Petcock

Yep, the petcock was made up of used, mismatched stuff, and had no reserve function. I took one of the old ones I had and eliminated the vacuum part, so now I have a working reserve again.

I'm glad I found out right here in town, not 80 miles away in Webster, like I will be tomorrow.

Walking ain't crowded

As I posted before, we changed the petcock on the Sportster a couple weeks ago. So today when it ran out of gas, I switched the lever on the petcock to reserve like I have hundreds of times. No problem.

Except when it sputtered to a stop a mile or so down the road, flat out of fuel. It's a good thing my neighbor Don was home, he came to my rescue. So, looks like I'll have to fool with that next.

Here it is, sitting on the side of the road.

Either the reserve tube fell off, or the valve is backward, I'll figure it out.
I might rebuild the vacuum petcock and put it back on. I actually like that feature.

Cold!

It warmed up yesterday, at least enough to do a little tinkering. I put the 45 pilot jet back in the Sportster, and returned to the carbon fiber air cleaner. I also put the new front sprocket on it, adding a tooth. I took the new, minus one sprocket off to do it, so that's how I end up with so much crap.

I like it a lot better this way. The speedo is only off about 3 mph, as it was 5 off before. It's still geared a little low, but the street manners are good, and it's much less frantic on the interstate. Not a very good pic.

Merry Xmas

Took a short ride on the HOG today, 80 degrees on Dec. 25th? Gotta love it. Going down US1 at about 65mph-

Air cleaner fail

Since the old air cleaner is rusty, I thought I'd drill it some to see if that's the way to go. Drilled some holes, then took the tape off to lay out some more. But when I took the tape off, it pulled a bunch of the chrome off! I guess I'll drill it some more, maybe get it painted or powdercoated. Wish I still had some of that silver wheel paint.

Since I scored that clutch cover for $5, I thought I'd cut on that a little, too. When I have an extra, I'm not afraid to wreck something. I'm not sure I'm done with it. Like Jimbo used to say, "just enough red to piss me off!" Should I put a dot in the inspection cover? Probably, but no more red.

I did manage to start a major cleanup on my Hayabusa, it's next in line for a tire change, too. Nothing but money pits.

Gearing

I'm sick of the short gearing on the Sportster, so I ordered a different front sprocket. I'll add a tooth there to change the freeway buzz to a more tolerable level.

Been looking for another gas tank. I'd like to get a 2.2 gallon tank for it, the stock 3.3 is too big.

My Busa needs a major cleanup, so that's the next big deal for me, bikewise.

Jetting

Only one way to get it right, put the sniffer on it-

We spent some time on the dyno today, gained some power but more importantly, made it run better. I'm still not satisfied with it, but until I get a new ignition module, it'll have to do. We ended up at 190 on the main jet, back to the stock slide(drilled) and spring, 42 pilot jet, and cranked the timing back a little. The next thing is to get the SE module with the extended rev limit. Since this bike has been out of production since '03, parts specific to it get hard to find. I could go with a Daytona Twin Tec ignition, but that would mean switching from a map sensor to a voes switch, and new coils! So, I'll try to find Genuine Harley part.

Here's Todd wailing on it-

It gets loud after while. We had the endcap off the Supertrapp so the oxygen sensor would fit.

Rainy Monday

I rejetted the carb on the sportster today, no test ride because of the rain. I put it back to the original DynoJet kit of a 170 main, their needle on slot #4, their spring, a 45 pilot jet, .030 shim on the spring, and the idle screw out 2 turns.

Hooked an old idle adjuster up, just for kicks-

Did some cleaning and fiddling. Turned the front wheel around so the tread is going the right way. Drilled some holes, I love to drill!  Leaving the front fender off for now-

I'm anxious to ride tomorrow, I hope my carb formula works. 

Drag bars

Got some cheap drag bars off craigs. I don't know if I like them, but for $20 I'll try them. Wish they were black-

I took it for a ride around the lake, about 30 miles. The bars weren't that bad, but my carb tuning from yesterday made things worse, instead of better. The low speed manners are improved, but it won't take a slam full throttle. When I replaced the Thunderslide, I lowered the needle to the next position, as I have done in the past. It seems like a lean condition, so I'm going to raise the needle up first, then go for a bigger main jet if that doesn't work.

Where did I put that dyno jet stuff?

Went to the dragon

Not that one! We have one locally.

Then I came home and fooled around with an old handlebar clamp-

Of course, I couldn't have done it without the assistance and guidance of my neighbor, Trent, who rode over on a cloudy winter's day. 

Thanks, buddy!

New pics

After I put a new tire on the RoadGlide, I decided to hard wire my gps on the Sportster. They have the "euro light" wiring in the headlight, so it was just a matter of fishing some wire into the housing and hooking it up. My speedo is off since I changed wheels and converted to chain drive, so having my gps will be convenient. I used a sae plug on it, so I can adapt to other things too, and it's switched, fused power.

I also relocated the horn. I had put it in the stock location but it hit the fender under hard braking, so I put it back on the left side by the enrichener.
Then I took a ride around the lake since the weather is fabulous. Stopped at Debary Hall for a couple pics-

I like my air cleaner, but I may change out the carb for something different anyway, so I'll have to look in my stash to see if I can eliminate that oil breather line. It bugs me.

Turbo!

Or turboS, rather. Rode my Hayabusa to FtMyers today to a car/bike show. Here's the turbo-

My favorite bike, it had a little lifter noise-

Cruised my Busa 443 miles round trip today, averaged around 80 mostly. It never missed a beat and rolled over 48K on the way there.  

100 miles

Put about a hundred miles on the Sportster today. It ran fine, but the Thunderslide kit in the stock Keihin carb has to go. I remember why the factory went to belt drive, too. It had to help with the vibration over about 65mph. The rear wheel hasn't been balanced yet, that might be part of the problem. Anyway, nothing fell off!

Here we are at 75mph-

Going to the Webster swap meet tomorrow, maybe I'll find some treasure.

Maiden voyage!

Well, I finally got to ride the old girl. I started out cleaning the exhaust pipe, then got the call that my parts were in. So I rode my other Harley down and picked them up, I think the inspection cover is the only thing left that I have on order.

Got home, packed the wheel bearing on the front wheel, put it on, then set the bike down on the lift. I changed the trans fluid since I had replaced the output shaft seal on the other day. Next was the chain install, then the chain guard. I wasn't sure the belt guard would work, but it went on easily. After that, I put the muffler on and made a mount out of some stuff that I had laying around.

All of a sudden, it was time to see if it would start, and it did! No jumping or anything. I rode it a couple miles, but it was getting late, so I brought it back home and adjusted the handle bar and levers, the shifter, and changed the timer cover. Tomorrow, I'll try to do some tuning on it.

The sun was going down, so the pics aren't the best.  

Thursday

Well, I transferred the title and tag today, so my first ride isn't too far off. Fabbed up a spigot for the head breathers to go into the back of the S&S style c/f air cleaner. Put new exhaust studs and gaskets in the heads and mounted the header, took the muffler apart and thread chased it and reinstalled the plates the correct way(they were backwards). Repacked one of the bearings in the front wheel, only had one seal.

On my old bike, I just ran a hose down and put a breather filter on it, but decided to clean it up a little. The cleanest setup is the Screaming Eagle, but the shape isn't right on this air cleaner. 
Every time I touch the bike, seems like I have to redo or clean whatever it is I'm fooling with. Keeps me out of the tavern, I guess.  And it improves the bike, I hope.