13) Some Progress and a bunch of Firsts

So things have been progressing slowly but forward;

The bike has really started to come together; Added cooling water (only small leaks), battery charged up (going to need a new one), oil level good (needs to be changed), and gas in the tank.

NO LEAKS!

   It was time to see if it will start(?)

And than on the road and up the street

The seat is now upholstered

Making progress on the side panels

And planning on the final look

Still need to finish all the side panels, have the component powered coated and painting. Than go to DMV to get it road legal.  Still plan to have the engine overhauled to make the bike reliable. 

Planning a trip to with my brothers in June of 2016 so I have a target for completion. 

12) The Project is still in Progress, Really!

I know it has been awhile.

Yes the Project has continued and has progressed quite far.

The wiring, which I focused on in my last update, (yes I know September last year), is basically done. I haven't blown any fuses recently, so I think I found all (hopefully all) my mistakes. All the lights work, radio works, all indications light up, and the blinkers blink. The motor turns over and I recently wired the spark plugs and had spark at all 6 plugs. So I still need to add coolant and complete installation of fuel lines from the tank. And YES I need to put fuel in the tank. I have been holding off because once I add gas to the tank repairs to it become more difficult. Yes I know until I add fuel I will not know if there is a problem with leaks. And I really do not want to use water as it is very hard insure it is all out. 

Well what have I done?         

I made a luggage rack
for the back of the bike.

  I manufactured supports
for the mufflers

And I mounted the saddle bags

You may be asking what have I been doing with the rest of my time.

Well I started riding my bicycle,  So far I have completed three organized rides. One in Solvang (52 miles), one in Chico (62 miles), and the local Tour of the Unknown Coast (62 miles) which I road with my biking partner Doug. The training for these has been keeping me busy. We ride about 90 miles a week just to try to stay in shape and keep our aging bodies moving.  

Solvang 1/2 Century March 2015

Humboldt County TUC Metric Century
May 2015

Chico Wildflower Metric Century April 2015

So now I need to get back to working on the other bike the motorcycle. In the next few weeks I hope to be adding coolant, finally adding fuel to the tank and for the first time starting it up (my fingers are crossed). Once I get it running I will take it to the upholstery shop to get the seat done. Than focus on the side panel, which I am thinking I will try to learn to fiberglass. Maybe not? 

11) Wiring In and Actual Progress

Wiring Wiring Wiring Smoke?

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to wire the bike. Bought a wiring harness for the Harley Road Glide fairing and needed to merge it with the existing Honda harness. I found both the Harley and Honda wiring details online and purchased multiple weather resistant connectors to plug them together.

 I installed all the wiring including a new radio, ignition and tank mounted dash with all the indicators. It looked great and when I first turn it on everything was working.




Until I smell it and than saw it. Smoke! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!

So began the search for what was smoking, and why. It is usually easy to find the what. The key is to make sure you find all of the "Whats".  Than the important "Why", Because if you do not determine why it will happen again.

Began by removing tape from the bundle the smoke appeared to be coming from. Found one of the ground wires totally melted. I had to clear the entire bundle as the wire melted the adjacent wired.

Also found a totally blown 20 amp fuse. So the search resulted in finding that I was in to big of a hurry to power it up. I had a hot wire go to ground resulting in letting the magic smoke out.

Replaced the damaged wire, re-taped, and made sure everything was properly terminated. And again turned everything on and waited.

No Smoke!

So finally some real progress. Mounted all the relays, installed all the gauges (fuel level, temperature, voltmeter and a clock), mounting the rear fender, installing level sensor and fuel lines. Need to run plug wires and complete the wiring of the rear lights. Possibly in the next month put some gas in the tank and see if the bike restarts with the only smoke coming out of the exhaust.

10) Finally Some Progesss

The tank is headed for primer!

Finally the gas tank has progress past welding and rewelding, the main wiring has been reinstalled, I have figured out how to wire the Harley ignition and various indicators into the Honda harness, completed the fairing mounts and mounted the coils. I actually have made some progress once the gas tank issues are finally (hopefully) behind me.

 I believe in my previous blogs I outline how the gas tank would be the foundation of the look of the bike as well as how the tank was to be the biggest challenge. Well no matter how I framed the effort to modify the tank it was an understatement. I know the person I had do the modification was becoming frustrated with it as was I. But there was a level of expected evolution in the chasing of pin holes. So after the tank was at the fabricators for a couple extra weeks I went an got it and figured I would take on the challenge. I mean I have some skills, right?

What a mistake. Right away I noticed the tanks was pretty tight except for around the flange for the level sensor. No problem, pulled out the Oxy-Acetylene tanks and proceeded to make a mess.

Once I got my technique back, (it has been awhile) I was able to fill the holes I made and ran some nice beads around the flange and I was happy. Until I heard the first pop. With a closer look I could see the crack at the root of my brand new weld. No problem, fired up the torch again and ran another well placed and formed bead over the crack. This time there were two pops. 

Ok, slow down, lets think about this. The flange is about 1/8 inch thick, the tank is maybe 18 gauge (or about 0.05 inches). As I try to remember back, hoop stress and thermal expansion may have something to do with this. So I welded up the new cracks and tried quick quenching which worked. Than I remembered how quenching will harden the steel making it more brittle. So I pulled out my rosebud (this is a very large Oxy-Ace torch tip) and carefully annealed the area around the flange to add some ductility back into the metal. This was working great until I heard it POP! Well now I am really getting a little frustrated.  Welded it up, quenched it and walked away.

The next day I installed the level sensor flange, pitcock and gas caps.  This was to allow filling the tank with water to make a final check for leaks and measure the flow rate through the pitcock. The first thing I noticed was the vented gas cap was working but not as well as I had hoped. I was only getting about 1 gallon in 8 minutes. Without the cap I could get 3 gallon in less than 4 minutes. So I made the decision to add a vent tube to the tank. More welding/brazing, but it did come out pretty good and works great.

During all the flow testing I noticed the level sensor flange had a slow leak. The best I could tell it was not leaking from the weld but by the gasket. After trying to tighten up the flange to seal the leak did not work a closer look revealed all the welding had warped the flange. So I did some initial grinding to try to flatten the surface and resorted to the magic of J-B Weld. Applied it as per the directions, sanded and lapped it flat and now I have a solid, flat and leak free flange.

     

 
I cleaned, etch and seal the internals of the tank with the Kreen tank sealing kit and covered all the welds with filler to give the tank a smooth finish. Once the filler is sanded and all surfaces are cleaned I will primer the tank and not look back (hopefully).

Next up is finish the air box, wire the fairing, mount the rear finder and about a million other things. Still having fun and may even finish this some day.

9) The Project is Home

Tank modification done so back to work, Maybe?

The project made it home on February 12th. I took the bike to the fabricator on November 14th, so it has taken about 3 months for the modification. I did not want to rush the fabricator so I was very patient. You may have been wondering what was I doing during all that time. Being retired I took care of the cats, went to the beach, but mostly I finally got around to rebuilding my motorcycle trailer.

 I finished rebuilding the trailer just in time to pickup the project from the fabricators. The trailer looks pretty good don't you think? And it is good to have the bike home too!

 

As I was hoping the tank went from a 4 gallon capacity to a 4 3/4 gallon. Below are the before and after picture.  We were able to add a port for a level indicator which looks like it should work well. 

  I needed to clean and coat the inside of the tank, so I bought a kit from Kreem which includes a cleaner, etcher, and a coating. So I fill the tank to check the volume and start the cleaning when I noticed;

 So the tanks needs to go back to the fabricator for some touch ups. But I still have a lot of work to do on the bike.  I need to start final mounting of the air box, move the coils, modify the seat pan, hang the rear fender and mount the fairing. Well those and about 500 other things to figure out and stress on.

But I think it is going to come together with a little time and patients.

 

8) Waiting for the Tank Mods

Waiting waiting and waiting

I took the tank and the bike to the fabricators on November 14th and have been working with them periodically to insure we all are on the same page. The Fabricator, lets call him Billy, is doing a good job. He really want to make sure I get what I want. So he has been calling me before each step, we discuss it and than he makes the cut or welds the bracket. This is all fine, BUT I want my project back.

Here is a photo with the tank almost in position, the bottom has totally been cut out.

I was down just after Christmas and it appear to be ready to weld in the new bottom, with a level sensor I found on Ebay. So what have I been doing while waiting for the tank you might ask.

Well, spending money is the short answer.

I continually monitor Ebay for something I might need.  I have purchased the inner and outer fairings off of a 2010 FLTR Road Glide. Some scratches and broken tabs but it was a good price. I took it down to the fab shop to see how it was going to set.  It should look pretty good.

I bought a rear fender off of a 2009 FLH Electro-Glide and than found the taillight off a 03 and blinkers off a 2000. I finally found the headlights at a good price that will fit the fairing. Winter is the best time to buy used motorcycle part as riders clean up around their shops because it maybe to cold or wet to ride.

You may have noticed I am getting a mixture of years as well as model Harley parts to put into this project. The gas tank was for a 1995 FXDWG Dyna Wide Glide Harley, and the tank topped dash is for a 1995 FLST Heritage-Softail with the speedometer mounted in it. As I work through what this will look like I am picking and choosing what I like. Last week I bought the fairing wiring harness for a 1998 Road Glide and I started to try to figure out which plug is for what.

I think there is going to be some issues with trying to wire a 1998 Road Glide, a 1995 Heritage, and a 2009 Electro Glide to a 1994 Honda Goldwing.  Well I did say in the first Blog I was looking for challenge.

The bike should be back early next year. Which accurately is next week.  I am hoping for a great new year as I begin to assemble my project.  

7) The Gas Tank Challenge

Everything depends on the tank

The size, position, and shape of the gas tank really can make the look of a bike. So it is vital you spend time thinking about it. So I have spent hours and hours stressing over what to do about the tank. First there is no standard tank I can buy that will fit on this bike.

I have cut the stock air filter box down and installed a customized K&N air filter to lower the overall profile. Than I needed to purchase a tank that was wide enough to fit over the frame.  The tank is a Wide Bob Stretch tank form a Harley Davidson. I did buy a Harley split tank off Ebay hoping it would work.  But when I looked into mounting the spit tank and finding a dash that would fit it got very complex.  So I went to the local Harley dealer and spent three hours going through catalogs to try to meet my needs.  I needed a tank that was a minimum 14 1/2 inches wide, maximum 19 inches long, 5 gallon capacity, fit a dash with mechanical speed-o and have an installed level sensor. Believe it or not this does not exist. So what will I have to compromise on was the question.  There were no 5 gallon tanks that could take a mechanical Speed-o. Late models that were the larger tanks all went electrical speed-o, and if you wanted a level sensor you need a late model as well. So I settled on a 4 gallon stretch tank which is 21 inches long and 16 inches wide and no fuel level sensor.

The 16 inch width gives me the frame clearance needed but the 21 inch length means I will need to modify the seat pan.  But with this tank I was able to buy the right dash and electronics to go with it. So now I need to make it fit the bike. Here are a couple photo shopped pictures looking at the tank profiles.

The left photo shows a level tanks and the right is tapered. Subtle changes can make a huge difference in the look of the bike.
So now I need to cut the belly out of the tank to fit the frame and lower it a minimum of 2 inches over the frame. This will get the tank to a starting position and allow me to see what else is necessary to find that optimum final tank position and look. I laid out the potential cut lines and took the tank to a local fab shop to see what they thought and to get an estimate.

 

It goes without say they have never done anything like this before. They were kinda excited but also hesitant. I left with the tank and I am waiting for their call. I hope they call soon and I hope the estimate is reasonable. Even though what I am asking for may not be.