1985 FLTC

O.K. we almost got the motor back together, the pistons are in the jugs, just need to reassemble the rocker boxes. Sifton 141-EV cam, adjustable lifters, Keith Black 10:1 (not bored) and it looks like the heads are shaved. He should get alot more pull from this set up over stock I'm thinking.

We also got all the black silicone off the primary. It had silicone gobbed on to both sides of the gasket.

He needed a new final drive belt, so I figured while we've got the engine out we'd do that. HA HA! I'll NEVER volunteer to change a drive belt as long as I live! Long story short... He ended up taking the tranny and swing arm to his shop to press out the swing arm pivot shaft. The rear axle was wedged in there pretty good also, I needed to beat that sucker outta there.

I asked Mike if he wanted to pull the front end off and check the steering bearings and his reply was, "No, that's alot to take off." I let it go at the time but the more I think about it, Ha! We've got the bike 90% apart right now and while We're finding all the problems why not fix the rest! I'm sure once we get into that front end we'll find more problems. I consider that a major component of driving the bike safely, so I'm going to talk him into pulling the front off. I can tell the previous owner didn't take care of this bike

Resealing the engine and changing out the belt is turning into a big project!

 

Here's some pictures of the project:
The bike:




The working area:


This is how far we tore down the engine:


Mike took some parts blasted and painted them with high temp paint:

 

Sound cool, good to see it's getting the love it deserves.

 

Next time someone posts about a base gasket leak, I am going to send them to this thread for proper repair of gasket replacement with pictures.

Since your at this stage, you should go ahead and paint the tins, no reason to stop now.

 

If it was as simple as a base gasket leak it would be out of my garage by now.

This bike has definitely seen better days, as Dirtyharry stated it's gettin' some lovin'. LOL

Thee tins are going out for paint as soon as he gets them scuffed up. A buddy is doing the paint for a great price but that doesn't include prep. I tried talking him out of it but he's going with black. I'm not against black HD's but I believe, there's too many out there already. I think he should go with a maroon or navy blue or anything different than black. What do you think? Am I being unreasonable?

 

Yes sir RudeDog, you are in a project but it looks like you can handle it.

On the black, I painted my perfect black RK for the same reasons you are talking about, black with some chrome is killer but I like to be different "my riding buddies tell me I'm different and not talking about bikes" I did keep the origional tank black and purchased another tank.

Make sure your buddy is aware of body work needs to be perfect for black and cleaning is temporary for that color. It is his bike and his decision but I'm with you on paint choices.

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence Bagger.

He's well aware of the prep involved and he's actually pretty good at it but, like me, he sucks as a painter.

 

rdog, long time no talk. i bet about 4 years. the last time i talked to you you were living somewhere off of web. ave. you still there? you still at PMF? i had a friend get layed off from there about a year ago. i changed the belt on my 85 but i didn't do anything with the swing arm pivot shaft. it was frozen in the trans. but i just took out the rear motor mounts and shifted the motor over. there was just enough room to get the belt in. you might want to check the splines on the drive pulley and on the main gear. if the splines are worn it's best to replace both. i have all the tools for changing the main gear if you need them.

 

Yeah, I'm still on Webster, no longer at PMF though (been about 3 years now). I'm doing custom fabrication at a small shop off of Finger road called ISI. It's a huge improvement over PMF, to say the least.

Back on topic...
This pivot shaft is not going to "tap out" like the manual says it should. My buddy took it to work to try and press it out, we'll see how that goes. Maybe you could come over and have a look at the pulleys and give me your opinion as to their condition? I'd appreciate it.

Good talking to you. I'll shoot you a PM with my address.

 

Another update:
I got the motor done. If you followed a link from bagger (He said he was going to send people here ) always remember to chase the threads before you reassemble the top end, or anything else that requires a torque wrench. By doing this your making your life easier and your motor happier by guaranteeing you get the proper torque on each bolt.



Here's another trick to torquing the heads down. The torque sequence in the HD shop manual doesn't always work. The best way I've found to do this is a 4 step torque sequence. Here's the link

Here's the completed engine:


Here's updated pictures of the bike: