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So, my neighbor introduced me to the widow in El Paso via 3-way call, and after he hung up I asked her to please go out to the shed and read me the engine number from the bike. She did, and…
..yeah, it’s 1972, not a 1962—which of course means it’s a Shovelhead. It is indeed all there and much like the one pictured below. Blue and white, just as my neighbor remembered, and sounds like a very nice bike, but… not a Pan as he had recalled.
So, I’ve cancelled my ad (marked it as sold because I don’t know how else to do that). Told her to go ahead and list it for sale on the web, and thanked her for holding it for me.
It’s funny but I was out riding before the phone call, and really enjoying myself, looking down at that big ‘police special’ gauge clocking the miles, listening to the engine purr (I took off the fishtails, as it seems to run better without them), and was just experiencing some pangs of doubt as to whether I should just 86 the car and make the garage a ‘motorcycles only' parking space. I guess it's like the traditional kid’s story goes, “Don’t throw me in the briar patch, Brer Fox!” I’m ’stuck’ with a really cool ’51 FL that I thoroughly enjoy.
The other silver lining is that now the title has the engine number as the VIN. I had asked MVD to merely add the engine number in the field labeled ‘engine number' below the VIN, but looking at the receipt and temp title, the VIN field now contains the numeric portion of the engine number—so they changed it, apparently—and the engine number field has the full engine number, so beginning with 51FL. So, the bike is properly titled in a way that makes sense, rather than having a randomly assigned VIN.
If the title indeed shows up with the numerical portion of the engine number in the VIN field, I’ll have to contact Dairyland to change it in their system, or I’ll get one of those nasty letters that MVD is going to suspend my registration for ’no insurance’ on file…
Last edited by NM Pan-shovel; Jun 27, 2025 at 05:25 PM.
On the hot starts, I still suspect that S&S’s float bowl design for the Super E is what is contributing to (if not 100% responsible for) the vapor lock issue after a highway run. So, I tapped the bowl vent hole I had machined into my air cleaner base plate and installed a bolt. Then I removed the S&S’s auxiliary bowl vent allen screw from the carb.
With this change, when fuel vaporizes in the float bowl after a long run on a hot day—from both convection next to those big jugs and perhaps some conduction despite the phenolic spacer—I’m hoping the lion’s share will dissipate harmlessly via the aux vent, rather than creating a dense cloud of fuel vapor inside the air cleaner and carb throat, as happens now via the standard vent.
Now, I suppose that fuel vapor could still emerge from the bowl up through the jet, which I think (?) sits on the air cleaner side of the butterfly. There’s no way to deal with that other than to make a little rotating plate in the air cleaner lid to let it dissipate—you know, a disc with holes that match up with corresponding holes in the lid? Something like that.
But ultimately the reason that the Mikunis I run on my ’71 Bonneville never vapor lock, no matter how hot it is, is that until you twist the throttle and lift the needles out of their jets, there is no way for vapor to get from the bowl into the carb throat. The Mikunis have external bowl vents. S&S’s design, which is essentially like an old, side-draft automotive carb with an accelerator pump, suffers from this built-in issue.
Tomorrow, I’ll take a ride and see if switching to the external vent makes any meaningful difference!
Last edited by NM Pan-shovel; Jun 27, 2025 at 05:46 PM.
Oh, okay, thanks. Would you try anything different from what I am as a result?
Nope. It's worth a shot.. FWIW, if it is fuel vapors, what comes out of the main jet is way less then what cam come out of the float bowl.. Way less exposed surface area.
Nope. It's worth a shot.. FWIW, if it is fuel vapors, what comes out of the main jet is way less then what cam come out of the float bowl.. Way less exposed surface area.
Sound good. Yeah, that was my sense of it too. Im riding into town for some fork seals when Larrys Custom Cycles opens a bit later, so we will see if changing the vent location helps.
So, moving the bowl vent outside the air cleaner may have had a small impact, but unless you get it on the first kick, it still requires several kicks when sitting after an extended run on a warm day like today (86F).
However, the low-speed mixture was a bit on the lean side and evidently the vapor drawn from the bowl was adding a subtle amount of richness to the mixture while on the intermediate jet with small throttle openings under light load in 3rd or 4th. With the shift to the external vent, the mixture is now definitely too lean now under those conditions. I think the wide open air cleaner and free-flowing dual exhaust contribute to the lean condition. The bike runs noticeably smoother as I climb out of the Rio Grande Valley to 6,000 ft near my place and the air thins out.
So, when the engine cools down I’m going to install the next size up of intermediate jet. Tomorrow, I’ll readjust the idle speed and mixture, and run her into town again and see how she goes.
[QUOTE=NM Pan-shovel;22056075, but unless you get it on the first kick, it still requires several kicks when sitting after an extended run on a warm day like today (86F).[/QUOTE]
^ This has been my experience for over 50 years
Pans/ Shovels / Sportsters
Stock carb or not
esp. bad when you just make a 5 min fuel stop.
Nature of the beast
Last edited by eighteight; Jul 2, 2025 at 12:10 PM.
^ This has been my experience for over 50 years
Pans/ Shovels / Sportsters
Stock carb or not
esp. bad when you just make a 5 min fuel stop.
Nature of the beast
Yeah, I need to soldier up and quit my whining especially after watching those Youtube videos of 90-pound Japanese girls kicking their Knuckles, Pans, and Shovels. My kingdom for a girl like that
On the other hand, should I grow weary of the exercise, I can either install Russs right-side electric start (and convert it to hydro - not hard) or for less hassle and to retain the kicker backup, it looks to me like I could buy the core components of V-Twins York setup for just over $900 (dont need the chain stuff so the kit is unnecessary) and make it work with my BDL 1.5 belt primary.
Looking at the bits, I cant see any reason it wouldnt work with a belt rather than chain primarybut thatd be easy to verify by ordering just the clutch hub with starter ring welded onto it. Only risk is the restocking fee. Either theres clearance over the belt or not, and theres inboard-outboard room to affix the clutch onto the shaft or not. Hardly rocket science
Well, Id also have to either modify my oil tank for an anti-gravity lithium ion battery or buy Russs neat one to fit a regular style, larger battery. But no biggie. The thing is pretty hard to see once in place...
On the jetting: the .031 intermediate is better than the .0295 that was installedthough the latter was partly obstructed. Its so easy to R&R the carb and its always been a touch lean down in ABQ with the .0295 and my air cleaner and pipes, that I figured Id try it out. I installed an inline fuel filter to avoid getting my jets mucked up again.
Last edited by NM Pan-shovel; Jul 2, 2025 at 12:43 PM.
On the DIY modified York option, I wouldn’t even have to disturb the kicker cover. All I’d need to do is shift my hydraulic line’s final bend slightly, and move the spin-on filter. Neither presents any great difficulty.
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