Ants in my pants!

Well the chain is on and I am fairly confident in my clutch adjustment the tranny is filled the oil bag is filled and I have just shy of 2 gals of fuel on board with a can of starting fluid and a spare quart of oil  on hand just in case.

Now all I need is my flight engineer who should be arriving the next 3 hours. So back to the waiting. Yeah, I am supposed to sit here for the next 3 hrs? Child Please! In about 5 minutes I am going to go running down the road yelling intelligibly at strangers until the heat gets me. Which in my current condition will be about 100 yards!! See ya in the funny papers!

Mission Control Update

The chain is on, and after a few hours of messing with the clutch I actually found neutral. That was a first. She is also full of oil now so the only fluid she’s missing is gasoline. I had a few links of the chain kinked up under the tranny  sprocket cover; so after cutting the chain and all that grief I rolled it forward got a loud awful clunk and grind then I had several inches of extra chain. So I had to recut it again and start over.

There is still a little drag and clank somewhere. And the rear wheel feels like it’s dragging but that, I hope, is because everything is new. And it will loosen up in the first few miles tomorrow. So first thing in the a.m. I am going to get some gas and starting fluid and see what we get when Tommy gets here.

Can’t Talk Now!!!!!!!!!!

The Fed Ex dude just delivered and my baby is still outside the pad. Gotta go gotta go! 2hip gotta go cyabi!!!!!

Update Pictures

In a fit of anxiety I rolled her out to the launch pad and touched up the paint. Polished up the chrome a little and before I could get back outside with the camera my biker neighbors were out taking pictures so I guess it must look pretty cool. But I will let you decide. After 13 months I know every flaw and failure so it’s hard for me to be objective. Don’t forget that the pictures are all clickable for a larger version. Go ahead get in there and sniff the chrome she don’t mind!

Come on Jireh, Come on Jireh!

Now I sit and hope and wait for my parts from Jireh.Through this whole build they have been my main supplier. The parts are priced well and delivery is free on orders over $100. But they don’t give you any tracking info. The only sign your order is on its way is they don’t charge your card until the order goes out the door. Then you just sit back and wait. And you know how good I am at waiting:)

Actually the parts from Jireh come by Fed EX but after a 30 page google search I was unable to find a female, good looking or otherwise, dressed in a Fed Ex uniform. I won’t speculate on what that means. The only thing Fed Ex has over UPS is they deliver on Saturdays. So if the parts don’t come today the rest of the weekend may not be a waste. But until some Fed Ex driver gets a girlfriend we will carry on as best we can…

Holy Schiznit!

I removed the rubber grommet from under the headlight and everything works as it is supposed to. No short or overload indicators, I have a high and low beam, and the tail light stays steady.

I am going back to bed before I get hit by lightening! It’s never that easy! If God calls, you haven’t seen me!

Update

The rear brake line is on, bled and the light switch is functioning. However a new electrical problem has popped up. My low beam headlight doesn’t work. When I flip the switch to the high beam the high beam comes on and my tail light gets brighter. Then after a second or 2 of that the control box shows a short for the tail light and the head light, both high and low beams don’t work.

So more fun lays ahead with the only part of this whole build I knew was going to be a problem. The wiring is gonna kill me.

Old School vs New School

Old school…

New school…

Old school brake line…

New school brake line…

Old school fitting…

New school fitting…

Old school brake light switch…

New school brake light switch…

So while the new school stuff looks better and is 100 times easier to work with it is, as all things like it are, more expensive. The old school way was between 20 and 30 dollars. The line for new school was 20 dollars the fittings were 10 each x2 and the brake light switch was 20. Easily twice as much but they look a lot better and as I mentioned before; much easier to work with.

Let me go and get this on before work tonight and if Jireh can just come through one more time and get the new master cylinder here tomorrow we could be in line for another attempt on Saturday!

Houston We Have a Problem…

Actually a couple problems. First off the front master cylinder is a dud. Since it has been hanging on my bars for 4 months the 3 months warranty is up. So my brand new never used $100 master cylinder is no longer under warranty and was dead.

The second problem was the rear brake line. I got up this morning and hustled out and got a brake line and all the fittings I needed and went home and laid everything out bent the line, made my cuts, put the whole thing together  and no matter how much I tightened the fittings the line kept turning. At which point after a little research I found out no one uses flared tube and fitting anymore. The use 3-AN line with screw in fittings and banjo bolts.

By the time I finished the other things I needed to do I took off in search of a new front  master cylinder. Manor cycles was closed and Fletchers didn’t have a generic 1985 to 1996 front master cylinder for a Softail only one for 2006 and up and it doesn’t match.

Of course they  were aware of the “new” 3-AN brake stuff, which they could of course order, but  didn’t have enough stuff to fabricate a line for me . They said it was more for custom builders than factory riders which I can understand.

So rear brake line parts and pieces have been ordered, from a shop in Florida so I expect quick delivery. And Monday I will head over to Manor Cycle and see if they have a master cylinder for me and if not I will order one and hopefully have it all here in time to try another launch next Saturday!

So on a day of wanting to go not being able to stop stopped me from going. Sounds like a Flomax commercial!

Pre Dawn Update

That’s right folks live from the living room at 3:43 am. Everything that can be done has been done. The only thing left to do is run the rear brake line, add brake fluid to both systems and bleed both systems. Slap on some chain and we will be ready for take off.

Plug wires, fuel line and filter and petcock…

And of course the pipeage. This is gonna get the stink eye from the inspector but what can ya do? 1 and 3/4 inch flares out to 2 and 1/4 with no baffles and they are on the short side:)

That’s all for now. I am going to bed before I convince myself that the Super Walmart in Pineapple park has brake lines:)