KIC

Its a 1952 Ford 8N with the rare straight 6 cylinder Ford motor. Makes changing a Venture rear tire real easy in lifting it up...

Wow… So I went over and pulled the rear shock off of my 87. Had some great help from VideoArizona ( David) . REAR SHOCK MOUNT 87: Got it removed and headed back to my place to put it on my 89. After tearing a lot of the bike apart to get to everything, we start trying to remove the shock. Got the top bolt out pretty easily and started on the lower bolt… WTF….what is on my lower assembly ??? First I take off the bolt and it turns out to be this short bolt, not a long one like was on the 87 that went all the way through. This one hardly went anywhere but did screw into threads on the inside. Then the outside (opposite side) has some weird head things on them. The 87 just had one bolt that went straight through. After trying to figure out how, and what to remove David realized that we had two links where the 87 had one link and one bolt. Is this some type of lowering link ? 1987 - 1989 - This set up is TOTALLY different then the 87. Anybody know how the heck I can remove these pieces? I am going back to the 87 and removing what looks to be all the linkage stock parts and will replace it all with those. But taking these all off requires the removal, or at least loosening of the collector plate to get to the bolts

I have never messed with the dampener. What do you have yours set at ?

Maybe on the air part, but I think my whole shock is bad. The bike is sitting low and there is no real bounce. I can air it up, but i just think the shock gave out.

Well, I am planning on trying to pull the shock off of my 87 tomorrow afternoon if weather holds and I'm not too tired from all the food. VideoArizona offered to help me on Saturday work on the 89 so hopefully the two of us will get somewhere on it.

Once the frost bite sets in your legs will feel warm and the cold just won't matter any more..

I Don't use 5th unless I am driving over 75 on the freeway. I usually cruise around 4500 RPMs in any gear. 5th is rarely used on my 1989.

I just went through the CLASS last week and cleaned and tightened every fitting, cleaned the 3 solenoids checked the air dryer etc. seems to be working OK now. I did have, at times a leak sometimes it would hold air sometimes it didn't. Now it seems to hold it OK. I am now concerned about the shock since the bike seems to be sitting so much lower even with the CLASS aired up. My mud flap drags a lot more, and that is with 1 up. I am concerned with tearing the bike apart and putting the 87 shock in it if the 87 shock has an issue too since it has been sitting for awhile. I am wondering how to test/check the 87 shock before I install it in the 89. The CLASS isn't working in the 87 since the bike has sadly become a parts bike over the last 1 1/2 years.

After a 300 mile ride today I do need to do this. Is there anyway to check a shock to be sure before tearing one out ? I am pretty sure the shock on my 87 is good but I hate to go through the hassle of removing it only to find out it has an issue .

I have a similar dilemma in mounting my newly created pipes that go from the collector to the Rk's I just came from the auto store and ended up getting a very short roll of aluminum type muffler patch. I will try putting a strip around the collector pipe and see if it takes up the little slack in there and keeps a seal once the clamp is tightened. I hope to try mounting mine on Sunday since tomorrow I am riding to Phoenix with a group to put the bikes in a bike show.

So I have been dealing with a potential problem. I think my rear shock is going, or gone, out. Hard to tell since the CLASS system seems to still be working. My rear mud flap seem to slowly drag more than usual especially on speed bumps and today seemed to drag on regular turns. I have a shock on the 87 that I could swap out with, but it looks like a major job getting to the top of the shock. Do I have to pull the gas tank ? what all is entailed ?

OKAY, you totally lost me on the wiring, resistors, boards, wiring, resistors, PCB's, horn flashers, resistors.... etc..etc..etc.. I guess I'll look into upgrading the stator which should be more in line with my abilities.

I will do something once I finish mounting them and have a final knowledge of the actual installation needs. ( Hows that for a disclaimer ? ) My friend said that he could make a JIG that would allow an easier replication of the angle size etc. I have not installed them yet. I have a group ride on Saturday so i will probably try to mount them on Sunday. If anybody is interested I can ask my friend what he would charge to build and weld a set.

I hear ya. We have camped for 35 years in campers, tents and a larger tent trailer. The wifey says the tent and air mattress is a thing of the past but would camp with a tent trailer. I know the $$ will never be there for a trailer so this is my compromise...and I'll throw in a real nice air mattress for the tent. Add a floor, paint the frame, add four stands and a front 3rd wheel, and put the tent in front with a small cooler... I can see it happening...

I never said she wanted to spend the money on one, I said that she just said she wants one. Big difference in my world....

No...she just said what she wanted. And I just checked...she took the check book with her to work...

Rabbit trail........ Back off track... So how much do you think it cost to switch everything over to LED's ? I have disconnected my anti-dives ( which a BIG difference) but I also have a lot of lights..in fact I just finished adding the OEM trunk guard on mine, although I wired the four rear lights to the brakes and the four side lights are brake/turn signals, there is a total of 26 additional lights on the rear not counting the stock rear light. I know I read something about converting to LED in the past, but doesn't it take adding something to make the LED's work in place of the stock ? Do they just plug in the same as the stock ? Inquiring minds want to know ??

I presume in order to do all that you have upgraded the stater/charging system on your bike ? I think that is my next upgrade to my 89. Not to hijack the thread, but on a scale of 1-10, how hard is it to upgrade the stator/charging system ?

I was thinking along the same lines as putting the tent across the front of the bags and using one bag for the sleeping bags and cooking stuff and the other for clothes and misc. not so concerned about the security as the purpose of the soft bags would be to be able to take them inside, for example if at a residence or hotel. A simple lock could secure them to the trailer for travel and short stops. I would think that if I had the hard trunk, I would leave anything of any value in it over night in a parking lot anyway. Well it is still in the thought process. My wife says to get a tent trailer or nothing. She is "done" with tent, on the ground air mattress, sleeping. She had just seen our friends motorcycle tent trailer and decided that is the way to go. We used to have a full size tent trailer for camping that she liked. There is only about a $3,000.00 difference between my idea and hers...

So I am thinking of building a trailer. I would go with a small Harbor Freight tag along, extend the hitch, immediately replace the bearings and what I was thinking was instead of the normal hard cover roof carrier that is usually mounted, going with the soft tops that could be removed. Something along these: I kinda like the dual ones since they can be easily removed and taken inside. My wife wants to try motorcycle camping with some friends and this setup could be easier to load and pack. I can see the tent sitting right up on top. She wants a tent trailer to pull behind, but this set up would be $2500 cheaper.

I have found that the bearings on the HF trailers are junk even keeping them greased. I lost the bearings on my 4X8 in the mountains in the middle of a rain storm. I replaced them with real bearings and have not had a problem since.

Just sayin"...

Look at my current thread on my adVenture with Road Kings http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?111847-Road-Kings-on-my-89-Take-2 I think I finally nailed it but won't know until tonight when I can try to fit everything together on the bike. The hangers I have "look" like they will work, but again, until I actually mount them I won't know.

This is what I have ended up doing. After figuring out that I could not get the pipes "bent" easily ( never did find a shop willing to do them) I then re-evaluated the whole situation and came up with this configuration below. I went to a friend's shop to has just about every type of welder and we put this together. I am lucky that I have my extra exhaust collector to use while mocking up the pieces. So we got it all welded together and I only needed 3 of pieces from PepBoys. The bummer is that after loading all the other exhaust and stuff back into my car, I left the pieces at the shop.

Road Kings come with the muffler bearings already installed. There is a small oil tank to assist with the HD oil drip system. On the Venture you can fill the oil tank with auto trans fluid and use it when you pass the slower 2nd Gens creating a smoke screen so they can't see how fast the 1st Gen's really are, which usually makes them cry and creating a blurry vision issue while riding...