Hey everyone!!! So I'm starting this thread to serve as a record of sorts, of this journey I have found myself on. I am a third generation Harley rider/owner. I rode my first Harley at the age of 21. Belonged to a friend of my Dad. Didn't get to own my first one until a dozen years later when I bought a brand new Night Train.
As life sometimes goes, family obligations and work get in the way, financial struggles appear, the number of kids increase and so do the expenses. After sacrificing my Night Train many years ago, with no replacement in sight, I suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, found myself with a 2005 Springer. Courtesy of my Dad. He bought himself a '95 Electra Glide. Picked up both of them, with Salvaged Titles (Insurance Company didn't want to fix them), for $4800. That was November 14. I didn't know I owned one until the 18th.
He's getting up there in the years, the medical issues are growing and he has one last wish; Own another Harley, spend time together building them, and put as many miles behind us as we can before he goes.
Initially, the amount of damage looked much worse than what it's turning out to be. She clearly sat outside for quite sometime before finding a loving home. Whoever owned it did some back alley shade tree Tijuana plastic surgery, and clearly had some misguided attempt at making a Bobber.
The thing that really pisses me off? When the front end was pulled off, which I can only imagine was wrecked and mangled, the bastards who did it simply cut the cables and wiring when they did it. ??? Really?
For some reason, they took the front end off of my Dad's bike and put it on mine between the time they took the photos for Craigslist, and him picking them up. She's getting another Springer.
This was a happy moment. I figured what the heck, so I turned the ignition and the dash lit up and I heard the fuel pump whine to life. That's Right; 11,658 miles...score!
Now, since that day, I have made the short drive out every Sunday to where we keep the bikes and I work on her. My Dad does the same. At this point, it's a lot of disassembling, assessing, figuring out what she needs, what can be salvaged/re-used and so on. I'm a Public School Employee and on Christmas Break for the next couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll get a few extra trips in to finish up what I need to as far as the frame and stuff go, but I also brought home a bunch of parts, like the tank, so I can start cleaning, repairing, refinishing and getting stuff ready to put back together.
I've spent countless hours, more than I think my wife appreciates I'm sure, going through the manual, microfiche at Ronnie's HD (partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche.com) getting part numbers, cruising Ebay, Amazon, JP Cycles, Revzilla, YouTube (for some how to's) and the like, pricing parts and accessories. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll start ordering parts in February. The following posts show what I've done since the week after they came home....
Week One, November 29: Started pulling things off. Started with the tank, which I made way harder than it needed to be. And messier. I forgot to bring my laptop and the thumb drive with the manual on it, so I had to wing it. Turns out there was way more gas in the tank and a lot fewer available containers than I thought. An emergency run was made to get some cat litter and soak up the gas. I wheeled her outside so I wouldn't set the storage unit on fire.
I managed to get the tank off without any further drama, but I really had to make the shift to adjust for Fuel Injection. Which thankfully on the '05 is super basic and about half a step above having a carburetor.
I took off the seat, removed the completely rotted out exhaust that was wrapped, then pulled a perfectly good fender that had been ruined and half *** mounted. I think I can save the fender, but it's going to need some welding and grinding.
And I swear to God, there are like 57 snaps riveted on top of the frame where a cover under the seat used to be...
Tank, seat and exhaust gone. After the gas fiasco, that was about all I managed to get done that day.
Week Two, December 6: This was a little more productive, but left me wanting to punch the previous owner in the nose. Week one was miserably cold. The heater my Dad brought worked for all of six seconds and quit. He brought another one and between that and a heat lamp, it was way more comfortable. He also showed up with Craftsman Bike Lift for me. !!!!
I was able to get the rear fender of and out of the mounts the "abuser" had jerry rigged. Took off the Finned Head-Bolt Bridges to open up the area around the spark plugs. Pulled the plugs and the back looked a smidge on the lean side, the front pretty close to normal. Spun the tire around to get her into 5th then eyeballed the tops of the pistons; Good to go. I went after the broken Breather Bolt and it came out with my fingers; threads were good to go.
Then came the Throttle Body. Now I'm not sure how they thought this was a good idea, but you need a REALLY LONG T Handled T20 Torx wrench so you can access the Torx Head bolts from the left side of the engine, or a whole lot of ingenuity and patience. I didn't have the Torx wrench. I was able to get to the one screw with a set of needle nose pliers and loosen it up. It shouldn't have worked, but Helicopters shouldn't fly either. The second one was nearly impossible, but I got it loose. I discovered, that if removed the Air Control Unit and the Air Temperature Sensor, all I had to do was spin it off the bolt. Done deal.
I removed the Rear Gear Shifter as well. My initial plans are to run with forward controls like I had had on my Night Train. But we'll see. This was also the point where I started considering an EFI to Carb conversion. At this point, I've backed off that idea since the EFI on this is so basic. Plus, I have a lot of other things for my bike that I can spend $1000 bucks on.
Week 3, December 13; This was a pretty productive day. I started with removing the front end that was on my Dad's bike. He bought some crazy 6 Over Wide Glide front end that's beautiful, for $300 bucks. So I have a Wide Glide with dual brake forks that needs a little clean-up and will probably sell or use as trading stock. I had initially thought of running a Wide Glide like the Night Train, but I have pretty much settled on a Springer Front End.
I disconnected the dash, removed the Horn/Engine Mount Bracket, pulled the Primary Inspection Plate, and I have to say "Damn, it was beautiful in there". After that, I labeled some wiring, pulled off the VERY DAMAGED Voltage Regulator and mounting bracket, installed the New, non-dented Timing Cover and pulled the Valve Covers on the Rocker Boxes. The Valve Train looked fantastic.
This week was the point where I started thinking about a 95" upgrade. Then I had to remember my own rule of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This was also reaffirmed by some friendly advice from some of the forum members here. Especially Joe_G. And again, it's money I can spend elsewhere. It boils down to a bike with less than 12,000 miles on it, and internally, is looking really good. I'm not a twist my wrist off kind of rider and I found the performance on my '02 Night Train and the "stock" Twin Cam 88 to be more than sufficient for how I ride, of course with Screamin' Eagle intake and Exhaust and a nice re-jet.
I've found that much over 100 mph, on a cruiser with no windshield, you're pretty much hanging on for dear life. But that's me...LOL!!!
Front End Off
Dash Removed and Wires Marked
New Timing Cover. Found on Ebay, still in package, for $6.99. Still had the stealership sticker for $64.99 on it....( =
Week 4, December 20; I got a lot of stuff done today. Showed up about 10:30 and had the place to myself. Which was kind of cool because sometimes it's kind of hard for my dad and I to work around each other, moving bikes around, stuff like that. He showed up for a bit, but wasn't feeling well so headed for home.
I removed the rear wheel/tire. Wheel is junk. The tire is factory and has well over 50% of it's life left. I'll probably buy a new tire and get it over with since she's getting a new rear wheel anyway. But we'll see what the budget looks like. The rear pulley is in pretty rough shape, should clean up fairly nicely though. I thought about a chrome one, but I don't want her dripping with it. To Be Determined!!!
I got the Intake Manifold off, valves were nice and shiny, everything looked great. Removed the floorboards, brake pedal, the entire rear brake assembly (what was left of the Master Cylinder Assembly from front to back) and the brackets. I'm going to hold onto the brake line I think, but the Master Cylinder itself was ripped off the plunger in the wreck. Plunger is about toast as well.
Pulled the splash guard off to find the ECM zipped tied to the wiring harness. ??? Whatever. I came to the conclusion that I'm going to have to pull the swingarm. I need to replace the rust covered shocks and clean up the swingarm itself.
I drained the engine oil, didn't find any metal particles on the drain plug so that was a good sign. And whoever put the drain plug back in from the last oil change was apparently on steroids. I had to use a breaker bar and a cheater bar to break it loose. WTF? She was definitely close to needing a change when she went down. The oil had a light gas smell to it, but nothing my dad or I were super concerned over. It was great; I stuck my finger in the oil reached over and said "Smell my finger!" LOL!!!
I pulled the Oil Lines. Holy ****. I should have taken a picture where the lines go into the top of the tank. They were rusted like a Mother Fu-----!!! Which did nothing to help to getting the retainers out. If I have to buy a new oil tank I'm going to be pissed.
I brought a bunch of stuff home to start working on here. Like the Gas Tank. The rear fender. Floorboards; Which I might keep, or clean up, repair and sell. I really want pegs. Just depends on how much of a pain in the *** it will be to do it. Or how much. I have things to clean up, see if they're salvageable, etc.
I did start doing a little cleaning just to see how bad things really are. I took an oily rag and started rubbing on the chrome and smiled. Cleaned up nicely, a little polishing and the chrome will look damn near new. So I took that same oily rag and started wiping that awful damn paint they use on the cases and jugs and I smiled some more. Brought it back to life. Pig Spit here I come! So I started wiping down the frame here and there, particularly where it had the rusty spots, and I smiled some more.
She's going to clean up nicely. Very nicely...
Before...
After.
She's gonna' need brakes from front to back. The Master Cylinder was torn off and the plunger wrecked.
Entire back brake system removed along with floorboards/controls (both sides)
Intake Manifold removed.
Where the magic comes from...fuel injector.
Nice and clean intake valves on both sides.
Those nasty oil lines were removed by the end of the day. Going to need some new ones. ALL OF THEM.
As I mentioned in my post above, I did a little cleaning. The opposite looks just as good. As you can see from previous pictures, compared to the ones I'm posting now, she is going to clean up very nicely! And that made me smile...
A gentle wipe down with an oily rag just to see. I was amazed at the difference. I might still buy some Marvel Mystery Oil though...LOL!!!
12-21-2015, 12:35 AM
'05 Springer EFI Rebuild Thread
