Technical Resources

Technical resources and hardware cross reference spreadsheet

State of affairs come August

After struggling with the electrical for about 6 weeks I gave up and dropped the bike at RPM Attack in Glendale. That was on April 15th. The bike has now been at this shop for 3 months for the turn signal fix. I am a bit fed up and have told Chris at RPM Attack that I will be picking up the bike this Wednesday done or not or whatever. He seems like a nice guy and the work that he's done thus far is decent but he's told me "the bike will be done by this weekend" for about 9 weeks in a row and I'm over it. 

The bike will be coming home this week. After which it will be time to do the following:

1. Assess how much progress Chris made and try to get the signals working if they are not already.
2. Add spacers and pegs to come off the luggage brackets. 
3. Replace the kickstand with one that is not bent.  

Electrical hell cont'd

I struggled for ages with the electrical and made all these charts. Please contact me through the site if you'd like me to send you any of these wiring diagrams I made with the overlays. I isolated most systems. 

electrical hell

I'm posting this retroactively but I struggled with the electrical from January to March this winter/spring of 2018. 

The harness was way too blasted to be used and I replaced it with a new one from Bikerpartsuperstore.com It's a good piece of gear but I had some issues.

The FXR's were made with all kinds of different configurations and the harness will have to be modified to suit the ignition, dash and key/switch layout of this bike. 

I would very much like for the original turn signal cancellers to work. My first bike had these and I loved them. It was super intuitive to signal left with left thumb and right with right thumb and I loved that they self-cancelled.

12/04/17- Electrical

I've spent the past week sorting through electrical issues. I had been pressure washing the bike between intake and pipe installations. I was doing this to gradually get all the crappy rattle can paint off the engine but I think I shorted something as my ignition stopped getting spark. 

I'm running an Ultima ignition with what I believe to be a single fire coil. This is good because it's simple and supposedly pretty stable and high quality. I have discovered, however, that I am missing the Vacuum Operated Electrical Switch which is supposed to advance the timing at higher RPM's. Will think about adding later but for right now will try to get bike back on road. The Ignition wire sleeving was eaten through by some of the solvent I was using to peel the paint. This is frustrating. 

The wiring on the bike currently is a bit of a joke. Lots of things missing including the ECM, turn signal canceler, and others. The front of the harness by the controls has a bunch of quick splice connectors and the whole thing is covered in heat shrink and huge soldering bumps. Against the advice of Jackson at Lucky Wheels I have decided to gut the harness and replace with new rather than chase down the spark problem. This will involve the following:

1. Take out old main harness and re-run new.
2. Add turn signal canceler. 
3. Re-sleeve Ultima Ignition Harness and test voltage and continuity. 
4. Build/repair control/switch harnesses with Multi-lock connectors. Research has led me to Namz as the only supplier for the original connectors for Harley 1971-1995 are called "Mate-n-lock" and I can't find them anywhere else. The good news is they are relatively easier to deal with and cheaper than Deutsch or later Molex. 
5. Re-adjust ignition timing. 
6. Fire up and ride into sunset??? 

11/26/17- Jets

Spent a good while yesterday going through some things. Couldn't get the bike started at all but I think it's due to a bad battery which was killed by wailing on the starter and trying to crank it over and over last week. I took the carb apart and looked at where everything was set. It was set to stock jetting. Because of the big sucker and 2-1 pipe I am thinking it needs to be jetted richer. I moved everything one setting richer while in there and will see what happens when the new battery comes. Now running a 162.5 main jet, 27.5 pilot jet and circlip on "4" setting for the needle. 

In other news I think I finally have all the parts I need. I got some stock police bags and rails today off craigslist and the shift linkage and everything else has arrived. I will still need a new windshield and a couple other bits and bobs but overall the main shopping is over. 

Wednesday will setup with a new battery and see how it runs with slightly richer carb settings. 

11/20/17- Pipe

I put the Supertrapp megaphone pipe on earlier this week. I had a little difficulty lining everything up and I suspect some issues with the spacers for the mounting post. At any rate, it's on but the bike isn't liking the current jetting and air flow, it will not hold idle. I have ordered a Mikuni jet kit and will be addressing this after Thanksgiving. The shifting into first problem has been nagging at me in the back of my head and I suspect there might be an issue with the floorboards or some other simple mechanical problem that is preventing the shift lever from being depressed all the way. I am thinking about testing without the board but I also ordered a shift lever that sweeps up slightly. Anyway, will keep posted on progress. 

11/15/17- Intake Install

I got the air cleaner on today. Arlen Ness Big Sucker Stage 1. I also put in a new rubber boot between the carb and manifold. I took the thing for a spin and it's still backfiring but very rarely compared to last week. I think the new pipe might fix it altogether but shall see. Shifting into first is still a huge pain in the ass but I'm wondering if I can bend the shift lever up or some other adjustment. 

11/11/17- The Jackshaft Pt.2

I found the coupling! It was lodged above the drive belt. The belt was spinning in the direction of the engine so it was rolling around in there and not falling out. I buttoned it all up and took it out around the block. The rattling is gone from the crank and the shifting is way better. Still a bit hard to get it into 1st from neutral but only really when standing still. It's still backfiring a bit and I want to get to the bottom of that. I will be working on the air and fuel next. 

1. I will install a Supertrapp pipe. Got one off Ebay for $375. 
2. Install Big Sucker Stage 1 intake about $150. 
3. Replace and refit all rubber surrounding carb, intake and manifold.

11/10/17- The Jackshaft

I thought I had everything buttoned up today to take it for a shake down but I pushed the starter and only heard a fast spinning. The starter wasn't engaging. After pealing everything off again I found out, with the help of Jackson, that I hadn't installed the coupling. The coupling (10) that engages the starter motor spline with the starter jackshaft spline. It's part number 31548-90 for 1993 FXR's. If I had been more experienced I would have known when the bolt (1) wouldn't tighten down enough that something was wrong. I thought I was being meticulous with my parts but I straight up lost this one. Back to the shop tomorrow to scrape the ground with a flashlight and magnet. New part is about $15 from JP Cycles. Ever onward... 

11/9/17- Primary Drive

Today I cracked into the primary drive and found the likely cause of the rattling. The compensator sprocket nut was not even finger tight. Manual specifies over 100 ft lb's of torque. I'm still waiting on the primary gasket to arrive but then should be putting the thing back together and take for a spin. Didn't re-index the shift lever on the inner primary but I think I got it more snug by tightening up everything else properly.

Hopefully with the vacuum cap leak plugged, the shifting tighter and the compensator sprocket and primary chain tightened up the bike will run well tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

11/8/17- The Healing Can Begin

I bought a 1993 FXR-P last month. I bought it in Richmond and then shipped it back to LA. The bike arrived at Lucky Wheels Garage this week. It's in worse shape than I remembered and yesterday was all about beginning to list the issues. The first task will be to get the bike running well, then make it look nice and get it set up to be strong running and comfortable tourer. Brian Sloma, from Spirit Lake Cycles spent some time with me going over the likely issues. Thank you! The first problems to note are as follows:

1) Rattling noise coming from left side crank case. This is likely merely a loose primary chain. I tightened it but it's nearing the point of bottoming out the tensioner. Might need to replace soon. 

2) Backfiring at speed. Brian thinks this is most likely just a leak from the vacuum cap on the carb or the intake manifold. 

3) Shifting is not great, especially into first. Will tighten up shift linkage. Threaded rod adjustment is bottoming out so will need to be re-indexed on the knurled lever behind the inner primary. Might be taking off the primary tomorrow.