearing.

Behind it was another snap ring, this was all that held the clutch on the transmission shaft, but I also needed to pull front primary sprocket. It’s held on by a nut that is torqued to 165 ft/lbs, so I used an air wrench to remove it (for all I know this is a terrible thing to do, maybe it wrecks the bearings or crank or something, but it’s what I did).

When I got the clutch off, it looked like the ring gear was just pressed on. I used an aluminum drift and hammer and gently tapped it off. It was fairly tight, but it was obvious that it had spun ruining both surfaces. Now I could have bought a new primary sprocket and ring gear, but left to my own devices I just rig stuff up. So I decided to just tack weld the gear on.

I spotted it in 4 places with the mig welder, then cleaned up the welds and any weld beads. The blue tape is covering up the alternator magnets, weld beads and grinding dust would stick to them like crazy. So far this fix has worked fine, but who knows, maybe the welds will cause the ring gear to crack and come apart, wrecking then entire motor and trans.

Harley front fenders are known for having problems with the rivets holding them on the bracket. On my trike, I drilled out the rivets and plug welded the holes and even welded the the edge of the fender to the bracket. But on my daily commuter ‘89 sportster, I first tried tightening up the rivets, but it didn’t last long. The parts that I peened over just broke off. As an emergency fix, I used a couple pop rivets and washers. Then there was the adventure with the new larger tire that caused me to remove the entire fender.
But now rainy season is approaching and I need a front fender. First I need to make sure it doesn’t rub against the tire. I adjusted my vise to the width that the bottom of the bracket needed to be to mount to the forks. This also prevents the bracket from just “veeing” out when I spread it. Then I used a hydraulic spreader and a portapower to bend out the top of the bracket.

Next I drilled out the rivets.

Then I replaced the rivets with stainless steel 10-32 screws and nyloc nuts.

Here it is mounted:

Still not looking forward to riding in the rain though.

So my front tire was bald, almost to the point of air showing through. I hate changing tubeless tires, so I brought it to a shop. On the way home, I thought I smelled something burning. Turns out the new tire was one size wider and was rubbing the fender bracket on one side. I decided not to argue with the shop, a wider tire is probably better and I needed to take the fender off anyway. I have previously shown the painting of the front fender and re-riveting it to the bracket. Unfortunately, it didn’t last, both rivets on the right side fell out.

I had put in a pop-rivet just so I could get to work one morning, but it really needed a permanent fix. Since it wasn’t going to rain for 6 months, I just took it off, planning on making a new bracket or getting a different fender.
So a couple weeks ago, I’m on my way home from work and I pull up behind a bus at a stop sign. It was one of those van-front, large bus bodies that the university uses around campus. Suddenly, I see the backup lights come on, it starts beeping and backing up. After staring in disbelief for a second (and when it became obvious that the bus was not going to stop backing up) I hauled back on the handlebars and backed up as fast I could. However, it was up hill and after a few feet the bus caught up with me. I hoped that the bumper would be low enough to push against the front tire, but it caught and grabbed. It rode up on the tire, squishing it flat with the weight of the bus. When it reached the forks I was sure the bike would be wrecked, but just then he stopped (maybe he finally heard the anemic harley horn blowing) and pulled forward. I wasn’t sure if the bike was damaged, so I rode up next to the bus at the next stop sign and yelled at the driver. We pulled off in a parking lot and took a look at the bike. Remarkably, there didn’t seem to be any damage, though I’m sure it didn’t do it any good. The driver said the car in front of him wasn’t moving and he was backing up to pull around it. He looked in his mirrors and didn’t see me (of course).
Now, if the front fender had been on the bike, it would have been smashed and made the bike unrideable till it was removed (at least). So was it good that fender wasn’t on? Maybe. But if the fender had been damaged, maybe I could have gotten a new rim and tire also. It could be that it’s actually damaged and is just waiting to blowout on the highway and through me under the wheels of a truck. I suppose that if I die in a horrible fiery crash we’ll know for sure.

Next up on the trike was the front brakes. I had new brake lines to replace the old corroded ones, but the open end wrench just slipped on the nut. Partially rounded off fittings like this are a common problem, I wasn’t re-using the line, so I didn’t mess around and just cut it off.

Now I was able use a hammer to drive a six point snap-on socket over the abused nut and then turn it off with a 1/2″ drive 18″ combo ratchet/breaker bar.

Yes, I have 1/2″ drive sockets down to 3/8″ (and 1/4″ drive sockets up to 9/16″), and, as you can see, they are very useful. What if the 6 point socket slipped? I would have driven a 1/2″ nut over the fitting and then welded it on. This not only give you a fresh, larger hex to grab, but the heat helps loosen it up (but is much preferred to trying to heat it with a torch and possibly damaging the brake seals).

After hooking up the bare minimum of wires, some oil the oil tank and some gas in the gas tank, I cranked up the motor to see if it would start after 3+ years apart. It did, though without linkage hooked up, I wasn’t able to open the choke quickly enough and stalled it out. But after cleaning the now fouled plugs it ran nicely. So at this point, its officially for sale. I’m going to keep working on it (needs the brakes hooked up before I can take it for a ride), but I put it on craigslist as is.

Why? Well, the house we live in is on the market, so we may have to move and finding a place with sufficient space for my tools is hard enough, without a big enough garage for 2 harleys.

And since this particular project has this urgency to it, I feel like I shouldn’t start on new projects until its finished.

You can post in the comment section if you are interested in it (there’s a remote possibility of a trade or partial trade).

With the end for the new clutch cable made, now I just had to make the adaptor. I used a section of the old cable with the cable stop installed. I drilled an 1/8″ hole in another pipe plug, threaded the cable through and measured it for length.

Then I silver soldered the pipe plug to the cable. Some flux and a propane torch was all that was needed.

Here’s completed assembly using an 1/8″ coupling to connect the two cables.

Now I just need to make a pin for the clutch handle to finish it off.

The trike needed a new clutch cable; the old one had been pinched and kinked and wouldn’t release the clutch. Unfortunatly, it needs an extended cable and no one locally had one. I called Jireh cycles and they were out of stock. Now, I probably could have found one somewhere, but since it was so hard to find, I thought it might be better to modify the system so a new style (readily availible) clutch cable would work. The new (evo) cables are different in two ways: first, they use a loop to connect to the handle. This just means I’ll have to use a pin instead of the insert that holds a cable stop. But more difficult is that the amount of cable that sticks out is only about 3″, whereas the old style had about 7″. I thought about shortening the outer sheath, but I wanted to be able to buy one at any dealership if it broke on a trip. So I decided to make an extension instead. First I need a way to connect to the end of the cable. I thought about using a cable clamp or one of those clips like you see in the middle of an emergency brake cable, but I didn’t want it to be so big. This connection is going to be inside the primary cover and I definitly don’t want it caught in the primary chain.
So I bought a couple 1/8″ npt brass hex pipe plugs and an 1/8″ brass pipe coupler. I drilled an 1/8″ hole in each one, and counter bored the inside to match the cable stop on the clutch cable. Then I made a slot with a hacksaw.

This allows me to slip it over the cable.

Next time I’ll show the extension that connects this to the clutch arm.

Just about everyone who works on cars and bikes hates electrical stuff, but you have to do it. I have grown to hate the common insulated crimp-on connectors. Firstly, they let water in and become corroded. Next, they are really just flattened or squished by the crimping tool, this allows the wire to wiggle side to side and eventually come loose. And lastly, they just look terrible. So, here’s what I do (I be glad to hear of other suggestions). I use non-insulated connectors (below, bottom) or if I can’t find them, I will cut the insulation off of the insulated type (top).

Not all of the common crimping pliers are made to do the non-insulated ends, mine have it on the handle side of the joint. Make sure you put the split side of the connector toward the half-round mandrel of the crimp tool.

Now, that wire is not going to pull out.

Next I use heat-shrink tubing to insulate and provide strain-relief. If you can find it, they make heat shrink tubing that is coated internally with hot-melt glue, this will help keep moisture out. I then give it a coating of liquid electrical tape (may be called brush-on electrial tape). I beleive it’s just plastisol (the stuff they use to dip-coat plier handles).

If your connection will show (and you care), the liquid electrical tape is available in different colors (nice for battery terminals if your cable is black, you can use it to mark the positive red).

The old style harley manifolds are a pain to install, an extra pair of hands can be a big help. Here’s one way to do it alone. There is half a groove on the manifold and the other half on the head, so the o-rings won’t stay on either part. So, first roll the o-rings up on manifold past where they should be.

Now you can roll one side down in place without the other falling off.

Install the clamp on that side to hold everything in place.

Now you roll the other side into the groove.

Of course the better way is to not use the stock o-rings at all. You can buy spacers that can be glued to the head and the manifold in the o-ring groove. This allows you to use the more modern band type seals and band clamps.

I needed some rubber washers to mount the gas tank on the trike, but the hardware store didn’t have the right size. I decided to make some myself. First I found an old inner tube that I had stashed behind the workbench, just for this sort of thing. Then I got an arch punch that I had found at a yardsale. I quickly punched out the ODs.

The ID needs to fit a 5/26″ bolt, but I don’t have that size punch. However, when at a recycling center I noticed some empty cartridges in their scrap brass bin. I bought a selection at scap price (and got the bucket for free).

5/16″ is .3125″, so 8 mm at .315″ is a nice fit. This is the cartridge head of an 8mm mauser (or 8x57mm) that I found. If you want you can sharpen the end, this also allows you to vary the size slightly, you can sharpen the inside (with a small round file or chamfer tool) for more clearance or the outside for less. So what cartridges should you look for? Well, obviously 6mm, 7mm, 8mm, 9mm and 10 mm will work for the corresponding metric sizes. An inside sharpened 17 caliber should work for a #8 screw and outside sharpened it should work for #10. The new 204 ruger might work for 5mm or #12. 25 caliber (25-06, 257 roberts, etc) or 6.5 mm for 1/4″ bolt. 8mm for 5/16″. 375 caliber or 9.3 mm for 3/8″, 44 or 45 caliber for 7/16″. And of course, 50 caliber for 1/2″. Good luck finding a 600 Nitro Express for 5/8″. Also, some cheap military ammo uses steel cases, obviously these will be sturdier.

I didn’t bother to sharpen the end and it worked fine.

Here are the rubber washers in place on the top tank mount, trapped between stainless washers. I have previously shown the bottom mount.

And here are the fat bobs finally mounted. The dash and filler are just sitting on top, they’re next.