Mutt Shovelhead to mess around with - trying to get back into life

[bpeak]

Here we go. Long time no see fellas/ladies.

I've been away for about 2 years. We moved from FL to NC in the middle of a pandemic... to buy a house that needed fully renovated top to bottom. So we've been doing that forever. Some of you ol timers might remember that I started a project thread on here for a 1982 shovelhead full custom build. That bike is still in the garage. Still in progress. And once I start back up on that (probably this summer) I'll continue that thread.

In the meantime - I picked up a '95 dyna low rider as a daily. That was fun for a while.
But then I had some pretty serious lower back issues.
That resulted in me taking a friend of the family up on an offer... to buy a '07 electra glide classic full bagger. Sold the dyna.
Come to find some treatment and exercises that made my back WAY more free. Great news.
Fast forward - the bagger just didn't do it for me. Was fun to ride. But just didn't give me the fizz.
So I started looking... mainly for a shovel. To get back to a daily rider bike that interests me.

(I know, long boring story)

But here's what I found...









Got a pretty good deal on it from a really good dude. Digging in now to see what all we really have. What I've determined so far is that the details list is:
- jammer model?
- super low slung hardtail frame
- delkron cases
- S&S 80" cylinders
- dual plug heads
- dyna s ignition
- Super E carb
- 16" 60-spoke wheels front and back
- old panhead style sheet metal... I think it's all aftermarket (not original) but still cool
- rotary top trans
- kick only
- 1.5" open belt
- foot clutch hand shift
- older adjustable rake (side car right?) forks/trees

Not exactly sure what all I'm going to do with it. But one thing is for certain - I'm not taking it offline. Not going to do anything that prohibits riding it for any length of time. Has to stay a runner. But... I'll definitely be doing SOMETHING. Prolly black OEM style springer with a 21". Prolly full sheet metal swap - already got a lead on a sporty peanut tank. Different bars. King queen maybe. But frame will stay as is. Engine will generally stay as is.

I'll post some updates along the way. But mainly just wanted a place to share, ask a bunch of engine questions (keep yer ears on Dragstews!), and in general - get back to the enjoyment of being a part of the CC community.

Cheers!

[WillPhelps52]

Welcome to NC!

I'll be watching your progress. I've got a 21" wheel and Mid-USA springer on my '57. The build thread is here on CC.

[Dragstews]

[bpeak]

When I bought the bike - I had the seller start er up. No big deal.
Bringing it home - life got in the way and it's been a few weeks just sitting there.
Fired er up yesterday - my first time kicking it to life. Was NOT easy.
Didn't want to start. And kick only... made for a sore leg. Finally got it fired... ran... stalled.
Try again - no dice.
Decided to check the carb settings. S&S E. Basic. Went to baseline S&S tune.
Took a while but got it fired finally. Idled a bit then stalled. Troubles again.
Checked spark plugs - yea after all that kicking they were pretty wet. And HUGE gap.
Pulled out a fresh set of plugs from the bench, gapped to 0.70mm (roughly 0.028").
2 kicks and she fired. Way better.

Observations:
1. It has dual plug but only one set hooked up. I snagged a pair of the recommended dyna dual coils to go along with the Dyna-S ignition and dual plug heads. Just arrived yesterday. Going to look into a new coil mount, wires, etc to get all 4 plugs burnin.
2. Oil leaks. Some from the trans main shaft. Bummer but it's not too bad. Good bit from the sump. Will have to check the ball valve. Other than that, the biggest concern is what appears to be leak (not really oil but...) from the rear exhaust port and some from the rear head gasket area. Bike runs. But with that much gunk spitting onto the header-wrapped rear pipe... she gets to smokin pretty quick and pretty nasty.

Questions:
1. I have a video of it running that is saved on the cloud (my personal onedrive account). Have you guys had success posting videos here directly from onedrive/dropbox/etc or does it need to get posted somewhere online like youtube or whatever in order to show up here as an embedded video?
2. Will oil sputter onto a header pipe catch fire? Smoking a lot is one thing. Very annoying. But to ride down the road that way and have it flame up on me would make for a very bad day. What are the risks here in the sort term until I can maybe get the top end redone?

[bpeak]

Well poop. Went out the day after all that above to try to fire it up... nothing. Not even a cough.
Thought I was closer but nope.
Time to dig a little deeper. I'm thinking covering all bases:

1. timing check
2. pushrods
3. install the new battery
4. coil and spark test
5. check intake and maybe install new seals
6. possibly carb rebuild
7. perhaps install the dual coils and all 4 plug wires

There must be something more to this bike. It's not happy. Up on the lift she goes.
I'll try to post some pics along the way.

[JBinNC]

On bikes that have sat with modern gasoline in them, the fuel system goes bad quickly. Start at the petcock, and the in-tank filter, the fuel line, carb, and as you mentioned, the intake to head seals. Once all that is set right, and with a good ignition, the motor should start reliability and run. I would just ignore the extra plugs, until you get the thing to start reliability. Do the four plug coils, etc. after you sort the rest of the above. These motors are pretty simple and getting them to start and run is very basic and easy.

Jim

[Revelator]

Indeed. checking (cleaning) the carb would be at the top of the list.
& that includes looking at the pump diaphragm on that s&s.

As far as the bike goes, I think I would just change the apes to low slung
panhead style bars, & an old school pan or knuckle style solo seat & maybe
upgrade the cam if it's stock.

[bpeak]

On bikes that have sat with modern gasoline in them, the fuel system goes bad quickly. Start at the petcock, and the in-tank filter, the fuel line, carb, and as you mentioned, the intake to head seals. Once all that is set right, and with a good ignition, the motor should start reliability and run. I would just ignore the extra plugs, until you get the thing to start reliability. Do the four plug coils, etc. after you sort the rest of the above. These motors are pretty simple and getting them to start and run is very basic and easy.

Jim

Love it. Totally agree. I should drain everything down for sure. I've rebuilt E's before and actually have a spare rebuild kit. I might just do that now to know that there isn't something built up in the jets or bowl too. And like you said... make sure the tank and everything, filters, etc. are all cleaned out and get some freshy gas. You make a solid point - I have no idea how old the gas is that's in it. What I like best about this solution is that it's currently technically free! Haha. Thanks man!

[bpeak]

Indeed. checking (cleaning) the carb would be at the top of the list.
& that includes looking at the pump diaphragm on that s&s.

As far as the bike goes, I think I would just change the apes to low slung
panhead style bars, & an old school pan or knuckle style solo seat & maybe
upgrade the cam if it's stock.

I was totally planning on getting lower bars. and keeping most of the rest for now. As an odd twist... I snagged a super cool springer front end tonight off a fella. So - eventually I'll do a redesign. For now - the bike will stay as is till I get it running right and reliable. Thanks for the feedback and vote of confidence y'all! Cheers!

[TriNortchopz]

welcome back bpeak.

[bpeak]

welcome back bpeak.

Thanks man. Good to be back.

[bpeak]

Here's that vid I was trying to post. Not much. Short run until the exhaust heated up and started to smoke all the oil leaks on the header wrap. Not a fan of that part...

[bpeak]

Been plugging away at work and slowly mocking up some new parts. Also diving into the wiring side of things. Started filming/posting a new wiring series on the YouTube channel which I'll continue as more parts come in.

Got it mocked up with: 14 over narrow square leg springer. Square stock 48" tall sissy bar. TCBros king/queen seat (which I'm not thrilled with because of the thickness of the seat area). 19" TCBros tracker sportster rear wheel (reversed) wiht a Duro HF308 4.00-19 tire. 21" spool front with a shinko 270 super classic 3.00-21 front. 5" flat rear fender (needs paint). Sporty frisco tank painted with a rendition of Prometheus getting his liver gobbled up by an eagle (Greek mythology).

Got parts coming to do a complete re-wire... to rebuild the carb and new petcock... and to rebuild the oil pump and examine the check-ball leak. Gonna fab up some square tube pullback bars. Gonna run all 4 plugs (got the dual Dynatek 1.5 coils to go with the Dyna S ignition). Fun stuff. Looking forward to keeping this one going.







Might also need juuuuuuuuust a bit longer kickstand...

[bpeak]

PS - I know I said before I was gonna just clean it and run it. But when I took apart the fuel system (gas tanks, lines, filter, etc)... it was pretty bad. Previous owner used a tank liner that is now peeling off. Tons of scrap floaters in both tanks. Petcock was almost fully clogged. Inline fuel filter as caked. I'm amazed that it even ran in that video I posted... but this would explain part of why it was so hard to start and keep running (along with the previous spark plugs not being the right spec or gap). So after seeing all of that... and the wiring mess that needed full scrap and redo... I tossed in the towel and just committed to redoing the whole design. I have a notorious track record of not finishing projects. Or projects taking WAY longer than expected. Trying to break that trend on this one. Gotta get it running asap and move on. We'll see. Cheers guys.

[bpeak]

Was working on the bike here and there. Mounting the rear fender. Final mount for the gas tank. Starting a dual headlight mount. Re-doing a TON of hardware to proper stainless stuff. Got a rad sissy bar bag from Head Case Helmets.

[bpeak]

Spoiler is that in the meantime... I had some time off work... that got consumed by fully renovating our main bathroom which turned into over a month worth of work. CRAZY. But that's done now, so hoping to get back into this build here in June and wrap it up.

Also messing with an idea I've had for a long time.
Gonna fab a set of 1" square pullback bars.
But rather than going square bars to round grips, I want to run square grips.
Found these on McMaster Carr as equipment grips. Fit 1" square ID.
The 1" OD square bars steel are 7/8" square ID.
I got a 7/8" round throttle housing, and will mount that to a slug of 7/8" round handlebar steel.
That will slide into the square outer main handlebars.
End result should be a totally square look, with just the chrome throttle housing being round.

Cool part is that the OD of a 7/8" round throttle is 1" OD.
So the square grips fit great. Just need some way to make it not slide.
I 3D printed these little triangle corner pieces.
These will be epoxied to the metal sleeve, and grip glue for the grip to the housing.
Fingers crossed this all works haha.

[DoomBuggy]

That's clever, wondering how it will feel on a long ride?

[bpeak]

That's clever, wondering how it will feel on a long ride?

Probably pretty horrible lol.
We'll see. Maybe. If I can get it to work.

[RichardD]

I have two Port-a-band bandsaws, one with a square grip, one round. The round is MUCH more comfortable...

[bpeak]

Haven't posted in a while. Been busy tho. Chipping away at it.