Winter refresh project

[Mr. Wright]

It's that time of year, to start doing mods, or repairs, or repaint. This way you can keep your mind on your bike and not on the sub zero weather out side.
Yes I'd rather be riding, but sometimes you need to do a little loving on the bike.
Every two years, I do a major tear down of my bike, to repaint, and polish and detail all the spots you can't quite get to when it's together.
So goodbye to the toxic green smoke.



Some of the things I'll be updating will be....
New rear pulley from Don and Donna.
The new one is a lot heavier, and Teflon coated.



Revamping some of my electrical system.
Apparently, I must have been drinking when I wired some parts of it the first time.



Polishing all the aluminum, will take a month by itself.
And fab skid plate or something on the bottom of the primary.



Here's my new foot pegs. Went back with the stock look, just a little longer. Got the rubber bands for them, from the Kaptin.



The rear fender and lighting, needs some big help.



Other things that needs done are, new compression releases, rocker boxes, engine gaskets, and I'm going to send a few things off to get them chromed.
I'll keep you posted on the progress.

 

[Jwooky]

Wow that's a lot! Good luck!

 

[CHOPTOP45]

Nice work!

 

[SKOGDOG]

Always fun to see what you're up to, Shannon.

 

[francoblay1]

See! I never understood why some of you guys complain about the cold weather.... at least you have time to do things to the bike instead of just riding it!

 

[FrankBDPS]

That's a lot of work. Good luck!

 

[Nukeranger]

Nice work. I like the way you put the date on the battery. I wish I would have done that because I am always wondering what was that installation date?

PS I'll have to learn to make foot pegs. Bucket list item.

 

[Razorback]

Shannon the nice thing is you know it will look kick ass come spring.

 

[Mr. Wright]

Shannon the nice thing is you know it will look kick ass come spring.

Yea, and if were going to ride together this year, I'm going to have to do everything I can to look better than your. :up:

 

[BWG56]

Shannon,
Now don't get your panty's in an uproar its just a question:lol: Is there a reason why you have a lead acid battery in there as opposed to an AGM? Just curious

 

[Razorback]

Yea, and if were going to ride together this year, I'm going to have to do everything I can to look better than your. :up:

Its all about the ride brother.

 

[Mr. Wright]

Shannon,
Now don't get your panty's in an uproar its just a question:lol: Is there a reason why you have a lead acid battery in there as opposed to an AGM? Just curious

Well Ker, #1, it's what the Kaptin sold me, and #2, I guess I need to be edumacated on the AGM. My mind is going buzt-buzt-buzt.

 

[Oscar Maldonado]

YOWSA!!!!

All in all, Still a neat job!:up:

 

[BWG56]

Well Ker, #1, it's what the Kaptin sold me, and #2, I guess I need to be edumacated on the AGM. My mind is going buzt-buzt-buzt.

My experience in past years was the lead acid would cause corrosion on the terminal connections, then you would wash it off with baking soda and water. I had a Metric before the Dog and it always had corrosion on it, but it was mounted low so it would not leak down over anything below it. Even though they said it was a sealed battery, I could still add water after prying the cap off.
The AGM don't have the caps and are totally sealed and I have never seen corrosion on the terminal leads.
Maybe I'm all wet with my theory with today's technology in the battery's and the corrosion is non existent.

 

[Roaddawg]

I would do the same thing, except where I live in AZ the weather is so nice that I ride year round. No downtime, don't have to think about sub zero weather....

 

[Mr. Wright]

I would do the same thing, except where I live in AZ the weather is so nice that I ride year round. No downtime, don't have to think about sub zero weather....

Hay Bruce, didn't you get any of that snow last week?

 

[Mr. Wright]

My experience in past years was the lead acid would cause corrosion on the terminal connections, then you would wash it off with baking soda and water. I had a Metric before the Dog and it always had corrosion on it, but it was mounted low so it would not leak down over anything below it. Even though they said it was a sealed battery, I could still add water after prying the cap off.
The AGM don't have the caps and are totally sealed and I have never seen corrosion on the terminal leads.
Maybe I'm all wet with my theory with today's technology in the battery's and the corrosion is non existent.

Ok, I'm with you now. Yes I would agree with that, to a point. I haven't had any problems in many years, and I clean on my bike all the time, so it doesn't get a chance, unless it over heated or something. I do thank you for your concern. :up:

 

[Mr. Wright]

Ok, I got started today. I think what I'm going to do is tell why something needs changed or fixed, and show what I did to take care of it. Someone might have a similar issue, and looking for an idea.
A lot of the stuff I'm going to be fixing, are things I rushed through the first time.
I'll refer you to one of the short stories:
http://www.bigdogbiker.com/forums/dog-pound/54857-short-stories-pt-9-a.html
This story is true, but had to be shortened so not to bore the reader to death. In reality, I was well into this project before I decided to buy her. and the guy I got her from had done some stuff before he gave up.
One of the things he did was mount rear fender, but he didn't have a seat, so he just put it where it looked cool to him.


As you can see it is way to low in the back, and every bump the tire rubbed. And it ate out the Frenched in brake light. and bowed the struts in and tore the wires off the tail lights.





Now here is where my problem comes in. The stock seat, or any other seat for that matter would not fit, so I had to make the seat, pan and all. Now to refit the fender my seat won't fit.
The solution I came up with was to remove the front and rear fender strut bracket bolts and pivot the fender on the center bolt. A small amount of modifying to the sissy bar let the rear of the fender raise up a full one inch. And I adding 1/4'' thick strips of rubber to the front of the fender, under the seat, this added the support I needed, where the seat set on the rear fender.





Now for the hole I have in the rear of the fender, instead of patching it, I think I'll just sculpted the fender.



Any comments, good bad or ugly are welcome.

 

[pauldeepsea]

Love working on them. I am on my second rebuild. I honestly hope this is my last.
One thing that helped me was taking pics and videos on the teardown

 

[Mr. Wright]

Update:
Didn't get a lot done this week. Finishing up, painting OPS.
Picked up some green LED accent lights, My stuff for the paint job came in and the stuff from the Kaptin should be here tomorrow.
Picked up a GoPro today. It was a toss up between getting the wife a new 9mm, or the GoPro, and decided the GoPro was cheeper.
Striped the bike down some more, and got the rear fender ready to cut, and laid out for paint. Still have to get my Angel printed on something clear, but she looks like she should fit good on there.