impulse buying

I did it again.
Went onto e-bay and had a look for resistors. I was fully intending to buy another two. (received the first two in the post today) I wasn't just sure enough to know which ones to get and so had bought two at first. The ones I got are fairly large and are enclosed in a plastic cover. I hadn't worked out just where I would mount them, so was going to buy a pair of the metal ones which I was hoping would be smaller. No matter which ones I had settled on, I would need to mount them to something on the bike which would act as some sort of heat-sink. Apparently they produce a fair bit of heat and are recommended not to be mounted onto plastic. Well, the most obvious (and easiest) place to mount them on my bike would have been on the inside of the fairing which is made of ...yes plastic!
I spent some time browsing e-bay and various motorcycle forums trying to find the definitive answer to what I needed. I had just about decided on the size of resistors I needed and was intending to experiment with fitting a pair on the just the front indicators to see if that would work. Having the two different types would have given me some leeway to try to get it right.
I then happened to come across Badlander's load equaliser. It's much more expensive than four resistors (well about three times the price) but it plugs directly into the existing loom, does not create excessive heat and works with the turn signal module and, more importantly, the stock alarm system.
Money I hadn't intended spending but if it makes my indicators work properly, worth it.

The lesson has been learned at least. I bought RBS LED turn signals without really reading too far down the page in the catalogue. Re-reading it again, I eventually noticed the bit about maybe needing a load equaliser. It really wasn't too clear, but there you go. Plenty of these things, both expensive and cheap, are sold with-out mentioning that they may not work properly.
I've got there in the end and now understand a bit about resistance and LED lights.

started

I spent an hour tightening up fasteners, wiring up the indicators and fitting the battery. Then with most of the lights coming on I turned the engine over. It fired up first time. Though, as there is no petrol in the tank apart from a little at the bottom and in the fuel pipe, it didn't run for long.

I will need to spend a bit of time later working out the wiring on the indicators as the front left doesn't come on and the right ones are flashing too quickly.

After I had spent a little time getting the wires right, I got them all working but they were still flashing too quickly.
I've done a bit of research and now know that it's caused by the resistance of LED lights being less than that of filament bulbs. The mechanism which speeds up the flash rate as an indication of a blown bulb, thinks that a bulb is out and reacts as such. Something needs to be done to fool the system into seeing the resistance of the stock bulbs. I will need either a plug-in load equaliser, (which is the expensive route), or to fit some resistors, which is the more technical way to do it. I'll have a think for a couple of days and then decide.

But, at least the engine started and the new exhaust pipes sound good and loud. Soon be back on the road.

rallies

I have promised myself that I will go to at least one rally this summer.
I've arranged time off to coincide with Clyde Valley's Gathering which is at the beginning of June. I haven't bought a ticket for it yet as I haven't really made up my mind whether to go to it or not. Previous Gatherings have been held in Ayr. This year it has moved to Argyll. This is more out in the countryside but it still seems to have met the "corporate" identity that HOG chapters have. Advertising around the rally is more about the luxury accommodation and classy restaurants available on site. HOG really is about keeping members on message with the Harley brand.
I'd much rather go to HDRCGB rallies which seem to be more about the riding than the look.
I did see a poster yesterday about the Alba West Custom Show which is being held in Drymen again. That's on a weekend nearer the end of June.
As I missed last years I will make an effort to go this year.

nearly

Scored one of the items off my wish list.
I went down to West Coast HD to buy some brake fluid and while I was there asked about the part number for the wrinkle black luggage rack I want. They looked it up and there was one in stock so I bit the bullet and bought it. When it came from the store room there was no label on it and it just didn't look wide enough. But, I was assured that it was the correct part number and was the one Harley supplied for my bike. So, I paid for it and headed off home. As soon as I opened the garage door and looked at the back rest I knew it was the wrong one. That's twice now I've bought the wrong one! At least this time it wasn't my fault.
When I took the rack back the attitude of the staff in there was almost unbelievable. I asked them to order me the correct one but was told that the one they had in stock was the right one for my bike so they couldn't order another. Co-incidentally, there was a guy looking for one for a 04 dyna. Precisely the one that was lying on the counter in front of him. For them to sell him that one would have meant they'd have had to admit their mistake so they put one on order for him.
I wonder how many times that one will be sold and returned before they realise that they HAVE got it wrong!

Earlier in the day I re-fitted the tank and I've almost finished wiring the front indicators. I don't want to crimp the connectors on until I've tried them out. Then I can be sure that the wiring goes to the correct side.
So, tomorrow, I'll bleed the brakes, tighten all the fasteners down and refit the battery which I'll put on trickle charge tonight.
Then, fingers crossed ...

adding up?

My Rebufinni air cleaner arrived today.
It looks good. So good it's going to be a difficult to resist temptation to fit it straight away. But, to do that I would need to do the conversion to carb and I don't really want to do that before getting a tank.
I've made a list of the things I still want to buy for the bike. It's getting shorter but is still an expensive list.
On it are:-

• tank with fuel tap
• speedometer
  

Those are really the only things I need. That's to do the EFI conversion. Some others need to wait until I can really afford to do the front end conversion:-

• yokes
• front and rear brake lines

Then there's the bits and pieces which are either purely cosmetic or I can get by with what I've already got:-

• luggage rack
• front and rear billet master cylinder covers

There's probably at least £1500 to be spent on that lot, so most will have to wait.

lights on

I finally took the plunge and drilled the holes in the fairing to mount it. Got it almost right. All it needed was to loosen everything up and jiggle it around a bit then re-tighten. The headlamp fits in, using a spacer to raise the height but I still may have to get another bracket fabricated as there is no room for adjustment. It's doubtful that it will be aligned correctly the way it is. The headlight really needs to come forward half an inch.
As soon as I get the bullet connectors I've ordered, I'll wire the indicators up.
Then I can put the tank back on, re-fit the battery and see if I've got it right and if the bike will start.

tax

Like death it's inevitable, is it?
This is about road tax. The money the government take off you for using the roads and then, seemingly throw it into the potholes. Well they don't repair them any other way. Do they? What do they do with my money? I have to pay to use the roads and they're not fit for using! The government are ripping us motorists off. And as for the safety aspect! Are they trying to wipe bikers off the face of the earth? Hoping that we'll either give up riding or maybe have an accident which will mean we can no longer exist as bikers. Some of the potholes around here are so deep you could fall into them and never reappear. Blah, blah, blah ....

Rant over. What I am actually concerned about is when to re-tax my bike. I SORNed it and now want to renew the road tax in order to get back on the road in April. As the first weekend in April is the 2nd/3rd I'm wondering how to get my disc for then but not have to pay for March.
I will look into it and get back when I find a way.

The answer is simple. Renew at a post office.

From the DVLA web-site

When to apply
If your tax is due to run out at the end of the month, you can renew it from the fifth day of the month.
If your vehicle has been untaxed, because you’ve just bought it, the tax disc has run out or a SORN is in force, you can tax from the first day of the month in which you apply.
If you want the tax disc to start on the first day of the next calendar month, you cannot tax your vehicle more than two days in advance.

progress

I got more done today than I had expected.

I went out to the garage thinking that I'd get the coils finished. Well I got them connected up, cut the bracket off the seat post and mounted the cover on the coils. I've decided that it looks better with the wrinkle black cover on. The coils are not very pretty after all.

I then went on to have a look at the instructions for the V&H exhausts. Looked easy enough so I got started. All went smoothly apart from getting it all done and noticing I had two bolts left over. I almost ignored it as there was other stuff which wasn't being used. Must be for other models.
After another look through the instructions I realised that I hadn't removed the two mounting studs which held on the stock exhaust. They are replaced by the two bolts which I had in my hand. For a short while, I considered leaving it as it was but changed my mind and loosened everything off once more in order to do the job right. I'm glad I did as the exhaust now sits straighter.
The hardest and most annoying part of the fitting was getting the clamps to catch to tighten them up. V&H suggest that you mark the outside of the heat shield with pencil in order to locate them. That's a great tip but the places they're located don't make it easy to hold in order to get them started.

Tomorrow I'm going to refit the petrol tank.
I've had to order bullet connectors to wire up my RBS indicators (then the front ones will finally match the rear ones) so I can't get on with that until they come. As the wires to the indicators are the same to each side I will need some way of quickly swapping them over should I fit them up on the wrong sides.
I'll take my time over the fairing as the indicators, headlamp and fairing are all needing to go together at the same time.

a good day

The sun shone, though I wont go so far as to say it was warm!

I got a few things done. I re-fitted the engine mounting bracket, finished off the wiring to the coils, made a start on cutting the HT leads and started fitting the handlebar fairing.
I've also worked out a way to fit the coil cover by hacksawing the bracket part off the seat-post and using that to mount the cover behind the bracket the coils are bolted on to. The bare coil is not the prettiest of things so it will look better with the wrinkle black cover fitted.
I will not go so far as to say that all went well or even smoothly. As none of the things I'm fitting are stock Harley Davidson or even recommended for my bike that there would be difficulties was a given even before I started.
At the moment the most awkward thing is trying to fit the rubber boots on the coil end of the HT leads. The ones that came with the RevTech leads are too wide but the ones fitted to the coil are too narrow to take the 8mm leads. So I'm trying to cobble something together but am thinking that the easy way out will be to buy the Accel coils I spoke about in a previous post. It's another kick in the pants of my budget so we will see.

(A quick post script to this:- I have just worked out that getting the cables through the rubber boot was possible. It just took a little washing up liquid!)

I will need to get a taller bracket made up to line up the headlight in the fairing. I may get away with spacing it out with a couple of nuts for now but will need to head back to House of Custom some time soon. Hopefully they wont mind sourcing an engineering shop to fabricate something. I've only lined the fairing up and sat it in place. Drilling holes will take some courage, so I've put that off until tomorrow. I read an account by someone who has already fitted one. Line it up he said, mark where you want to drill the holes then line it up again! As you can't un-drill holes it is worthwhile doing over and over until I'm certain it's in the position I want it to stay.

Here's some pics of today's progress.

continuing

Both the bad weather and the work I'm doing on the bike.

I got the gas soldering iron and wire through the post yesterday so that gave me the chance to move forward with the coil relocation. To be honest I'm not really sure how effective the butane iron is going to be. I used the mains one to do the first lot of joins. At least that gave me the chance to get my hand in again so that when I come to do the other four joins in the garage I will be practised.
I've painted the engine mounting brackets rather that paying to get them powder-coated. I used up the paint I bought for the brake callipers. It's heat resistant so hopefully the finish will last. There is every likelihood that I'll need to get them coated at some time in the future but for now the paint job will suffice.
Replacing the coil leads is another job which is turning out to be a little more (or less) than simple. As I said previously I bought RevTech leads. None of the coil end connector covers fit the delphi coils so I will need to use the stock ones. I will also need to adapt the brass terminals as the diameter of the stubs on the coils is less than the holes on the terminals. I'm considering buying an Accel Super Coil kit and replacing the whole thing with that but at the moment that is in the queue with the other things on my shopping list.

As soon as I get the coils wired up I'm going to move on to fitting the exhausts as the bike is still looking far from ready. The pipes will at least help me believe that I'm getting somewhere.

delays

I'm loaded with the cold and the weather has turned extremely wintry once more.
A mixture of both, but more the illness than the weather, has put paid to my idea, (which was put in my head by Colin at House of Custom, when I was there collecting my bracket last week-end), of going through to the Bike Show in Edinburgh.
House of Custom? you ask.
I'm not too sure what has happened there. Area 51 have changed their name to House of Custom. Richard is no longer with them. Which is probably why they are no longer doing any fabrication. They are still doing custom work and as I may need someone to do some of the EFI - carb conversion as well as the front end conversion, it's good to know that they've not gone all-together.

The return to cold weather has meant that I didn't get out to do anything on the bike yesterday. As I'm still suffering this morning I doubt if I'll do much today either. What I will do is to cut the cables to the coil and bring the plug end in to the house. I'm going to try to dismantle the connector rather than extend the wire. If that works I'll only need one set of soldered joints rather than two, which if fact means eight. I have tried to source a supplier for the delphi connectors that HD use but can't find on in this country. Some of the other connectors are better or at least, just as good. But, as this one goes into the coil body I need the exact one.

(Update on this. I got the connector apart but there was no way I could dismantle the terminal. So, as I haven't found a supplier for these plugs, I will be extending the cables by soldering in a length of wire. That means eight solders but that's the way it goes!)

I had ordered cable from Auto Electric Supplies but bought the wrong gauge so I've re-ordered, along with a butane soldering iron. AES were incredibly quick with their turnaround and I would recommend them. They are experts in vintage and classic wiring and although they don't have as wide a range as Vehicle Wiring Products, they seem to know what they are doing. Also, I'm having problems ordering on-line from VWP. So when needs must!
I will actually need the soldering iron and haven't just bought it because I like buying tools (although I do!). The joins I need to make, this time, are ones which must be done on the bike and can't be done in the house where I can use the mains iron. I actually enjoy doing the wiring on the bike. When I had my suzuki low-rider years ago, I did a lot of the re-wiring on that. With just a bit more practice to increase my confidence, I may even consider doing a complete re-wire on the softail. That could simplify things greatly. It would be good to remove most of the extra wiring rather than just tuck it out of the way.

We'll see at the end of this summer.

the postman keeps on coming ...

... and bringing me more work to do.
So, as soon as the weekend comes, I'm off work for a week and then I should get a fair bit done.
I've got some RevTech spark plug leads, so I will fit them first and then get the engine bracket off to the powder coaters and rewire the coils. Next, I'm going to fit the headlight fairing and bleed the front brake (as soon as I get some new fluid). After that it will be the exhausts to get fitted.

I've bought a rebuffini air filter cover but won't be fitting that until I do the carb conversion. I'm just getting the spending out of the way! The rest of the conversion will need to wait until I can afford a tank and speedo as I've decided to go the whole hog (excuse the pun!) and get rid of all extraneous electronic geegaws.
I am tempted to do that sooner rather than later as I'm putting off the work on the front end until next winter. it's just a matter of how much I can fit in without losing too much riding time.

pressing on

I was in the garage, fitting the horn, when I got a call from Area 51 to say that my bracket was ready.
So, I jumped in the car and headed to Clydebank to pick it up. It's looking good. I'm off work in a week or two so I'll re-wire the leads and get it in for powder coating when I'm off.
I'm off to the football this afternoon so first thing tomorrow I'll get stuck in and take a few more steps to getting back on the road.
I want to delay getting road-tax until April. That way the summer months are covered and next winter I should be able to SORN to gain maximum advantage.

Photos tomorrow too.