A day-to-day strive

Sunday, Jun 1, 2014

Leave Cali day 40

I finish up the repairs on my 1979 Sportster. Timing, a new brake master cylinder, electrical.

After getting the new cylinders and pistons in the 1979 Sportster, I needed to get it running after it sat for many years, after burning a piston coming back from the Hollister motorcycle run. This is a highlight reel, I will do all the steps over on my Harley website. One day. Soon. Meanwhile, there are lots of little odds and ends to get the 1979 Sporty up and running..

I'd like to say everything went well, but I had a leak where I had put the oil pump in the previous session. So stay tuned where tomorrow I will pull the pump, and get it remounted nice and tight. Like many of my bikes, this one is custom. A Sumax oil tank, a frame mounted footpeg with a home-brew rear master cylinder, and 1972 super quiet mufflers for when I move to the retirement community.

The tank goes on. I later learned the petcock was bad and it leaked the tank into the carb. I get the electronic ignition hooked up. It might not be smart, a Dyna ignition may have been what burned the piston. Not enough advance. The sparkplugs come out so I can time ignition.

I back out the timing plug. Kick-start bikes are fabulous, you can turn the engine over to time it with the kickstarter. Without a kicker, you have to spin the tire. A finger over the front spark plug holes tells you when the compression stroke is starting.

Bumping the kicker with a straight-slot screwdriver up against the flywheel finds the mark when the screwdriver falls into the slot. This is the timing mark for iginition timing. I also check out top-dead-center (TDC) to make sure I have the right mark.

This is the TDC mark. The marks change over the years, make sure you have the right ones. I static time the HDE-3 electronic ignition. It might have enough advance to not burn pistons. The timing plug gets its O-ring checked, some anti-seize, and gets run in, not too tight.

The spark plugs go back in and get the wires connected. This Arlen Ness master cylinder was nothing but problems. I tossed it, it was that bad. I replace it with a factory late-model master cylinder. It won't leak or bind.

The throttle cable goes in. A factory throttle grip since they work. I put the high-beam switch in the Bates-style headlight. I needed to fix the wires. The bike coming off the desk with the hoist. Yeah, I moved the hoist to Florida, I still use it.

I have learned to wipe down the exhaust with brake cleaner so the pipes don't smoke. The desk gets pushed aside, and the bike can come down. Everything in the room got moved. The dirt shows how many years this bike sat. Unhappy with local shops, I bought new jugs.

I put those nice long mirrors you can see past your shoulder with. I bleed the master cylinder. The bike goes into the garage with the other Sportsters and a 1952 K-model. Not quite done, the oil pump leaked overnight.

The side room is finally empty of motorcycles I needed to fix. Most stuff boxed, ready to move. I neglected a lot of personal maintenance while getting ready to move. These shoes look OK... They look good until you turn them over. Worse yet, this was just one pair.

This was another pair I used. They are shot too. The lefts wear out since that is the foot I put down on the motorcycle. And a good day-- I filled the garbage to the brim this time, cleaning out odds and ends in the house. I tried to fill it every week.

Leave Cali day 40

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