Okay, enough screwing around. Who cares what the numbers say. I'll be doing the "saying" around here, HA!
Actually I do care so keep the good info coming Dr. Hess and RealMiniParker, my GRM HD buddies!
Back to the Build!
Its funny how there are all these mystical techniques floating arounf the internet on how to get a good winkle paint job done.
Here is my technique:
Step 1 - Spin the paint can around and read the directions. Don't let my secret out!
So the directions say to bake the parts at 200ºF. Instead of driving around old neighborhoods looking for an oven sitting out by the curb i decided to make an oven out of a POS Craftsman tool chest, some wall insulation and a toaster oven. Takes about 30 minutes to preheat but it reahes 200 and holds pretty good.
Pause for effect...
Dr. Hess wrote:
Why exactly did you take it all apart?
Exactly!?, Dude, don't ask me questions like that. I start to question my own sanity. The condition of the thing was pretty bad though, don't you think?
Man, why'd you show me that? Starts thinking about dropping the Murdercycle's engine and krinkling it.
Got some transmission assembly done tonight... You can see the special tool required at this stage.
Mmmm, new seals
If this thing leaks when its done I'm going back to Honda.
So Here is where i finished up tonight. I know, I snuck the engine case in there but sometimes I am moving, gyrating, ya know, takin care of business, and don't want to slow down to take pictures.
Those chrome covers will likely get blasted and be wrinkled black as well. but Im going to hold off for now until i get it back into the frame and see how it looks.
So, what Honda are you buying? 
I rebuilt my buell top to bottom and split the cases and it don't leak a drop, if you do it right it won't leak, don't let no one fool you. Might blow a bit of oil out the breather but no drops or leaks in 8k miles. You gotta watch out a harley can turn a man into an instant shiny happy person, yeah they are slow and lame and no fun, just keep that message out there.
A harley is a pain in the ass to ride fast but if you can hustle one you get more respect, they are a pain to ride fast though. If I got one I'd have to put big brakes on it. Coming around a turn cooking a bit too hot and trying to correct isn't much fun then the brakes are lame. I'd go brakes first then adjustable suspension second. I like harleys but would never buy one, my mom has a 1200xlBFD, I like the bike especially the clearance, but the engine heat is a bummer.
benzbaronDaryn wrote:
I'd go brakes first...
Yeah, Tell me about it. The brakes on this thing are total junk. I was actually a bit traumatized when i broke the bike down a discover that I had done my test rides with the brakes hanging on by a thread...
Look closely at the mount points. Some genius took a die grinder to them to make the caliper line up with the rotor. there is less than a 1/4" of material left that was keeping me from becoming a %$#%@ rotting meat bag! Sorry about that, just get upset when i could have almost died.
That picture was the back caliper. The front was even worse. One of those tabs had actually cracked on the front caliper and it was holding by only one bolt. If it had come off it would have gone into the rim, the line would have wrapped around the axle and would have pulled the handle bars right out of my hands. Could you imagine?!
Needless to say, These have already gone into the trash bin.
My stupid bike has killed a brake pin and rear brake mount bracket. Floating calipers are nice but the float can beat stuff up in the mounts. How hard is it to find a dual disc? I hate the splitter they use on some of the dual disc kits, put a proper front end on the bike. I see so many bikes all farkled out missing the parts that will keep you alive. A harley that handles is the dream. A guy I think at BRG makes a "sprotbike" with a harley engine.
Good luck with that thing. I love harleys just to indulge the haters. Give them ammo for hatred.
I think there is a lot of science that goes into making a bike handle good. i think my Harley is just missing too many of those things right now. The frame is made of cream cheese, the rake is too great and the wheels are too heavy. I would also need better shocks / springs and forks.
I will likely split the difference. I am looking at lighter aluminum spoked rims and definitely be using duel rotors with nice tokico calipers. I will see if there is anything simple i can do to tighten up the frame. Don't want to go too crazy though. I have a more exciting build to work on after this one so I'm trying to push this through quickly.
This is where i plan to splice a Miata drivetrain into a 240Z
Okay, time for some build content. I finally got around to stripping the frame and grinding/cutting off all the stuff that is not apart of the core frame. The rear fender brackets, battery box, ignition and coil mounts were all removed and ground down along with a lot of the welds being cleaned up. (shameless plug for the "Z" project handling the background)
Nice ti see the crankcase and trans back into the frame.
I get it now, it's a Dyna...
So, going to ask for a little help here from the ol GRM fellowship. I took some vacation time and that why this has slowed down but now I'm back at it and need to get the frame and geometry worked out. While I was away I pick up a few choice deals from eBay, got some wheels that I thought would be good looking and stole them on a "best offer" deal.
Harleys are kinda weird how they are put together. The swing arm is connected to the transmission and the trans is solidly connected to the engine, the whole assembly is than loosely mounted to the frame with squishy rubber mounts. This means that the rear wheel flexes on those rubber mounts. That's fine, a Harley is not a track bike, is it. The other thing is that the transmission and engine are two separate pieces connected with a chain drive that integrates with the clutch. Since this mechanism (The "Primary" they call it) traps the output pulley (Sprocket for you non belt drive folks), there is no way to adjust the offset of that pulley if you want a wider tire.
Now the hokey part is that with a lot of Harleys the rear wheel is offset from center in order to accommodate the rear tire, even on stock machines.
That's crazy isn't it!? I mean with the fact that the rear wheel is all "bendy bus" it seams doubly bad for it to not be aligned with the front wheel. I want to fix that.
This photo shows the output pulley with the primary removed.
I tried to get a perfectly centered shot to show the wheel offset (its off a bit to the right). This is not the right wheel for this frame but it shows the problem. This is however the wheel i got that great deal on and wanted to use.
I measured and at the very least I need to offset that belt by a half an inch. there is also a little bit of room between the belt and the rim that i could reduce. With the min 1/2" (theoretical) offset and the somehow reducing the final drive pulley clearance from the rim by maybe 1/4" i could achieve a perfectly centered 180 section rear tire on that 16x5 rim. Not an easy thing with these bikes.
So who has a solution other that the obvious - "Get a skinnier tire dude!". I mean if a Harley doesn't look cool that what good is it?
Does the pulley have a spacer? Or is that the wheel hub making it stick out?
Bolt this bitch back together and ride it.
I'd try not to get bogged down in the details here. If you want to recoup your investment having a running bike that you perfect-ify will go much further than a non-running bike that is on it's way to being perfect.
Keep in mind, this bike will never handle like a modern bike. You might be polishing this turd too much by trying to align the rear wheel at this stage in the game. If it's running and you've got some miles with it getting you from A to B and you still think it could use a rear wheel alignment..knock yourself out. You may be sick of it by then and be glad to move it on and count your thousands in profit assuming you've worked this deal right.
I still can't believe you got this for $500.
bentwrench wrote:
Does the pulley have a spacer? Or is that the wheel hub making it stick out?
This has a crush drive but it doesn't matter with a 180 tire there is only about 3/8" of clearance. If i machine it down 1/4" that will leave 1/8".
Xceler8x wrote:
Bolt this bitch back together and ride it.
This is a totally viable solution and it is high on the list!
A belt and a cush drive! Isn't that redundant?
Phat tires are passe' put a 150 on it, or better yet put an 18" on it.
Getting the tire centered is more important.
bentwrench wrote:
Phat tires are passe' put a 150 on it, or better yet put an 18" on it.
Were not talking 300 section tire here. It came with some rad 90's cnc 18" rims with a 180 tire when i bought it. I have a vision of what i want the bike to look like. It does not have to be perfect and maybe i wont try to center the wheel exactly or maybe i will figure out a way to offset the primary and output pulley and make it right and maybe i will spend another grand doing it.
Lets face it guys, i payed $500. If i create a sculpture or a coffee table out of it i wouldn't be loosing.
This'll alleviate the bendy-bus feeling. Sputhe Engineering Positrac While it's 74% of your original purchase price, they've got good reviews/results. I would have put one on my Dyna, had I kept it.
I know I've seen primary offset kits, for going with wider tires. I've also heard of using a narrower drive belt, for that extra 1/4" of clearance.
180 is a decent width, for the tire. 150 looks just too skinny. 
I'm looking into the chain drive option. A couple of sprockets, a chain and a wheel hub without the crush drive. No funky expensive primary offsets kits that just look like more points of failure, least more points for oil leaks.
Maybe im being anal but this is somting i just want to do. It will make me feel good to have one of veary few harleys that has a centered rear wheel.
If your curious, go searh goole for "harley rear wheel not centered". You'll see a lot of folks say that is just how they are. I think harley made a design and then when they wanted to make changes to the design, like a wider tire, they just slapped it on there with out to much concerns about the engineering.
