Snippets

[harley506d]

You are blessed to have so many good friends mate!
Just a "heads up", there is a spring plate available with st steel rivets if you wanted a stock set up. About the same price as the stock one if i remember rightly.

[Crusty]

The Alto Heavy Duty Stainless Steel riveted spring plate is "Out of Stock". I'll get one eventually, but a regular duty plate should last the length of the trip.

[John Harper]

Originally Posted by Crusty

More Starbucks
P.S. I'm in a T-shirt. It's all I've needed to wear from the time I got up this morning. This weather is lovely!

We finally had one day of sunshine, first time in weeks. But, this morning it's cloudy again and a big storm due Tuesday. What a crazy winter we've had.

John

[Crusty]

It’s Officially Spring!


Today is March 21; it’s officially the first day of Spring. The Equinox was actually yesterday, but that varies because the Earth’s orbit around the sun is variable and the year has an odd number of days. That’s important, in many respects, but to me, it’s irrelevant. I just feel the hope and warmth of the new season. Things are starting to become green, where they’ve been brown for the past few months.

I put the catless mufflers on the Express on Sunday and I started it. They sound pretty close to the stock mufflers. I hope they run a lot cooler without the catatonic converters.
R.D. had welded up the oversized hole in the gloss black horn cover, so I also put that on.

I called Joe to let him know how pleased I was with the mufflers and had a long discussion with him about the top end noises I’m getting and I decided that the next step was swapping out the lifters.

I felt inspired enough that I went downstairs and started draining the oil, even though it was cold. I left the oil tank and filter draining and I think it should be completely drained by now. It’s been over 36 hours. After breakfast, I’m going to go downstairs and start on it. I also put the replacement lifters in a sealed container of fresh oil, so they should go right in and be functioning properly.

I’ve had a real resistance to starting on the job, because I’m tired of working on the bike. I just want to ride it. It seems like every time it looks like it’s done, something rears its head to cause more work.

I worked for Medtronic for a while, assembling O-Arms. The O-Arm is a remarkable medical machine. It takes 390 X-ray images in a circle around the patient and consolidates them into a 3D image. It has especially caused great progress in orthopedic surgery. We had built several machines and the hospitals that used them loved them. However, there was one machine that had nothing but problems. The techs would solve one problem, and as soon as it was cured, an unrelated problem would surface. This went on long enough that the hospital eventually got a replacement which worked fine. There was no reason why the first machine kept having problems. It had been assembled by the same team using good parts, but it just wouldn’t work right.

I’m starting to think that the Express is of the same mold. First, I had to transform it into a Sport-Tourer, and just as the last major mod was done, the engine started knocking. I put the rebuilt engine in the bike and the electronics started giving me fits. I changed out the wiring and put a carburetor on it, and now the lifters bleed down quickly and the engine doesn’t sound right.

If changing out the lifters doesn’t fix it, I think I’m just going to do a major swap of components with the Cussed’em and I’ll ride that North. I want a bike that’s as solid and reliable as an Anvil. 2006 is a notable year for reliable Sportster engines and the Cussed’em has been pretty much trouble free, so I could swap out the suspension, wheels and sheet metal and ride that. That would leave me time to get the Express sorted after the ride to Tuk and I wouldn’t be worrying the whole time I was on the road.

Anyhow, I’m going to take it one step at a time. I’ll change out the lifters and see if that cures things. If not, then I’ll get started on the Swap Over.

One way or another, I’m going to ride to the Arctic Ocean.

[brucstoudt]

you put a carburetor on a 2016 rubber mount? that sounds like something i would do.. if all else fails.go back to the drawing board.

[Andy56]

If the pushrods were swapped would it be that the inlet valves wouldn't close fully and the exhausts won't open fully?

And therefore the engine wouldn't even run?

[Crusty]

Getting Better


My leg isn’t hurting. This is the first time since before I went to Daytona that it hasn’t been aching. I think the Prednisone is doing the trick.

I had noticed that my leg was hurting a few weeks ago while grocery shopping with my brother. We normally shop on Mondays and we’ll hit a progression of places; Jungle Jim’s, Kroger, Meijer and sometimes, Sam’s Club. It’s an all day proposition, but we chase the best deals.

When it first started hurting, I figured it was just because we’d been walking on concrete floors all day long, but the pain went away after I got home and relaxed for the evening. Gradually, it got worse until it was a steady ache. When I went to Daytona, I had to use my cane to get around. I thought it was just my bad ankle getting worse. I’ve been told that as I get older, I’d probably have to start using the cane again, so I just resigned myself to that fact.

However, the pain was getting worse. It had started as an ache that went away after resting; but it got to the point that it was very difficult to find a comfortable position, even in bed, and my entire leg, from hip to mid-foot hurt like a toothache. It wasn’t the knee; although the knee hurt, sometimes it felt like either the muscles or tendons were pulling against each other, or they were pulling on the knee in opposite directions. My ankle, of course had the old, familiar pain that’s been there since the accident in ’97.

I also have had some problem with a tendon in my wrist. It was causing a lot of pain in my thumb. Once again. it was variable. Sometimes, it hurt at the thumb, and sometimes back in the wrist. When I last saw Dr. Quackenbush (not his real name) and told him about it, he said it was just part of being an old fart.

I haven’t been impressed with Hugo Quackenbush since I tried to see him during the Pandemic and he wasn’t seeing patients. He’s a Doctor who’s afraid to see sick people.

I asked David who his Primary Care Physician was and did he like him. He told me that he was very happy with her (she’s a woman) and he gave me the phone number to her practice. I called and she’s out until next week, but the practice has several other physicians and while giving them my information and explaining my problem, I was told to go to a Walgreens nearby to the clinic there. The clinic was part of their network.

I wasn’t very hopeful, but I really didn’t want to see Quackenbush and get told that I just need to accept the pain, so I went. I saw a Nurse Practitioner and explained what was happening. She was attentive to what I was saying and after she examined my leg and took my vitals, told me that Insurance won’t let me go get a Cat Scan or X-Rays (I can’t have an MRI because of the mechanical valve in my heart) until the basic steps were taken. She prescribed a regimen of Prednisone, and if the pain continued, she gave me a referral to an orthopedic practice.

I took the first two tablets yesterday morning and by afternoon, my leg wasn’t hurting as bad as it has been. It still hurt, but a bit less. I’m doing my usual wide awake at 4:00 AM, so I decided to write a Snippet about my leg because it’s pain free.

I’ve been reluctant to work on the Express because it hurt so much to do anything. Yesterday, my parts for the primary came in and I went to the Stealership and picked up a grenade plate, a chain adjuster shoe and a sealing nut. I think I’ll put those in later on today. I’ll take it easy and I’ll try to not cause my leg to hurt. I don’t want to cause any increase in pain or set the healing back. Slow and easy wins the race. Besides, we’re supposed to get a sh*tload of rain followed by winds gusting to 55 MPH for the next few days and I won’t be riding anywhere, anyhow.

I’ve been writing this for the past hour or so and my leg hasn’t hurt and even my thumb isn’t hurting. Life is looking a lot better. Now; I think I’ll go back to bed and get some more sleep.

[sportsterpaul]

Good for you John, on both fronts, this getting old ain’t easy!

[Crusty]

Yes; Sometimes I Do Dumb Things


Just for the record; I overdid it by a large amount. I knew when I should stop because my leg was really letting me know; but I got caught up in doing just one more thing, because I don't want to forget I didn't do it. Enough one more things and then it was all done. I started the bike and I wasn't hearing any unusual noises. The clutch works smoothly and the primary chain is adjusted as it should be.

I wrote down the date and mileage and what I'd done in the logbook, then I put the tools away and decided that I might as well fix the garage door. I could do that while standing upright, so it shouldn't hurt the leg any more that it was hurting. I was successful and I don't think I hurt the leg any more than working on the bike did. That’s not true. I think that at the least, I extended the amount of time it will take to get better. I went upstairs and hit the recliner for a bit, then fixed dinner.

The pain has eased, but not completely. I hope I didn't do anything really bad to it. I knew when I should stop, but I just wanted to leave things so I wouldn't screw anything up. It's part of the way I work, I guess. I really hate to leave a job unfinished once I start on it. I'll stall off starting for a long while, but once I start, I don't want to quit until I either run out of time or the job is done.

Anyhow; I promised my brother David that I'd take it easy tomorrow and do as close to nothing as I can. He was a bit pissed off that I acted as stupidly as I did. I had talked to him on the phone as he was cooking his dinner and he let me know his opinion in no uncertain terms. However, he’ll still stop at the Supermarket tomorrow while he's out and about and pick me up some Brioche rolls. I miscalculated on how many I needed to get through Monday morning.

So Tomorrow, I'm going to just hang out in the recliner and maybe read a book or watch a movie. I won't be working on the bike.

If you believe that, you’re even more gullible than I am.

[sportsterpaul]

John, we believe anything you say!!!