I got the front brake on the Sportster taken care of yesterday. The previous owner had purchased a braided steel line, new pads, seals and piston for the caliper. I bought a grade 8 bolt for retaining the caliper and a fresh bottle of fluid. Didn't take too long to get it bled and the lever feels good. I'll see how it works once I get her rolling. I also hooked up the throttle cables and checked a couple of other things. I left the S&S carb on it. I figured it was running with it before so it should run with it now. If all goes according to plan, I can swap it out or tune it as need be later. I need to double check the timing. I didn't check it with the ignition advance opened up. I've got a buzzer to hook up to the points which will make that a little easier. Not much left to do before I try and light it off. At the rate I'm going I'll get it going and sorted about the time to mothball it for winter, however.
I've been getting out on my bicycle as well as my motorcycle. I had an appointment to check on some life insurance stuff and was able to ride the SV yesterday for that. Another beautiful day to be out, so I meandered through the country on the way home on some of the old roads I used to ride when I had my Sprint back when. I would have liked to have spent the whole day in the saddle but I needed to get home to do some chores and I wanted to finish up the brake on the Sporty. I still had time to ride the bicycle for a bit after dinner. It was definitely a day made for two wheeling.
2 comments:
If memory serves, the previous owner had problems with the bike running correctly. According to Joe, the issue seemed to stem from the timing bushing in the case being all wallered out. As a result, the ignition timing was inconsistent and could not be set properly. The aforementioned previous owner was unaware of this and purchased the S&S carb to solve the problem. It did not solve the problem of course, but at least this carburetor was 'Merican and bigger so it had to be better. This does not mean the S&S won't work just fine but opinions vary on the efficacy of S&S carbs compared to the stock mixer on a completely stock Sportster.
Just a heads up on the history as I know it.
Thanks for that. The way things are going I might just finish putting it together and mothball it until next year anyway. No way I'm going to try and kickstart that thing with my back being what it is now, plus I need to get the concrete poured soon.
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