Snaggletooth

Did ya set the key for "UNLOCK" while trying to put the bags back on? Once they are in the proper position then you set the key to "LOCK". So the steps are: Key to "UNLOCK" Hang rear bag hook on support bracket. Tip bag back and position bag pins in mounting slots. Push bags forward until the catch is in line with the chrome lock arm. Turn key to "LOCK" Be sure the bags are locked in. The PO had one come loose and sent it skidding down the road. Sounds like you're making progress.

I'm 285 lbs and I literally made the bike squat when I got on with the stock springs. I changed over to the Progressives and the springs alone changed the stance of the bike parked. Raised the front quite a bit. Didn't squat anymore when I got on either. It's a must do for these bikes. The stock springs are junk. The Progressives can be installed by removing the upper tube caps and pulling the old springs and spacers out and dropping in the new ones. I do recommend a rebuild during the process though. Best to make sure all is well.

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I've got to say.....some weeks are meant to be forgotten. This was one of them. Like they say.....When it rains..... it pours. Lets see...where to begin? I guess the trivial stuff should be first. Rain.....lots of rain. I got rid of my Wally World burners this spring and installed a nice pair of 4 1/2 chrome driving lights with visors and amber lights on my '84. Looked really sharp and did a nice job. I had Squidlys light brackets and he even modified the brackets that the brackets mount onto to beef them up to deal with the bigger light. The problem was after about 500 miles the vibration just beat the elements out of them. Too big of a light with not enough support. Installed new clear bulbs and lost both of them in less than 200 miles. Back to the Wally World burners until I figure out another way to mount them. My full time job informed me that my hours would be restricted to 40 hours a week. Weird. I've been with this company for five years and they keep adding extra duties that have been keeping me around 48 hours a week for the last four years. So I asked the the question, "Who's going to do the rest my job?" Go figure......they did my performance review and I didn't score so well on "Attitude". SURPRISE! LOL! My part time job notified me that they are cutting my hours by 75%. Lets see.....that should almost pay for the gas it takes to drive to and from work. Oh! Hey! I'm on the bike! I can still make a few bucks! About $20.00 a week! Somebody just tell me not to bother coming in anymore. Please? More rain...... River Roads are holding up well. My car has been setting a lot as I've been on the bike every chance I get since I got it back together. I guess it was feeling neglected as the day I really wanted to drive it because of the "heavy rain" it decided not to start. Took a day to figure that out and a rather pricey module to fix it. Seemed the sensor was cracked and did not like the moist conditions. I used to have a Ford wagon that could predict rain 3 days in advance. Got rid of that one. Hummm..... So a week ago I sit down to my trusty 'puter to take care of some bills and do my thing in cyberspace and I get the message, "HARD DRIVE IS UNSTABLE, BACKUP NOW". Wow! Ok. I'm on that........wait.....how much time do I have? Not so much I guess. Second backup disk into the process it just dies. Pull the hard drive and it's gone meltdown. I suppose some of you know how much time goes into replacing a hard drive and reinstalling the system and doing the restore and the backup and well....ya know. But I'm here today. Whew! So today was my special day. Had the afternoon off because on the hours being cut back. Ok that's cool. Nice day out.....mid 60's......blue sky......wind was mild... for a change. So what to do? RIDE!!!! I'm getting the bike out and gearing up to head out and my daughter rolls in. She actually asked if she could go with me. What the hey? She's 18.... she never wants to hang with dad anymore. Something fishy here.....but I'm not going to pass on spending some time with her. Grab your gear kid.....let's roll! And we are off........ Hit the back highways and enjoying the day. Ran across a custom car show......and she actually knew what some of the cars were! That might explain the copy of Hot Rod I found in her room. Found a BBQ place and fed our faces. I'm looking for ice cream next. But we were rolling down the highway about 65 mph and I catch a bit of movement at the bottom of my vision as something flipped up in front of the tank cover and slid down into my lap. No biggie....a piece of a leaf......maybe some sort of road debris.....not worried. YET! A few miles down the the road I catch another movement. On my leg, actually crawling up my leg....well....between my legs. Took me a moment to identify it but when I did I had to muster some control. Now I don't know how many of you guys have ever had a Wolf spider settle in on your "Berries and Twig" at 65 mph but it is a bit unsettling to say the least. It's a nice one to, about 2 inches across on the leg span. And it's holding it front legs up! I guess it was checking for wind speed. Or it's pissed off. I bet on pissed off. So I know that if I even mutter the word "Spider" my daughter will be getting off the bike at any speed. She would! Hates spiders! Me.......I'm trying to figure out how to get off the bike without kicking my daughter in the head. I'm not all that fond of them either and not under those conditions. So mustering my self control I rode it out with a wolf spider waving at traffic in my lap until I got to a get off and pulled into a town and stopped at the traffic light. With a firm but demanding flick of a finger I sent the little fellow off to another location. Now....I didn't mean for it to happen the way it did but the lil fellow found a new ride. The window on the car next to me was open and he just went right on in. Not planned. Just happened. As the light changed and I pulled away I could hear the screaming. I saw my daughters head spin around to look and she tapped me on the helmet and asked me if I heard them screaming. "Yep, Pumpkin....I did.....maybe they found a spider." I didn't tell her what happened and don't plan on it either. I'd never get her back on the bike again....ever! So that was my week. But I'm feeling much better now. Supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow and blue skys again. More therapy......after I check the bike REALLY good for hitch hikers. Ya'll ride safe and be kind to animals. Never leave one stranded away from home. Make sure they have a ride. Mike

Cool.....glad that worked for ya. As far as the oil in the airbox......Do check your oil level in the sight glass with the bike on the center stand and level. Make sure it is only half way up the glass. Any higher than that and it will suck oil into the air box. It's a thing with these bikes. They all do it. There are two hoses on the bottom of the airbox. The big one....that runs between the carbs and to the "twinkie" on the crank case. There is another smaller one that attaches to the front bottom of the air box that should run towards the fornt left down tube and then on to below the frame. It has a small valve in it towards the bottom. The hose is the drain from the box. Any oil that builds up will drain through that. And Skydoc_17 does have a mod to eliminate that bigger hose. It's listed in the classifieds. Most guys do it to eliminate the fight to get the dang hose back on. It's a bugger until you figure it out. If you go that route just cap off the two ports on the bottom of the box. As far as the rear master......you're cool. You got the plug out without breaking the body. It happens. I use a ...don't laugh.....a flavor injector for shooting up the old birds to fill the rear master. Grind the end off so you don't have a point and it's a clean fill. Now a word of advice. Fill it up......not all the way! If you think you have too much fluid in it crack open the rear caliper bleeder and bleed some out. These bikes do tend to warm up the rear master. If it gets hot the fluid expands and the brakes (rear first and then the front left) will start to drag, even lock up. That does damage to the pads and can warp the rotor. Not to mention it's no fun to ride like that. As long as your are at it.....just bleed out all the brakes and get some fresh fluid into the system. Clutch to. I bought my bike as a non runner three years ago. Spent the first winter going through it. After two seasons of riding and the winter tear downs to fix, repair, replace, fabricate or rebuild.....this is my summer to ride trouble free. I think I can take next winter off this year. Nuttin left to fix. Did I say that out loud? Ah crap. Jinx! Good luck. Mike

Not sure which screw you are talking about but the idle adjustment is behind the bracket that holds the carb bodies together on the left side of the bike between the carb bodies. It points downward and is a round, knobby thumbscrew about the size of a dime. There are two screws at the rear of the carbs that have springs on them that are for adjusting the sync of the carbs. Changing one of them could affect the bike enough to kill the engine. Mike

Hey Dan. I bought a set of 2nd gen valve covers gaskets off eBay a while back for my '84. The listing showed all years for them. All the new 2nd gen gaskets have that lip around the edges and that helps a bunch. I did cheat it and gave the covers a shot of sealent before laying the gaskets in and dropped them on a spare set of heads over night to let them cure. Once I figured out the correct way to hold my mouth and which words to use at the appropriate moment they went back in a lot easier than they came out. The gaskets held tight during the install and sealed up nice. No problems with leaks now. You are planning on doing the bolt seals to right? Neither cover was really harder than the other. Had to loosen the radiator up and pull it forward a bit to get the right angle to drop the front one on. Had to trim the lip off a little on the left rear edge of the rear cover as it rubbed on the choke links a bit. Works ok. Mike

Most excellent news! Good to hear you're on the mend. Mike

I vote for mass air flow sensor to. Had a problem with my Lincoln doing that same thing, took it to a friends shop to leave it and he had it fixed in 10 minutes. A loose connection on the intake and the sensor got dirty. Cleaned.....tightened and no problems since. The connection on the intake got knocked loose during an accident and the got worse over time.......sound familiar? Worth checking.

No kits for them. Pinwall Cycle or eBay. Not too money to buy used ones. Mike

It amazing how many beer cans die in the name of motorcycle maintanence.

Just got an e-mail from Joshua over at Bohannon Battery. They launched a new web site with all the info on the DEKA ETX18L AGM battery. Just about everything that you would want to know about it. http://www.etx18l.com/ Of course our member here Earl, aka Skydoc_17 is now carrying a line of DEKA's also but if you got questions before you buy.....this site should answer them. Mike

First things first.........are the pinch bolts at the top of the tubes all loose? I've seen a lot of stripped out holes and round cap nuts because the PO's didn't loosen the pinch bolts first. Ok....this is kind of a reach but I've done it before. Depends on how bad it is torn up and rather or not it is too rounded. I think these are what.....17mm hex's right? You are need a hex drive socket to fit. A hand impact is best and some shim stock. A beer or pop can will do. Cut a small section of shim stock to fit over the cap and use a dead blow or rubber mallet to drive the hex socket into the hole. Remember the threads are fine on the caps so work it do not force feed it with a sledge! That is why the socket drive hex. Getting an allen wrench driven in straight would be a challenge. Once the hex drive is seated firmly then use the hand impact to start working it loose. Shouldn't take much to get it started once you get a grip. Any impact wrench would help but the hand impact helps keep the hex drive seated in the hole when it's struck. Like I said......not the best way but it works. Might be worth a try.

Park in 1st all the time. Just for the safety of the bike. Ain't gonna start with the stand down anyway. As far as a stupid question........ain't no such thing here. Everybodys learning curve should have a bend in it sometime.

I did away with mine maybe two years ago. I did the Progressive springs and had no more problem with the front diving on me. I also added the SS lines and the Condor Fork Brace. The front has great braking control now and the lever is rock solid with the SS lines on. Just pull the lines and use the short union bolt from the anti-dives to tie the line to the caliper. I made my own bolts to cap off the anti-dive units. Worked for me. Mike

Ah shucks Dano...... I just screwed parts together until I ran out of pieces. And it still starts!!! Mike

Lookin' Gooood. I like the Blondes.....yes I do.

Hey Brian. Thanks. I'll PM ya maybe tomorrow with some info on the install. Might save ya some time. Later Mike

The color difference really show here between the Hella H9 Hi and the 35w drivers. Nice mod.....clean looking and worth the $$ spent to do it in my book. I ran into a couple of things that altered the orginal plan but nothing that couldn't be worked around. When I pulled it outside onto the street was when I saw how much of an improvement it was. I could see the beam of the Lo on the street....even under the street lights. Never really saw that much light on the ground before. But....then.....kick on the Hi beam and Good Lord, hand me my shades. The high beam just reached out and lit up the street! And the house, and the trees and the cars and well, I'm thinking a Batman logo over the hi beam ok. LOL! I need to do some fine tuning on the aiming of both lights but it is close enough until I can hit a back road and dial it in. Whew!!! Another project done. Later Mike

A few shots of the lights after install. You can see the color difference between the Hellas and the 35w drivers. The Hellas are much whiter and shall we say......intense!

Finally got the headlight mod finished tonight! As the weather is taking a turn for the wet side I was stuck in the garage and only got a short ride around the block but it is an awesome improvement. I didn't get a chance to do any before shots on a dark road before I did this but I will post some later when I can get out with new setup. I did some pics in the garage to show a little bit of the difference between the SilverStar H4 I had and the Hella H9 Modules. A little side by side comparision........... Now this is only is a dark garage at about 10 ft. but you can see the pattern difference.

Ok.....I still have one thing that irks me about the looks of my bike. The tops of the dash panels where they mount to the stays. Both of mine are damaged at that spot only. Otherwise they are in fine shape but the right side has both holes broken through and pieces missing. The left side only has one damaged. Since I got the bike I have used chrome washers with bib washers under them to cover the damaged area but would like to do something to cover the whole top of panel with an angled lip to drop down to cover the area above the speakers. As there is somewhat of a curvature there a simple bend with flat material won't work cleanly. I like to use thin gauge SS sheet of possible to somewhat match the chrome trim pieces on the sides of the fairing. I could live with a painted material if it come to that. Spacers would be attached to the back to fit into the recess in the plastic to avoid bending the trim into the hole. Any suggestion? I know I can't be the only one with this damage. Mike