Preparing the Shovelhead to go Cross Country

[renchinrider]

Hi, Everyone!

I could post this thread under a couple of different categories, but since my objective is to intersect paths with the Motorcycle Cannonball, and I'm planning to ride my '74 Shovelhead, I'm going to populate this one in the "Vintage" category.

As most of you know, we'll have two Alabamians participating in this year's Motorcycle Cannonball, Erik Bahl and Doug Wothke.  The event will run from Sep 8-23.  The riders will begin their journey in Portland, ME, and will finish in Portland, OR.  Their "midway" stop on this route is in Sturgis, SD on Sep 17th.  For the past two Cannonball's, I've had the good fortune to be able to meet the riders at their midway stops, where they spend a day performing maintenance and repairs on their bikes, and recuperating what little they can before resuming travel the rest of the way.  I can't describe how exciting it is to immerse among so many REALLY old motorcycles gathered from around the world, and to get to interact with their riders and families.  I am certain that this year will be no exception.  All the bikes will be pre-1927.

This year, I've decided to add a twist:  Rather than going the safe and secure route and riding my Road King to Sturgis, I'm going to ride my old Shovelhead instead.  It's roughly 1,400 miles from Huntsville to Sturgis, and I plan to give myself three days for that leg, just in case I run into trouble.  Then I'll spend a few days in Sturgis, which will include the times when the riders roll in and their midway stop day.  I may be doing some urgent wrenching myself!   ???

Once the riders depart Sturgis, I've arranged with an old Army buddy to meet him and his family in Maggie Valley for a chance to do a nostalgic day of riding, and to visit Wheels Through Time.  That's approximately 1,600 more miles, not counting the riding we'll do in/around Maggie Valley.  From there, I'll return home, which is just over 300 miles more.

So, in summary, I'm looking at riding the Shovel a little over 3,300 miles in September.  That's more than I've ridden it in any single year since I've owned it (which is already 9 years)!  So, I figure a good deal of preparation is in order, starting this evening.  I'm going to get it up on the lift and start pulling the suspension apart so I can go through all the wheel bearings and seals, plus triple tree and forks, and ensure everything's in order.  I also have a lot of electrical work to do :'(, along with going thru the brakes and getting the speedo working again. 

Given my work schedule, I figure if I start right away, I should have the bike put back together, shaken down and ready to go by early September. 

Pics to follow, and wish me luck as I start this exciting endeavor! ;)

[Nice Goat]

This should be good... subscribed!

[kylepeterson]

3k miles.... don't Cha just need a new seat cushion and some tires?

it would be cool to see some pictures tough :-)

[KevinB]

Definitely pulling up a chair for this one!

[renchinrider]

Well, it's Day 0.  I pulled the old Shovel out of the shed and decided to see if she'd start.  Sure enough, 5 kicks later, she was shaking up the neighborhood.  That's a huge relief, since I've only started her once in the past three months! ::)  So I took a quick run up and down the street, and then pulled her up into the carport (aka "The Operating Room") :D

Here she is up on the lift

Glide Day 0 Pic 1

I discovered my horn cover screws had actually fallen out, and only the fuel line was holding the cover wedged against the horn itself! :o

[url=https://flic.kr/p/27FxKNW]Glide Day 0 Pic 2

And, alas:  Along with the problem that my brake light doesn't work, I have no front brake at all.  The master cylinder is new, so I guess it's down to the caliper to see if I can find the problem...

[url=https://flic.kr/p/27FxKoh]Glide Day 0 Pic 4

I'll post again when I start disassembly (Hopefully, tomorrow eve)!

[renchinrider]

3k miles.... don't Cha just need a new seat cushion and some tires?

it would be cool to see some pictures tough :-)

Kyle, indeed, both would be the norm to prepare for a trip like this! :D  Actually, my tires are still pretty good, but I picked up a different (2 up) seat at Barber that I'll put on it for this trip.  I also happened onto some saddle bags at Barber that have just the right amount of "patina" that I'll put on too.  I have an old vintage sissy bar that came on the bike when I bought it, and I'm putting it back on too.  I figure with the vintage predator wheels, the bike is really gonna look like it just came out of a time machine from 1974!  (I sure do hope that new seat is comfortable, though!!!) :D

[renchinrider]

Work hasn't let up as much as I had hoped, so I haven't accomplished much these past few days.  I've just about got the front end disassembled to the point I can pull out the fork legs and disassemble the triple tree.

.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/JcXv9r].

After getting the headlight visor and windshield brackets out the way, I started taking a closer look at the electrical rat's nest  ;)--er, junction block behind the headlight.  Lo and behold, I found this wire dangling, hidden inside a piece of shrinkwrap.  Perhaps I've found the source of one of my electrical problems :-\   I'm off to the Harley Manual to go thru the schematic to figure out where the wire comes from, and where it's supposed to be going...

[url=https://flic.kr/p/KHYC4u].

My fingers got totally blackened when I removed the fuel line from the carb so I could drain the gas tanks.  I had no idea it is so deteriorated!  Another item to add to my parts order :'(

[renchinrider]

A bit of (personal) history:  I bought this motorcycle back in September 2009, a couple of months before I went on my first trip to Afghanistan.  As most of you probably know, U.S. servicemembers get a number of additional benefits during the time they're deployed to a conflict zone.  Thus, many servicemembers will buy themselves a "deployment gift" when they return.  In my case, I bought it before I went.

The reason is because I happened onto this motorcycle in an online ad posted by Kim Motor Company in Petersburg, VA, which is just 86 miles from Newport News, where I was stationed at the time.  I was shopping for a shovelhead (I really wanted a panhead, but not even a deployment could generate that kind of cash!), and this one looked just right.  So I went to Petersburg to see it.  The first thing Kim did was pull out the original title for the motorcycle, which he had taken in trade a couple of months before.  The date on the title was October 31, 1973.  The same man had owned the motorcycle its entire life!

I was hooked, and bought the motorcycle a couple of days later.  Kim directed me to a battery store in Petersburg where I bought a battery for the bike, fired it up, and rode it home.  The engine never missed a beat the entire way.  Even though the king&queen seat was like sitting on a plank of plywood, I felt like I could have ridden my new bike all the way to California if I had nowhere else to be! :D

JVC

[renchinrider]

Studying the original title for my shovelhead, I pictured a young soldier returning from Vietnam and buying his own deployment gift way back then.  On a whim, I googled the previous owner's name, and found his phone number.  It still worked.  I called him, and asked him if he could share anything with me about the 35 years he had owned the bike.  He said he never got attached to machines, and didn't have much to say.  I wished I could have met him in person; I'm guessing if I could have gotten him started talking, the stories would have flowed like water.  But alas, I knew little more after talking to him than I did before.

Undeterred, I addressed immediate concerns with the bike, such as the brake systems, and the spark advance mechanism, which seemed about to disintegrate.  I also ordered the Mustang solo seat you see in all the "today" pics--the single greatest improvement I could have made!

But before I could do any more riding outside of to/from work, it was time to go spend a year in Kabul...

Once I returned, I quickly got back to work on the bike.  When summer rolled around, I took advantage of a long weekend and headed west.  It was on this trip that I dubbed my bike "The Rainmaker."  It seemed I could step out into a cloudless sky, but as soon as I was 50 miles from shelter, the bottom of the sky would open up!  But the ol' Shovel didn't seem to mind, and we rode out to the Shenandoah Mountains, and then south toward Roanoke.  I then peeled off onto a Virginia state highway that is now called the "Back of the Dragon."

DSC_0002

The highway departs from I-81 near Roanoke and winds through the mountains until it reaches Tazewell, VA, which is very near the West Virginia border.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/J8Uamk]DSC_0005

In all, I rode just over 900 miles over that weekend, safely returning home in ample time to return to work.

[renchinrider]

Hi, Everyone!

I've been mute for the past several days, as work has gotten the best of me.  :'( 

All I've accomplished since last update is getting the gas tanks off, and running down the terminated wire I found--turns out it's the old (OEM) tach wire from when the bike had its original, handlebar-mounted speedo/tach setup.  With the previous owner having converted it to the Lowrider-style tank-mounted instrument cluster, the tach is gone.

The good news is, now that I know where the tach gets its stimulus (the frequency of the AC output coming from the alternator), I can hook up a battery charging indicator to it, which will prevent recurrence of the unknown "no-charge" episode that once left me lightless about 400 miles from home once some years ago (the stuff of a future segment of this story) :)

More progress and updates when work lets up a little!

[merc16]

I'm in ! This is sounding good.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[renchinrider]

Hi, Everyone!  I'm back (sporadically) at last!  I would muse about all the reasons for my absence, but it would just lead to  ::)...

I've been thinking thru every part of the bike I need to go through before heading for Sturgis, and researching websites and parts lists to find all that I need.  At last, I've been doing incremental bits of work to continue my disassembly of the bike so I can do the repairs and renovations.

I removed the fork legs, which turned out to be easier than I had feared.  I saturated the pinch areas of the triple tree with PB Blaster over the course of two days and, after I removed the fork plugs, the legs slid right out of the triple tree...Hooray! ;D

As I was examining the front brake caliper, one of the brake pads fell out in my hand! ???  It turns out that the rivets that hold the brake pad in the caliper had become distorted and had worn the openings in the pad itself until the only thing holding the whole assembly together was the rotor itself  (along with my overworked guardian angel)!



At this point, I was ready to disassemble the triple tree so I can examine and re-pack the steering head bearings.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/285YaMe]

But to get the triple tree apart, I had to visit our local Tractor Supply store to get a 1-3/8" socket to remove the triple tree retaining bolt.  I finally took time to go buy the tools this afternoon, and at last, I'm ready to separate the triple tree (tomorrow, maybe? ::)) and move on with this project, finally!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/285YaYM]

I have to order new fork seals and fork boots, and I'll rebuild the fork legs.  While I wait for the parts to come in, I'm going to polish the sliders--should make the front end of the bike look a lot better when it goes back together! ::) ::)

More when I take the triple tree apart!

[renchinrider]

I got home earlier than usual today, and I went straight to work on the bike.  In 5 minutes or less, I had the triple tree separated, and I gave everything a good rinsing in solvent, then checked the bearings and races.  Thankfully, all the parts are in like-new condition! ;D



Before I put everything back together, I'm going to take this lower part of the tree to a machine shop and get this hole re-threaded.  It's been obstructed and useless since I bought the bike.  It's supposed to contain a screw that holds on the triple tree cover.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/287N5Ra]

I had a few minutes left, so I grabbed my metal polish and buffed on the upper (cast aluminum) triple tree for as long as I could.  A few surfaces got shinier--most of it still looks kinda grungy.  Rather than buy a bunch of (truly useless) chrome for it, I'm going to simply polish the parts and make sure they're clean and sound, and leave the bike with the patina it's spent the past 44 years "earning"! ;)

[renchinrider]

I've been able to devote a few more hours to the ol' Shovelhead over the past few evenings.  I repacked the steering head and put the triple tree back together...



...then cleaned each of the terminals and contacts on the front circuit board, and coated each grouping with dielectric grease...

[url=https://flic.kr/p/29xLniw]

With the triple tree back together and the handlebars loosely secured, I went ahead and (finally!) replaced my clutch lever assembly.  I've had this thing sitting around for almost two years.  The holes and guides in the old one were very worn, and left a lot of play in the clutch lever.  Now I don't have to worry about anything breaking off or crumbling mid-trip! ;D

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Muh2C7]

I lubed and adjusted the throttle cables as well.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Muh2xC]

[renchinrider]

With all the front end work completed, pending arrival of all the parts to rebuild the fork legs and brake caliper, I moved back to address the electrical shortcomings under the dash.  At some point in the past, the previous owner replaced the OEM one-piece (3.5 gal) tank with a dual tank setup, and he then added an aftermarket dash that mimics how the original 1971-2 Superglides (and many of the later models) were equipped.  As you can see in the lower center of this photo, he (or his mechanic) did a number of wire splices to move electrical functions from their original positions on the handlebar-mounted instrument cluster back into the dash.  I'm not a fan of these crimped splices, and I don't like that most of the wires running from splice-to-destination are a smaller gauge than the OEM wires (not to mention that every one of them is RED :-[)...



...so I re-worked them by cutting out the splices and soldering in new (matching color, proper gauge) wire.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/29BYy2M]

Now I just have to buy the correct terminals for the end of each wire, and I can finish up.

One other note from the first picture above:  I can't speak for all aftermarket parts manufacturers for all brands of bikes, but certainly in the Harley community I have found many--if not most--of the aftermarket parts to be inferior in quality to the OEM parts.  This dash plate is no exception.  Note the three indicator lights just above the ignition switch:  Originally, the dash plate had three very flimsy, poorly-built light sockets holding antiquated, mediocre bulbs in each socket. 

If my Shovel was nothing more than a garaged trailer queen that went from show to show, or just sat collecting dust, the dash plate and indicator lights would have been sufficient.  But because I RIDE my bikes and this thing has seen a lot of rain and weather, it wasn't long before rain and vibration destroyed the wimpy light sockets.  The result was that each eventually shorted against the dash plate, burning out my oil pressure and neutral switches, tripping my circuit breakers and leaving me somewhere between  >:( and  :'(.  So one day I discovered the solution:  I picked up a $4 pack of Chrysler side marker light sockets at Auto Zone, drilled out and smoothed the holes in the dash plate, and wired in the new sockets!  That's been almost 5 years ago, and I've never had a problem since! ;)  If only the aftermarket manufacturer had thought of that...

Anyway, I'm really hoping that all this detailed examination and restoration of the wiring harness will resolve my brake light problems and sustain the ol' Shovel's electrical system until I'm able to buy a Moto Gadgets M-Unit https://revivalcycles.com/collections/motogadget-motorcycle-parts  and completely re-wire the bike...