Busted Coil

Why this running funny? Oh crap!

I needed to get this thing fixed to go the Smokeout Party last Sunday night.

I know I cracked this one because I over torqued it one time not watching what I doing. So I needed to make a metal support for both sides and I should be able to use it on the new one, too.


Mark 'em and cut 'em.


Dress 'em a bit.

Mark the holes.

I was doing it quick and dirty so I wanted drill both at once and so I had to rig this so my clamp would hold both tight.

Center drill and drill.

Done?!

NO! My quick marking sucked and I had to get all OCC and further over size the holes with a uni-bit.

Now it bolts together, but it's still broke. So I get the 100 lb zip-tyes to fix that.

Ugly, but runs fine. Off to the party.

Bigger Battery and Broken Oil bag

Several weeks ago the shovelhead left me walking with a dead battery. http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot.com/2010/06/electrical-problems.html

I thought it was the headlight circuit, but then I couldn't get it to repeat, so I suspected the battery was just too small and my buddy J. had a spare late model sportster battery to donate to the cause. The problem was I had build the battery box around the little battery. (file photo)



So I pull out the oil bag and look at this. The bracket is broke in two. I think this may be my electrical problem because the battery grounds through this bracket.



So go to see J., he's my neighbor and new best friend because he knows Harleys and has plasma cutter and welder. Here he is in action. He cleans it up and gets to welding.

Other broken spots.

Reinforcing the bracket.

This is me cutting one of the old battery tabs.

J. cuts the old "shelf" back to get the bigger battery in.

A hammer opens up the metal to get the battery in.

Like a glove!

There were swear words, more hammering, more grinder, and alot of motorcycle disassembly to get this back into the bike, but it's in now. I also added a heavy duty ground strap and connected it to the seat post coil boss.

Braking down wire wheels

This is the front wheel before I started. I mostly took this picture for future reference.




Measure the offset and take some notes. Front Wheel, rim letters on the hub side, under spokes go left, over spokes go right, offset is 0.400 hub higher than the rim. Disk side, under spokes go left, over spokes go right, offset is 0.500 disk mount higher than the rim.

I thought that marking the unders would help me rebuild the wheel, because the over and unders( I know it's supposed to be inner and out, but over and under is easier for me.) are different lengths. Turns out the marks don't matter because I'm not taking the spokes out of the hubs.

Now take it apart. Use the spoke wrench that came with the bike.

Once they are broken loose, you can also use a #3 Phillips screwdriver.

All done with front.

Now the rear. Offset is 0.025 under rim on drive side and dead flush with the middle flange on the disk side.

Rear's a part.

The rear's on the left and the front's on the right.

Now the powder coater has them.

Dismounting Tires

I wanted to powdercoat the rims of my wheels to match the "aluminum blast" that I put on the motor, so went and got my spare wheels from the shed. My buddy Panhead Pat is going to help me break down the spoke and teach me to re-lace. To my surprise they still had tires on them. I forgot about that. The sad thing is that the tires on my spare rims were a little nicer than ones on my bike now.


So this is how I take my tires off. Take the valve core off.


Take the lock nut off the valve stem.


Time to break the bead. Now this the part I'm proud of. I designed and build this bead breaker myself. I based it off the two internet ideas I saw. One used a huge lever and wedge attached to a wall stud and the other used a big hydraulic press from Harbor Freight. Both of those options were too big to mess with and use one a year or so on tires. So here it is.

Homemade 2x4 frame and wedge.

Now to the hydraulic part. A little bottle jack from Harbor Freight less than $20. (I carry this in my car to fix flats too.)

The first bead is easier than the second. I usually have to press against the rim on the opposite side to get it off, but it doesn't hurt anything.

Now the frame holds the wheel to get the tire. This helps when the wheels still have a brake rotor on them,

I use three irons. I really like the skinny one with the handle to run point. Then the other two hold things still so the tire doesn't jump back into the rim.

Once the tire is off the side, pull the inner tube out.

Now to the other side. I turn it up and get it started, then rip it off.

Now do the front tire and wheel the same way. Tires are hard work, but you feel like a real man when you're done.

Lowrider

Here's the stock height of the rear fender. I'm planning on cutting the rear about where the blue tape is. You can almost see daylight through the top of the tire and the lip of the fender. You can also see the red mud on the tire from a dirt road adventure awhile back.


Here's the solution for that. 11.5 inch shocks, that's an inch under stock. I got these from Walmarty when traded off this wife's bike.

So you pick up the bike until the rear tire barely comes of off the ground.

Take the one shock off.

Be careful when you take the second shock off, because the swing arm and tire will drop.


Put the new shock in the nieghborhood and lower the jack until the shock fits.

Just about there, but I had to use my flat head valve tool to put the stubborn bushing in.

The second shock slides right on, once the first is in place.


Torque the all nuts.

All done! Easier to do than it was to blog.

It's not exactly slammed, but with the amount of floorboard scraping I've done since I lowered it, it will have to do.