Did my ape install last night. Not a bad job at all. I had to replace my tank as well which fought me a bit until I figured out how to remove the pins in the gas gauge socket. I have the electrical manual but missed the part about lifting the back of the socket to get the wires out.

I did take a tip from Redbeard719 here on the board and adapted it to make dealing with the crossover line an easy no mess job. He posted up a pic of using two needle nose vice grips to pinch the line, then cut in the middle. I used a piece of spare line and a vacuum line coupler, seen below, and just used this to drain each line separately. Nice solution. I just used a new piece of line when I put the tank back on.



I also cut down a allen wrench with my grinder to remove the two bottom transmission bolts without taking off the exhaust, saving me time and the headache in case one of the exhaust bolts stripped up on the head (done that one too many times in my life).

I ended up getting the Hill Country Cycles complete kit with chrome controls and wires already run through the bars and terminated. It made the job plug and play and was worth it to me. They packaged it really well and sent all the right cables and brake line. Have to say I was very pleased with my purchase. Everything works perfectly. I would recommend Hill Country.

Bleeding the front brake was not happening (I have speed bleeders installed) until I dug out my MityVac vacuum and used my factory bleeder. That got the job done in short order. That MityVac brake bleeder has paid for itself many times, but most of the time I find speed bleeders easier to use (I have to swap fluid on my Vette before each road course event and speed bleeders are the easiest and fastest).

Here are some before pics:







And after. I really like how running the wires through the bars cleans up the front end. I also installed the blinker relocation from Legends.









Overall, I love the look of the bars, I like the 1.25 fat look of them, and they are comfortable. I do notice more wind noise after I'd just fixed that with the Memphis Shades lowers...if I ride one handed it goes away. I'll just get used to it or start wearing ear plugs. I also noticed it seems like it rides a bit rougher but that must be because the bumps are moving my arms more or something with the long levers now (I have the bars pushed forward a bit).

Thanks for reading, I was pleased with my Saturday night project and wanted to share.

 

Looks good.
Thanks for sharing.

 

Looks good!

 

Looks good Joe! The HCC kits really doe take a lot of the guess-work out of the job.

The new tank looks good, and so do the Legends turn-signal brackets!

 

Look great I always wanted a springer. Who did you get the tank from ?

 

Very nice!!! I love that bike

 

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! I love the way the bike looks as well now.

I'm wondering...should I get some longer fishtails now??? :-) It's starting to remind me of the Latin bikers on SOA at this point...not sure if I want to go further with that look or not...

I got a dent repair guy to pop out most of the dent but he warned me, the paint is gonna crack as the dent was too deep. It fell over into my road king, I guess I didn't have the stand down all the way. He was right. These tanks are like hen's teeth. I searched ebay for a long time, some guys sit on anniversary stuff like it's gold and I wasn't going to pay $1500 for a tank or something silly. I finally searched using the part number for the tank and found one at a HD dealer, used, but just about perfect, for $400. I did an offer of $300 and he took it. He'd had it for sale for months but it wasn't showing up under Harley Anniversary Tank for some reason.

By the way, apparently the decal dividing the colors is made of unobtainium from Harley...but I found a place that has it if someone needs it.

http://killer-decals.com/Motorcycle/...niversary.html

Thanks Redbeard! Those brackets were $90...which I thought was crazy, but they are about the only option and I understand the guy who made them and has them cnc'd on a special run has to recoup the cost. They are a very nice piece I must say.

I sold my Road King (need to update my sig)....my HD dealer had a used Glide in stock yesterday...my boy and I were eyeing it up.....I do love the look of a Glide...

 

Looks really good!

 

By the way Redbeard, thanks again to you sir - looking at your build thread I'm reminded it was you that gave me the hot tip on the Legends brackets as well as the crossover line tip. I sure appreciate it as you made my job a lot easier and my bike nicer. Wanted you to know all the time you took to post up those pictures as well as the tips helped out another enthusiast.

BTW you might find it funny that thanks to your tip I didn't drip hardly a drop of gas getting the old crossover line and tank off...but when I put some gas in the new tank after all the mods were done, I noticed gas dripping on the floor.

I'd forgotten to tighten the new crossover line after I put the tank on.

Sheesh no matter what I'm gonna get gas on the floor I guess! lol

 

Forgot to mention originally, I cut down an allen wrench with a grinder to remove the bottom two bolts on the transmission.

That way I didn't have to remove the exhaust and risk stripping the studs on the head and also saved the time to R&R the exhaust.