starting a thread so i can get some help identifying what exactly i have. i will be taking pics (not tonight we have 3 inches of ice outside!) and posting them so maybe somebody can help me decifer what is going on.

here is a little background. PO said it was a 81 FLH, but what i have found is it had a 21" front wheel with small fender, and the rear fender had a "kick up like a newer softtail". this was from the PO's father.

what it has now is 16" wheels front and rear (mags), FLH style fenders. paughco frame (so OG vin is gone i guess), motor shows as an 81 FLT, 5 speed trans, rear brake (which locks up) is a 2 piston, front brake is a single disc (but he gave me a caliper for the right side which has NO disc??).

what the bike needs is rear brake fixed, front brake doesn't stop bike as caliper moves a ton around on the mount. the shocks on the back are so soft i can compress them fully by hand, forward controls are crappy, and dash does not fit the 3.5 gallon fat bob tanks.

the motor tho is fully rebuilt (with reciepts from thunder bay cycles in florida), runs great.

 

What you have is a mess... Who knows what happened in the last 30+ years. All you got original is the motor, and maybe tranny. 81 VIN should be on the frame - idk about OK, but in CT you would need to get a new DMV-assigned number, and need to provide them paperwork for motor, frame and tranny. Plus get a full safety inspection. Good luck. Joe

 

i have a title for the bike (vin is off paughco frame), no problems there, and insurance was a breeze.

what i need to do is full brakes, but don't know exactly what is on the bike as pics of stock flh or fxwg do not look like what i have on the bike currently. also the motor looks a little different than what i have seen in pics. it seems that most shovels i've looked at have a oil line (small) running from case up to head. mine has 2 lines going from the case to each head.

i am with you about it being a mess. but hey, i've been rebuilding aircooled volkswagens for 25 years i'm kinda used to mixed and matched parts and PO "fixing" things!!

my ultimate goal is to have a reliable riding bike for short trips around. i've had a couple back surgeries so my long trip days are pretty much over.

 

if you have a set of factory parts and service books you need to research the parts you have and cross the info to include pictures -- with out pictures no one can help you as you are not using OEM part numbers and using FL FLT FLH FXST as names and they all are different with in the years - the caliper sounds like an FLT 5 speed type being 2 pistons as the FLs of that era are one BUT again --

the guys on this site have a much better grasp on year verses fit / and cross over what will work and how on this bike verses that bike BUT pictures are going to be your bail out - jz

 

anybody have any idea what caliper this would be? does not have any numbers on it anywhere!!

 

 

The caliper appears to be 40917-81, stock on '81-'84 FLH/FLHS/FLHT/FLHTC. The caliper hanger is not HD.

 

ok i have looked at your pictures - what i see is a 1980 / 1981 FLT tour glide motor and 5 speed trans, front / rear wheels, forks with one brake on it , rear brake as well

all of this was fixed mounted to a FLH type frame < give away is the brackets that were made for the trans to support it just in front of the swing arm - the top and bottom trees look to be FXST type maybe -

question what does it drive like -- it might be perfect or it might not be ?????? - jz

 

ok, thanks guys. rear brake stock 80-81 flh rear caliper. i'm going to buy a new one, along with the lines. also want to swap out the controls as they are in SAD shape!! check out the awesome homemade brake arm!



on the front, i would like to go back to a dual disc setup, but i am planning on swapping to a 40 spoke wheel and not really sure if i should stay with 1 disc or go duals. the caliper on the front now has a ton of slop in it where it mounts to the forks. since i don't have my manuals yet i'm not exactly sure how it is supposed to mount. it seems there should be spacers or something in there but there isn't any right now. the caliper has about 1/4 inch movement to/away from the rim on the fork mount!! also rocks back and forth about 1/8 inch in the mounts. i would think bushings in the fork holes would fix the back/forth, but spacers maybe between caliper and fork mount to fix in/out play??

 

btw john, the bike rides really well. at least for a short time. it tracks straight, seems very solid, and doesn't make any weird noises (other than the front caliper popping around). the rear brake will slowly tighten up and lock the rear wheel when it gets warm. as for the motor/tranny i was wondering since the motor was a FLT if the tranny was a stock HD unit that was 5 speed from the factory? i couldn't find any numbers on the tranny itself, but honestly i don't know where to look. i just searched the places i could see.