The Chopper Compendium

hey there Willy! yeah, i'm making a little progress. got all my parts in and figured out the bob weight so i can balance the flywheels, so i should have the crank back together this week if things go well.

if so, i should be riding soon!

take care,
-dan

Cool....
Good to hear from you...
my daily ride is a 2010 Dyna that I got a good deal on,
a "Street Bob", a stripped down model.
But the rear motor group mount, called an isolator on these motors,
has broken, or the trans case mount for the isolator is broken, found out that happens,
but I have not dug into it yet to fix it, as my left hand is still pretty "all bust up" as they say here in Hawaii....
And that hand was just getting to the point where I could operate the clutch lever more than just 5 minutes
at a time, so was looking forward to getting in some riding time, and building up that hand with the clutch lever...
And I should be working on my projects, you know that feeling....
Take care my friend...
Willy

good to hear that your hand is getting a little better anyway. i hope it gets better much quicker so you can get back into the wind soon!

i was going to go out and balance my flywheels this morning, but there's a swap meet today at the foot of Mt. Fuji so me and the kids are gonna cruise over there in my 69 Squareback and see if we can score any good deals. i'll get started on the flywheels when i get back.

take care,
-dan

budoka wrote:......... so you can get back into the wind soon!.....

well, I have a "back up" bike, a 2010 Dynaglide FXDB "Street Bob" that I ride every day, or did until I wrecked my clutch hand, but it has recovered enough so I can ride for an hour or two before my clutch hand gives out. I used to go out and sit on that bike and work out my left hand on the clutch lever every day, trying to do a little more each day. Some days I had to give up early, but eventually got so I could ride around the block a couple of times and just went from there. I'm good for a couple of hours now as long as there isn't too much stop and go traffic involved.

One of my buddies wants me to convert the '62 to a jockey shift, which he thinks would be easier on my left hand, but I don't know, the '62 always ran a mouse trap clutch and that's what I plan to put back on it. Properly tuned, the mouse trap is an easy clutch to operate.

But I miss my old "chopper", rode that '62 nearly every day for 20 years, from '69 to '89. Down the cane haul roads to work every day at 5:30 am, with my plantation radio strapped on my belt. The cane hauler drivers were all my buddies and always knew it was me when they saw that single headlight bobbing up and down coming towards them. Those are private roads, the rigs are 12' wide, and haul 50 tons net sugar cane stalks down to the mill, working 24/7 on a 10/4 schedule during harvest season from March-December. I was the field engineer for the farm, 35,000 acres of drip irrigated sugar cane here on Maui. Been long retired now, but still have lots of friends down there. They are closing the doors at the end of this year, the last harvest after over 100 years in operation. Can't compete with the cheap Mexican cane sugar any more.
Willy

i finally got the knuck back together, fired up, heat cycled, and taken around the neighborhood on the first short ride. no problems so far other than being really hard to get started, but hopefully throwing away the champion D16s in favor of NGK AB-6s, rechecking everything on the mag and a little more tinkering with the carbs (as well as getting a little more familiar with what the engine likes to get it going now) will help that out.

plan on taking it out for about a 5 mile trip, cooling it down, checking it over, then out for 10 miles or so, and then keep repeating that 10 mile trip for a couple times a day for the next several days.

man, i really hope this works out. i've been working towards this for about the last 6 years or so, and some of you longer members probably remember all i've been through. maybe. this. time.

-dan

Good luck.

Thanks for posting.

well as usual things didn't quite work out the way i would have liked. got the knuck out and started kicking, hoping the new plugs and adjustments i made to the carbs, etc would actually make it easier to start and…

nothing, nada, zilch, and zip. a big fat zero. i mean, not even a cough or sputter. so i start the usual checks, and i discover that there's no spark whatsoever even though the night before i had spark (albeit not a fat blue spark like i would have liked, but a white spark).

after opening up the mag and checking everything, yep, you guessed it, the condenser was dead. and of course i don't have another one. and of course it's the New Year's holiday so the earliest i can get one (i ordered two actually) is on the fifth or sixth.

and my inspection certificate runs out on the 7th. and i have to work all day on the 7th.

SO, i'm just gonna go ahead and get the rest of the "inspection set" put on the bike, wait for the new condenser to come in, and not get in a hurry on the inspections. i'll take my time and get it all dialed in nice and starting easy, and then do inspections and ride (i hope).

i've waited this long, so i guess a bit longer won't kill me.

take care,
-dan

NAPA Echlin Part# FA49 Will make it run, I have used this one to get home in the past.
Dusty

that's definitely good info to hang on to. too bad that over here there aren't any Napa stores or even any real auto parts stores at all. the closest thing we have over here are stores that sell basically all the dress up stuff and steering wheel cover, audio stuff and jacks. about the only "real" parts you can get at the auto stores over here are brake pads, headlight bulbs, filters and oil. almost no one works on their own car, the whole culture is one of depending on "professionals" to do the repairs, whether it be at home or on the car. weird.

i'm still gonna keep that number, it'll definitely help someone out down the road. thanks!
-dan

Well........?

Yeah....
Well....?

Willy

well where do i even start?
got the condenser in.
kicker gear bushing started sliding in and out.
put in a new gear.
bushing in new gear shattered, damaged kicker gear in kicker cover.
thoroughly cleaned transmission out, ordered set of Baker gears.
new Baker gears finally arrive.
remove old gear from kicker cover, discover massive cracking in kicker cover that wasn't visible with gear in place.
order new kicker cover.
by the time kicker cover comes in and i get everything back together, it's time for another surgery on my wrist (July).
now that i'm well enough that i think i can actually start the bike, i start working on it late at night after i'm done with everything else in my crazy life so i can maybe finally ride this bike.
i recheck the timing and make sure the points are clean, get everything ready so i can start it up on Sunday (this past Sunday, the 24th).
on Thursday evening i start pissing blood (and having quite a bit of pain to go with it).
you probably guessed it, kidney stone. 5.8mm in my left kidney. probably gonna have to do surgery to get the bugger out.

so close yet so far. i'm still thinking i may try to start it up this coming Sunday if i'm not hurting too bad after my daughter's school sports festival on Saturday.

i swear i'm gonna ride this bike again someday.

really.

believe me.

take care,
-dan

See if you can find some place that does Lithotripsy (SP?) When they blew mine up (the size of walnuts) I went back to work the third day.
And back to motorcycles any time I use Jap plugs I read them with an ohm meter to be sure they aren't resistor. Got a set of NGKs for an Indian with a mag that were the same number I took out it wouldn't hardly start. When it got where it wouldn't start at all I read the plugs and they were resistor. Last I heard they were still cataloged as non resistor.
Dusty

what kind of readings should i get on the ohm meter?

i still have another set of new Champion D16s that i can throw in to check just to be sure.

the wife and kids are going out for the day on Sunday, so things are looking good for a "bike day."

if it works out like i want, i'll post up for sure.

-dan

A normal ohm meter should read 0. If there is no resistor it is just a piece of wire. mags without impulse need as close to zero total secondary resistance as possible.
Dusty