I'm trying to compare the look of my 77 with fat bobs or the one piece superglide tank but I am not sure how all the mounting pieces work. Did harley really use a spring to hold the rear of the tank down? Where does the horseshoe go? in front of the fat bob mount? is there a better way to mount the superglide tank?

 

yes the spring clips to the frame around the back of the tank. here's a picture that I took of my bike when I removed the tank. The bike had dual tanks originally, but someone changed it to the single tank. It was sort of a hack job, unfortunately. I'm not sure why they bent the middle tabs inward, I suspect they hit, and aren't on superglide frames? The yellow thing is a kitchen sponge. I'm pretty sure that's not stock...

 

Damn...there goes the warranty!

 

they still sell those parts and the back of the tank on an fl set up for some reason beat he bottom of the tank up - reason for the yellow sponge tire tube rap

in the after market THEY did have a look alike that bolted on like the original twin tanks it was sold by Paughco in carson city NV 89706 -- 800 423 2621 my catolog is from 1993 / 94 so not sure how good whats in it is still available the numbers in the book run from 805 to 821 and some have A B and C after the numbers i do not know if they are on line with the book --

 

I believe the original mounts had 2 L-brackets that mounted to the rear seat mount that elevated the rear of the tank so it would not hit the mounting tabs. So the spring clips to the tank and wraps around the frame tube? 1 spring right? I know this is not rocket science but understanding the factory specs means we can usually improve on the original design.

 

correct - but most had issues with it