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The tool to ream out the breather bore is too expensive for your purpose. Jims or S&S is $600.00 and then you need the guide$$$ You have to bring the case to a machine shop that works on engine cases. They will be able to let you know if the scoring is too deep.
That safety wire on the inner primary is **** poor but the tensioner shoe is correct. I know some guys will flip it the other way to get more miles out of it. I think I paid 10.00 at HD for a new one.
This is what my safety wire looked like when I got my bike back from a recent rebuild.
I see someone put a 5 finger clutch hub in there,stock would have been a 3 finger,I did the same swap in mine.
Love this thread,I'm dying for another FXRS having owned one for ten years and 100K+ miles.
I remember in the '82 model year when these came out,having read an article in Cycle World and living just a block away from a dealer I went and looked at the first one they got in and drooled over it profusely.
Times were tough in '82 with the Jimmy Carter era recession still not over and buying one was out of reach for me.
It took a few years but eventually I got my FXRS, a low mile (5K) used early '84 first year Evo.
Man I miss that bike!
Brings back a lot of memories,I bought a Barnett wet or dry clutch disc set and sealed the primary getting rid of the chain oiler and return line and just ran a little ATF in the primary case to lube the chain.
Also got rid of the crankcase breather hose to the air cleaner and just vented it under the engine with a simple hose clamp and filter.
That took care of the oil fouling of the air filter and smoking like hell when I got on it down a nice straightaway.
Man I miss that bike. lol
The tool to ream out the breather bore is too expensive for your purpose. Jims or S&S is $600.00 and then you need the guide$$$ You have to bring the case to a machine shop that works on engine cases. They will be able to let you know if the scoring is too deep.
That safety wire on the inner primary is **** poor but the tensioner shoe is correct. I know some guys will flip it the other way to get more miles out of it. I think I paid 10.00 at HD for a new one.
This is what my safety wire looked like when I got my bike back from a recent rebuild.
There's more than one reason to flip the adjuster shoe. When I went to a smaller compensator gear by one tooth, flipping the shoe made up for the extra slack in the primary chain..
Just a thought about safety wire from a guy who has worked in the aircraft mechanic world for over 40 years:
The wire should pull the nut or bolt in the tightening direction at a minimum angle of approx 30 degrees.
The second twist (the short pigtail) should be twisted in the opposite direction from the first twist.
Leave the pigtail long enough to bend in half, then tuck it out of harms way. A pigtail that is sticking out straight is a nasty thing for your fingertip to encounter.
Use .032" wire, you don`t need to use stainless lock wire in this application, but for guys who don`t do this all the time, stainless has a smooth surface and is much easier to work with.
Last edited by Dan89FLSTC; Mar 22, 2020 at 07:52 AM.
The tool to ream out the breather bore is too expensive for your purpose. Jims or S&S is $600.00 and then you need the guide$$$ You have to bring the case to a machine shop that works on engine cases. They will be able to let you know if the scoring is too deep.
That safety wire on the inner primary is **** poor but the tensioner shoe is correct. I know some guys will flip it the other way to get more miles out of it. I think I paid 10.00 at HD for a new one.
This is what my safety wire looked like when I got my bike back from a recent rebuild.
I never saw the bolts safety wired like this before - very interesting and it makes sense with the hole in the tab. Thanks for everyone's advice, it always helps. Years ago, I raced a stripped down Yamaha RD400 in the vintage race series at Loudon, NH so I am familiar with using safety wire on 'everything you don't want falling off' - we even had to wire the chain master link!
As far as isolating the primary, I will probably do that but maybe run fake hoses to the stock locations if I can figure out how to block them without it being obvious. We used to put bb's in vacuum hoses on cars. Oil is a different story though
It's nice not having those hoses running under the bike, clears thing up under there. Since you have the inner primary apart just remove the oil line fittings and install the appropriate plugs, simple. The vent line from the fitting above the oil pump can go right to the oil tank and not have a Tee going to the primary. My bike had plugs in the oil lines to isolate the primary and now that they are gone what a difference. I had spent hours under the bike when I first got it making sure the plumbing was right and it was a challenge to follow one line through the maze of hoses. Also every splice you make to add a plug in the hose requires 2 more hose clamps, I got bloody more that once while poking around under there.
I confirmed the case numbers match. All the more reason to save the breather. Somewhere in these numbers is a date code. I called HD Cares and they verified bike was built on Oct 15, 1981.
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