Still starting

Cleaned out the garage again so I had to move the bikes out.

Figured I'd fire the FX up to see how bad the oil leak is. Considering it's been sitting for two months, it wasn't terrible. Maybe I'll get the inspection next week.

I do need to start ordering some parts.

Minor Update

Bike registration is now legal in Louisiana. Just need to get it inspected.

And one more time

So she's been sitting for a couple months. Figured since the weather was nice, I'd roll it out and start it to see how the oil retaining spring is doing. Didn't start on the first kick, but wasn't too bad. I had a pan under the vent and it did spit about two tablespoons of oil out.

That's pretty good considering before I screwed with the check valve, it would puke a half quart after a month.

Rode it around the yard and put it back in the garage.

Before I rode it around, I noticed that one of primary main case bolts was loose. I found an allen key for it and checked the rest. All were loose and one is gone. Now they're snug again. That whole thing has to come off so I can inspect the primary, so I'm not too worried about it.

Started it up this morning

Well, the last time I started the bike, was 11/21. It's been sitting since. This morning, I had to move it to get at a couple things in the garage, so I figured I'd fire it up to see how big a puddle it would make.

It took a while as it's pretty cold and I had to redo the choke again, but it finally started up.

No oil on the ground. It's only a single point, but maybe tweaking the check ball spring is helping.

Parts arrived

Grabbed yesterday's mail this evening and the parts I ordered from NOSparts.com had arrived. The NOS derby cover is way beefy. Actually has webbing on the internal surface to strengthen it. I think I will use it instead of the other spare. The new shifter lever and toe piece are re-pops, but are good enough for stand-off scale. Main difference is the rubber in the toe piece has H-D written on it instead of Harley-Davidson. Otherwise, it's identical and not worn square like the original.

Still reading a bit high

But I think I may have left some WD40 in the little magnetic cup thing. That may be causing it to act like a viscous coupling and adding drag as after strapping GPS to the tach, it is pretty close at lower speeds but gets progressively further out as the speeds go up. I may try to snake a small tube into the unit from the back to try to use compressed air to clean the magnet out before I end up taking the bezel off again.

Otherwise, the needle is moving very smoothly and the odometer is about right.

Speedometer refurbish

Well, I looked around to try to find an OEM speedo for the bike, but nothing out there in the aftermarket looks even close to the original unit. So, I figured, it's already broken, how much more damage can I do to it by taking it apart, right?

The unit is a Japanese POS that is hermetically sealed by the bezel at the factory. It is not made for disassembly. I've never met a thin sheet of stainless steel that I couldn't bend with a pry bar, so, I grabbed a flathead screw driver and went to work.





After about twenty minutes, I had the bezel off and the gauge mechanism came right out. It's main problem was that it was filthy. In addition, the drive assembly had broken loose from its crimp to the backplate and was not allowing the weird little magnetic doohickey actuate the needle correctly.



After cleaning it up I started thinking about how I could stabilize the drive unit and came up with an external strap that is held in place by the original screws that hold the guts to the main housing.



While I was in there I also added the mileage from the other two odometers to it so it should be pretty darned close to actual.

I then set about re crimping the bezel with a pair of needle nose pliers and finally after about two hours of fiddling with it, I think it looks pretty passable.



Took it out for a test ride and while the odometer was pretty much right on, the speedo was reading high. When I got it home after a little drama. (The choke plate popped out of the mechanism and closed on me. Luckily I was just getting to a gas station about 2 miles from the house so Mona was able to bring me the tool bag and I got it back going in a few minutes.)

After getting home, I was screwing around with the drive cable and all of a sudden it seated much farther into the speedo drive than it had before. Now the whole thing seems to fit properly. I took it for a quick spin up the driveway and back and I think it is working correctly now.

I'm re-hydrating as it's 80 degrees and kicking that thing before I realized what happened to the choke wore me a bit out.

Once I rehydrate, I'm going to take it out for another quick spin to see if it is OK or is still reading high.