I decided to go through the bike so I stripped it down to see if there were any hidden issues under the tons of stuff that came on the bike. I put a cheap solo seat on it and have a minor S&S rebuild kit coming. The ejector nozzle o ring was not there when I removed the float bowl on the bench, so good find there.
Discovered the clutch cable was routed incorrectly, the clip on the bar clamp cover wasn't there so I put one on. This keeps the cable from getting squashed against the tank when the bars are on the left stop. This lifted the clutch cable from behind the shifter linkage, it was wearing out the outer cover of the cable. Went to move the shifter and the linkage came out of the shifter. The C clip that keeps the linkage connected was missing and the clutch cable that was behind it was actually keeping the linkage attached. Another good find.
I pulled off the chain guard to get a good look at things. While peering in towards the trans sprocket I thought I saw an old dirty rag stuffed in there. Oh boy, 1st thought was this was to disguise a sprocket shaft seal leak. This is what I pulled out of there.........

Yes those are giant chucks of granite. They were landed between the chain and the trans case and pulled out with ease. I imagine they would have eventually ruined my day.
Cleaned the underside and found that the primary is not isolated. There was an occasional drip of oil hanging down off the chain lube hose, figured just run off from somewhere.
It kept reappearing, turned out the 3/16 hose was seamed and the seam had opened up. The business end of the hose at the chain was buried in 1" of oil,sand, and crude as it sits directly in front of the rear tire. I just shut off the feed at the pump.
Pulled the battery cover off to check things out and found a sealed battery dated 2/21, nice..... didn't expect that. I cleaned up the connections and grounds, they weren't bad.
Found the rear fender had experienced an acid bath at some point so may have to pull the fender to mitigate, acid appears to have been neutralized long ago as baking soda had no affect.

With the solo seat I can flat foot the bike now. I plan to used it for a short while as I road test the bike.

I know some of you guys are disappointed that I took the bike apart but fear not ............It will be going back together to it's original glory without the bear trap. I have a frame mounted flex seat on the way complete with grab bar, back rest and bracket for attaching it to the rack, thank you Architect.
IMHO The bike has lost it's personality without the bags, guards, fairing and light bars.

 

Aesthetically, it looks so much better with all of the "garbage barge" crap removed. That is 18 year old me talking.

But today it looks so much more authentic and period correct with the stuff.

Carry on.

 

I think they look good either way. Those long mufflers have got to be hard on the mount bars though.

 

If I were to keep it stripped down the rear directional bar would have to go along with the aux lights and directionals on the front. I did see that someone mounted the front directionals on the bars like my FXR, The crash bars would need to go too. Then it would look good.

With the bags on they don't look that long but yes there is a lot of leverage going on there, the chrome brackets that hold the muffler body to the frame are STOUT. I had to loosen the mufflers and turn them sideways for the massive light bar to come off. I'll be cleaning up the wiring on that as some stupid used non sealed butt splices. I figured I'd pull the mufflers and brackets at that point and polish everything up on the bench. I lubed up the throttle and clutch cables just now, I was able to slide on some heat shrink tubing on the clutch cable to cover the worn spot caused by the shifter linkage rubbing on it.

 

Your front auxiliary light/turn signal mount is really way out there, I wonder if that is stock for your year.

Here is mine, tucked much further back making it look better without the windshield. maybe with the fairing it needs to stick out further, VS the windshield.

 

I just consulted the parts catalog for FL models 1941-1984 and the bracket on my bike is correct. The spots are tipped forward to clear the fairing, yes.

 

I removed the battery to get at the spot on the rear fender that had been damaged from battery acid. Here is what I found.

Notice the home made lug for the + battery connection.........the stupids were hard at work here but there's more

Now that would ruin my day prob far away from home. That is the hot side of the start relay right off the circuit breaker. Funny that the bike started flawlessly the dozen or so time I started it up.
there is more...

Down stream from the start solenoid here is the same hot wire that apparently got good and hot, the contour of the burn mark fit perfectly against the rear exhaust pipe. There is a bracket that keeps the oil lines and this wire harness from hitting the exhaust pipe, who ever was in there did not see or understand the importance this bracket.

Here is a close up of the homemade battery cable lug made from thin copper flashing, you can see it was just folded around the wire. The start circuit can be 75-80 amps, more if things are not clean. Maybe this lug is actually a fuseable link to stop starter run on should it happen!!



The good thing is I'm getting real familiar with the bike and will fix these issues before they leave me stranded somewhere. I actually had no idea the start relay was under the battery tray.

 

apart from the seat and pipes i like it. red suits it

 

Yeah ,same hot wire on my '82 FLH was chaffing up against the down tube and the oil tank, and that was from the factory !