Made a really stupid mistake
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Tourer
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 250
Likes: 7
From: Kentucky
Made a really stupid mistake
First off I am man enough to admit I made a really stupid mistake last night. Not going to try and come up with an excuse it was all me. I feel horrible about it but nothing I can do now but fix it.
So here it goes, I went to put on my new heavy breather last night. Yeah I know you already know where this is going because I now know that many people have done something similar. It was late and I was tired but I wanted to get it on so I could take it to work the next morning. I thought to myself to just wait until tomorrow when you are rested and have more time. But of course I ignored it and did it anyway. The instructions said for 2007 and up FL models keep the support bracket. Well in my tired rush I thought, don't know why exactly, that it said FI (fuel injected). So I left the bracket on. And when I went to torque the bolts to the TB it cracked
I can't tell you how sick to my stomach I felt and am still feeling. Yeah I know that at the end of the day I learned a valuable, although costly, lesson. And that it isn't the end of the world. But that doesn't help much right now in the moment.
So I am going to try JB Weld as a temporary solution. I don't know yet whether it was a surface crack or went all the way through. Hopefully it will work and I can buy some time. But I am going to end up replacing it because I won't be able to deal with it just patched up. I am way to **** for that. And I see that for some reason Harley only sells the entire assembly and not just the throttle body. Does anyone know where I can pickup just the TB? I have searched ebay and online in general. I tried a couple of local salvage places and nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
So here it goes, I went to put on my new heavy breather last night. Yeah I know you already know where this is going because I now know that many people have done something similar. It was late and I was tired but I wanted to get it on so I could take it to work the next morning. I thought to myself to just wait until tomorrow when you are rested and have more time. But of course I ignored it and did it anyway. The instructions said for 2007 and up FL models keep the support bracket. Well in my tired rush I thought, don't know why exactly, that it said FI (fuel injected). So I left the bracket on. And when I went to torque the bolts to the TB it cracked
I can't tell you how sick to my stomach I felt and am still feeling. Yeah I know that at the end of the day I learned a valuable, although costly, lesson. And that it isn't the end of the world. But that doesn't help much right now in the moment.
So I am going to try JB Weld as a temporary solution. I don't know yet whether it was a surface crack or went all the way through. Hopefully it will work and I can buy some time. But I am going to end up replacing it because I won't be able to deal with it just patched up. I am way to **** for that. And I see that for some reason Harley only sells the entire assembly and not just the throttle body. Does anyone know where I can pickup just the TB? I have searched ebay and online in general. I tried a couple of local salvage places and nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Last edited by crawrj; Oct 1, 2014 at 02:00 PM.
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From: Oklahoma
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Tourer
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 250
Likes: 7
From: Kentucky
Well it is all the way through so my optimism has faded some. But I'm still holding out hope.
Once the jb cures should I sand it down and if so how far? Since the crack was really thin I'm thinking the weld wouldn't get down in the crack much if at all. So if I sand it down smooth wouldn't that defeat the purpose? Thanks again for the help.
Once the jb cures should I sand it down and if so how far? Since the crack was really thin I'm thinking the weld wouldn't get down in the crack much if at all. So if I sand it down smooth wouldn't that defeat the purpose? Thanks again for the help.
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Road Warrior
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 1,372
Likes: 49
From: In the foothills of southwestern NC - US of A
To "get down" there into the crack, if you're handy with a Dremel tool, I'd use a 1/8" "ball mill" type cutter and carefully chamfer [that's hi tech talk meaning to "V out"] the material out the width of the cutter [directly into the crack] down to or at least halfway down to the threads, then use alcohol to clean the surface of the chamfer to eliminate any oil residue, let it evaporate, then oil up a fastener good and install it in the threads [do NOT tighten yet], and sparingly apply a two part epoxy to fill the area you champhered out, pushing it in there with a popsicle stick [everybody loves popsicles!!] and taking care not to epoxy the head of the fastener to the TB, while keeping with the original contour of the casting. Let set until completely hardened. Remove the fastener and sand or Dremel off any excess epoxy to make it look pretty, then reinstall the fastener, this time using the correct in. lbs. remembering that it's only aluminum and you don't have to use German torque ["Goodentight"]. Yah!
=8^)
=8^)
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 250
Likes: 7
From: Kentucky
To "get down" there into the crack, if you're handy with a Dremel tool, I'd use a 1/8" "ball mill" type cutter and carefully chamfer [that's hi tech talk meaning to "V out"] the material out the width of the cutter [directly into the crack] down to or at least halfway down to the threads, then use alcohol to clean the surface of the chamfer to eliminate any oil residue, let it evaporate, then oil up a fastener good and install it in the threads [do NOT tighten yet], and sparingly apply a two part epoxy to fill the area you champhered out, pushing it in there with a popsicle stick [everybody loves popsicles!!] and taking care not to epoxy the head of the fastener to the TB, while keeping with the original contour of the casting. Let set until completely hardened. Remove the fastener and sand or Dremel off any excess epoxy to make it look pretty, then reinstall the fastener, this time using the correct in. lbs. remembering that it's only aluminum and you don't have to use German torque ["Goodentight"]. Yah!
=8^)
=8^)
Last edited by crawrj; Oct 2, 2014 at 08:08 AM.