I am starting this just so I can keep track of what all I have gotten done and as a reference for anyone else who tries to put one back on the road after 34 years.

History is in my intro thread. Here is the summary to date to get everyone caught up. I will try to keep things up to date from here on out. Unfortunately, I am doing this mostly by myself and find my hands too dirty to grab the phone and take pictures most of the time.

Starting out:
Replaced the battery
Put fresh fuel in the tank
Changed the air filter
Changed the oil and filter
Filled the transmission case

Couldn't get the starter button to turn it over. No sound no click no nothing

Removed the cover and used a big screwdriver to short across the solenoid, cranks and cranks but no start. Must be the points. Pull the cover and take some 600 grit to the points.

Cranking a little, spit and sputtered while i played with the choke and then.....


SHE STARTED!

Okay that was easy, probably not the case for every bike that sits this long but I will take what I am given.

Hmmm, rear wheel is spinning even in neutral with it up on the jack.
Also clunks pretty hard when I try to put it in gear Time to adjust the clutch.

Followed all the guides I could find online and in my service manual and it got to the point I could idle in gear with the wheel on the ground, but it would still spin even in neutral on the jack. Maybe the clutch will get better if I ride it a little.

Well before I ride it, I should probably fix the brakes. First things first lets do the front. Pull the cover off the master and its dry inside..... probably not a great sign but lets see what happens. Fill the reservoir and start to bleed the front cylinder. Getting some ugly looking stuff out but at least it is flowing, not building any pressure yet. I let it sit overnight and come back the next day. Bleed some more and I start to get a little pedal (what do you call that in a hand brake?) Cylinder moves and holds the front tire from spinning. Doesn't want to release. Time for some penetrating oil on the sliders. Another day, more oil and finally I have front brakes. Not great feel yet but they will stop the bike from rolling and release when I want them too.

Again that was relatively easy, now on to the rear brakes.

Take the cover off and there is chalky residue in the rear master. Cover it with a rag and blow out what I can with the air hose. Okay that's a little better. Remembering my success with the front I add fluid and try to bleed it. Pedal feels a little strange and no fluid at the rear. Okay let's take this step by step. I take the line off the front of the rear master cylinder and work the lever. Nothing at first, lets try pushing the plunger in a little further, so i take it loose from the pedal and put the pin back in with it in front of the pedal lever. I get a little fluid out but not much. So much for luck.

I take the cylinder off the bike just to make it easier to work on. Once off I manage to get all the guts out after liberal amounts of penetrating oil to loosen the crusty dried antique brake fluid. Great now that its out and clean, I can install a rebuild kit and be good to go. Call the local dealer and no kits available. I could order one online, but I am impatient, so close to being able to at least ride it around the yard....

Off to the hardware store to find a replacement for the o-ring that was torn. $0.48 cheapest "harley rear master cylinder rebuild kit" you will ever see. Cleaned the rest of it up as well as I could and put it all back together and onto the bike. Sure enough, it will pump fluid. Reconnect the line to the master and move to the rear wheel to bleed and see where we are.

Yep you guessed it, nothing comes out. Time to start back tracking. I take the line apart behind the engine where the hard line connects to the flexible line. We have fluid to there. Okay lets take the banjo off and see if we have fluid to the rear cylinder...... nada.

Strange but maybe I can get it working. I take the flexible line off and flex it all the ways I can think of. Spray brake cleaner in both ends and try again. Still no fluid through it. Okay I need a replacement. Again local dealer so don't have it, can't get it. Maybe a local shop can build be one? I call around most only sell hoses not build them. The one that does, doesn't have the right fittings. Curses, I have to order it now. Break out my handy dandy parts catalog and do a google search on the part number. Low and behold JP Cycles has one. Order placed.

I'm too cheap for overnight so we wait a few days.

Part comes in, and goes on the bike. Fittings are all correct but the OD of the new line is smaller than the old, so it will slip in the clamp that holds it against the rear drum. I can live with that for now. Start bleeding, yay! we have fluid going through the cylinder. I wash a little extra through and then tighten the bleeder to see if I have any pedal. (it really is pedal this time) Yay it feels like stepping on an over ripe peach but I feel something.

I try to spin the rear wheel, I feel a little drag. Okay, lets adjust the cam nuts. Okay they are adjusted, I try the brake again, a little firmer but now I can't rotate the rear wheel at all by hand. hmmmm readjust the cam nuts and still no luck. Okay must be the wheel cylinder.

I take the rear wheel off and can't seem to pull the drum off. Maybe I need to take it off the wheel? Well I don't have a 7/16ths hex key I can lay my hands on, so off to the store to get one. Get back with a set of impact hex keys ( the only set they had with the right size in it) and pull the drum off the wheel. Still can't get it apart. Some prying and penetrating oil (I seem to be using a bunch of this, I should pick up another can) and I finally get them separated. It looks PRISTINE. I take this as a good sign and pull one of the rubber boots off the cylinder. Probably not a good sign that it is full of powdered dried antique brake fluid and stuck to the piston. I try the other side, same condition. I take the cylinder off the side cover and use a pencil to dig out as much of the crust as I can. The piston is stuck and won't move. Now what? No not penetrating oil, I tried brake cleaner first. Still no luck, now the penetrating oil. Nope.

Time for drastic measures. I hook the cylinder up to the brake line and use my now functioning master cylinder to pump one of the pistons out. (Don't try this at home and when you ignore me and do it anyway, wear eye protection and old clothes). One piston out, so I can get the cup and the spring out. So far so good. Clean what I can and move to drastic measure number two. A C-clamp and socket to force the remaining piston back into the cylinder and out the other side so as not to damage the cup. (at least that was my thinking because I am pretty sure neither the dealer nor the hardware store is going to have one readily available) Out comes the cup and the piston. Amazingly the cups seem to be none the worse for wear. I clean everything up and reassemble the cylinder.

Bolt it back on the side cover, set the cam adjusters to minimum and reassemble the drum. While I have the wheel off, i repack all the rear wheel bearings. They have less than 14,000 miles on them so they are in great shape. I put the hub back on the wheel and the wheel back on the bike. Adjust the cam adjusters and bleed the cylinder.

And as easy as that we have rear brakes.

Ride it around the yard, things seem fine, so now its around the block, and a little further. There is more noise from the valve train than I like under load so......
Maybe the tappet oil screen is plugged up. Pull it out and clean it although it looked fine. No help so.....

Time to work on the hydraulic lifters. I start with the rear exhaust. Get the pushrod out of the way and pull the lifter up out of the tappet. It's shaped like a hydraulic lifter but nothing moves. Time to soak it in ... (no not penetrating oil) gasoline. Wash it well and try to pull the piston and spring out of the cylinder, not budging. More soaking, Tapping the piston on the bottom of the container, more soaking, finally able to twist them apart and clean things properly. Put it back together and piston springs up and down as it should. Put it back in, adjust the push rod. Move to the rear intake. Pretty much the same process...
Now for the front exhaust. Get the push rod out of the way and pull out the hydraulic unit, except it goes clunk and slips out of my fingers. I wipe things off and try again still won't come out. Okay I will try the front intake while I contemplate this. It behaves just like the two rear ones. Back to the front exhaust, twisting or trying to, pulling, tapping, nothing is working. Time to remove the tappet guide. Take out the bolts, bump it several times with a soft hammer and it comes loose. I lift it out carefully with the tappets inside. I slide the front exhaust tappet assemble down and out, paying attention to the oil hole orientation so I get it back in correctly.
Still can't get the hydraulic unit out of the tappet. More gas soaking and twisting and pulling and I finally get the hydraulic piston and spring out but the cylinder is stuck in the tappet. A little carb cleaner verifies that the oil passage through the tappet and into the hydraulic cylinder is open, so I just clean the piston and reassemble, sliding the tappet back into the guide from the bottom with the oil hole pointing the right way. Adjust both of the front push rods and turn the motor over several times by hand using the back wheel to make sure there isn't anything out of whack that would cause interference. Everything feels okay so.....

Time to start it up. Sounds better even at idle, no noise on startup, I guess turning the wheel had pumped up the lifters already. Let it idle a while and rev it a little all sounds good, except where did that puddle of oil come from? It seems that the antique cork seal at the bottom of the front intake push rod cover tube was leaking. I knew better than to reuse them but figured I would give it a try the didn't look "too bad". Well I called the dealership and believe it or not they have 50 of the lower cork gaskets but only 1 of the uppers. Since I have to take everything apart and readjust to replace them, I ordered a new set of silicone replacements that should get here next week.

Now everyone is up to date.

 

So while I am waiting on parts, I am trying to get the turn signals and brake lights working. I replaced all the bulbs and cleaned the sockets just on general principles but still no luck. So, I came in to look for the location of the flashers and search for any tips or troubleshooting ideas.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Flashers and a hornet's nest of wires are in the headlight bucket if I remember correctly ..

 

its a round or even a rectangle tin box usually

orange colored wires is the power in to the flasher = feeder wires left and right side blinkers brown and violet

 

So, the flashers were indeed behind the headlight. Small and rectangular. They should have been held in place by an orange rubber strip holding the metal clips that hold the flashers. Mine may not be representative of all, but the orange rubbery stuff didn't age well and broke apart. That wasn't all bad though because it let them drop down so that i could get them out without any disassembly. I cleaned the contacts on both and the hazard flasher that lights all four started working. No such luck on the turn signal flasher. I bought a generic standard life automotive flasher from the parts store for $4 and I have turn signals and flashers again. I will order the holder and proper square flasher later.

Poking around the headlight I noticed how oxidized and dull the nacelle cover looks. Does anyone have a polish they have used on the old harley aluminum that works better than others?

 

I used a lot of elbow grease and Neverdull and then some Mothers on top of that.. If it is pitted 2000 grit wet/ dry is how to get it back in shape .. Works on the rocker boxes too ..

 

I have used Wenol metal polish for years. It really does a good job making aluminum shine.

 

when i was looking for the rectangular flasher for my 85 it wasn't available. i went with the 552 round flasher and it works fine. i have used "mothers" aluminum polish to shine up aluminum and that works real nice.

 

My parts catalog is for FL models 1941 to 1984 so I don't have the part number for your bike, but the one for mine is:

68543-64b 65 to early 83 FL, FLH, FLH-80, Classic

and shows in stock a number of places when I do a google search on the part number

 

Quick update from yesterday, did some polishing/cleaning and took the instrument panel and tanks off in the process. Found lots of mud dauber (is that an oklahoma thing?) nests under there so it was good I cleaned.

Rocker boxes are looking better, but I still need to apply some more elbow grease. While everything was apart I took the bulbs out and cleaned the sockets, I now have working dash lights too.