Brakes and Forks.

So the pumping problem that I have been experiencing should be history. I got the parts from a local place called Daytona Black Gold Cycles. Best place in Daytona, IMHO, period. It is the same place that I got the carb jet, fuel line, fuel filter. They also have the better oil for cheaper than any other store. And they have a tone of extra stuff and parts. And their prices are the best. I was able to get the new rotor, brake fluid, fork oil, and all the work done for about $160.

I am actually closer to 400 miles at this post than the last one.

Here are the pictures that I was able to get while work was being done at Black Gold.



Here is the old Rotor. You can slightly see where it was warped and would not make contact with the caliper where it is darker. I was not able to get a picture of the new rotor, but it looked so nice. Not so much since I've driven it.



Here is the guy putting the caliper up and out of the way to remove the wheel to get the the fork drain bolt.



The little nut with the phillips head facing towards the camera is the drain bolt.



Draining the fork oil. Be careful, once it starts flowing it goes all over the place.



Side view of the top of the fork. You can see the spring. This is where the guy poured the fork oil back in through.



Top of the forks.



Took 3 full grown men to get the spring compressed enough to get the top back on. And a little trick he used, he unscrewed the cover for the handlebars and let them fall to get to them.



Here is the top of the caliper. Drain for bleeding the braked is on the left.



Here he is using a vacuume pump to get the fluids out. There were a few boogers in there. Large chunks of gunk.



Brake fluid reservoir filled with new fluids.

When all was said and done, and the mechanic took it out for a spin I heard how loud my pipes are, I was surprised, since it has legal pipes.

Anyways, brakes much smoother now, and it doesn't pump.

Thanks Black Gold. Two thumbs up.

Pumping brakes.

So far so good. The bike is coming along well as far as fixing the mechanical parts that needed work.

Oils and filters have been changed. The carburetor has been modified. And the speedo is working 90% of the time (I'm pretty sure moisture causes it to act up, oh well).

As the title would state, here is what's going on. The front brakes are pumping and make a loud click the first time they are applied. Ran it over to a local shop called Black Gold. The guys are awesome. And they pulled it up and looked at it. Front right brake rotor/disk needs to be replaced. It's warped. I bought a new rotor for around $80 and brake fluid, DOT 5 for $16. I bought brake fluid because the stuff in there is old and needs to be replaced. I should be able to do that myself. But will have the guys at Black Gold install the rotor. I don't want to play around with warping or ruining that. I might also be looking at replacing the front fork oil, it should have been done at 20k miles, but I have no idea if it was. If it's fine, I'll wait till 30k to do it.

I will try to get pictures of everything.

Oh, and I've got nearly 400 miles on her already. In 24 days, and having really cold and nasty weather. I'd say that's pretty good.

Warm but rainy.

So I cleaned off the speedometer sensor in the transmission the night after that long ride. It worked all yesterday, and the bike was running beautifully. This morning, however, it decided to not work properly again. It could be that it rained last night and the connector could be wet.

The tach seems to be working properly, so I was able to rely on that. And the trip meter read the distance properly. So maybe it's just something with the speedo. What is even more strange is that it's not consistent with what's wrong. One time it seems like it's at half what I'm going. Others it's like it's off by 10mph.

Anyways, like I said I rode into work this morning. Hopefully the rain will go away. I only got a little wet on the ride here so it wasn't that bad. I just hope I can figure out what's wrong with the speedo. I'll need to go through the service manual and see what I can find. Maybe I can replace it. Or even a little bit of electrical tape might fix it.

Beautiful day

So it looks like we are finally out of this cold snap. Right now it's around 60 and sunny outside. A little chilly when moving, but wonderful riding weather none-the-less. Took the girl out for about a 50 mile run.

Made a few stops to just sit and enjoy the scenery. No problems that I was able to tell of. Got it up to 70 and she felt good. Made another stop at a local shop that is a lot like a museum, was really cool. After that though, for some reason, the speedometer and tach seemed to be off. Oh well, we will see if that is a consistent problem. If all else fails there is the traffic and basic speeds to judge. I am more worried about having the proper mileage going for knowing tripmeter.

We will see.

The cold

So I rode the bike into work. Temps were high 30 low 40. Was able to see my breath.

Anyways, bike started chugging again, so I am truly thinking that my bike hates the cold. I read in one of the posts that the carburator can actually get ice on it with the wind and the vacuum is just too much for it. Temps are supposed to be in the high 50 low 60's on the way home, so we will see how it runs.

Night Post:

Rode it home. No chugging. Idle was a little high, so I will adjust that tomorrow. I will also be doing a small run, probably about an hour, around one of the major rides in the area that people like to take.

I thought it was leaking from the primary drain bolt. But it also looked like it was leaking from a bunch of other places. All of it the same colored fluid. Kind of looked around, turns out it looks like its the transmission drain tube burping out some fluids. So no big deal, besides the corrosion that its causing. So I will try to rinse some of that off tonight and take a look at it after the ride tomorrow.

Deflowering my Carburetor

Warning: This post will contain multiple uses of sexual innuendo's. So if you don't like it, oh well.

So today Jason (my friend that helped to change the oil and look at the bike at the beginning) and I did some work on the Carburetor. Total time. About 2 1/2 hours. Including messing with the throttle since it was geting stuck, and putting in a new fuel line (make sure you get a new one with some new hose clamps). And we moved the hadlebars to accomodate for my gigantorness.


The goods.


Front of the carburetor, flow direction wise.

We ripped her off, pulled some hoses, screwed and unscrewed some bolts, changed her diaphragm, gave her a new jet, cleaned her up, drilled her, hammered her...I could keep going on, but its just sounding weird. Go here for some pics. Carburetor Work.

So here is some of the work that we did.



Here is a picture of the carb without the bottom on it. If you look to the right side, what would be considered the back in terms of airflow, you can see a little round cap on a tube that is sticking out. Under that cap is the Air/Fuel Mixture Screw, the cap will get drilled, I have a link of more information on that in my previous post.



Here is a picture of the Air/Fuel Mixture screw with the cap drilled. Again, see one of my earlier posts for links on how to do all that. I turned the screw clockwise just till it set, not to it was tight. Then I backed it out 2 1/2 turns. Works great.



Here is the new slow jet that was installed. I bumped it up from a 42 to a 45. Seems to be working.



Here is the main jet. It is already a 185, so there was no need to do anything. We just took it out and made sure it looked good.



Here is the Accelerator Pump Diaphram. It sits on the bottom of the carburetor and squirts fuel into the carb venturi to assist on hard throttle movements and avoid hesitations and much needed fuel. It wasn't all that much, and it probably helped a little having a new one.

I also installed a fuel filter that I will attempt to get a picture of at some point. You can see it in the bag. It just catches little debris that the main filter might not get.

Jason and I both did test rides. No problems. The ride home it was wonderful. No more spitting or caughing through the carb. Speaking of which, it was really bad with oil and everything. Should clear up now.

Oh, and the idle currently is sitting between 1,100 and 1,300 rpms. I might lower that a bit more. We will see when I pull these sparkplugs to change.

And no more chugging at 2,500 - 3,000 rmps!!!!!

That damn chugging.

So I may have begun to pinpoint that chugging that is happening at 2500 - 3000 rpms when at a steady speed.

The engine is running lean. I thought the guy I bought the bike from said he adjusted it, if he did, it wasn't done how you are supposed to do it. The main way to do it is to adjust the Fuel/Air Mixture screw.

Here is a picture of the Adjuster screw before the little cap on it is taken off.



Here is a picture of an inserted sheet metal screw to get the cap out if needed. When I did it mine just flew out when I got to the bolt.




The adjuster screw is that Giant thing sticking out, you are actually looking at the bottom of the Carburator.

I may end up needing to rejet the Carburator. Hopefully that is not so, although it will not require all that much more work than getting to the adjuster screw and cleaning out the float bowl.

If I do rejet it,I might go with a 47 pilot jet and a 180 main jet. That is supposed to be good for the Twin Cam, 45 and 170 for an EVO. I will be calling up Harley again tomorrow to see what the stock sizes are, I don't want to pull it apart at home since I wont then have any way to get the bike somewhere that could do work if needed. And I don't have all the proper tools to be messing around with a Carburator.

Oh, and here are three sites that might be of some help.
http://www.harley-davidsonforums.com/forums/fuel-systems/4356-carb-rejet-mod.html
http://www.harley-performance.com/harley-davidson-carburetor.html
http://www.harley-performance.com/harley-carburetor-jetting.html

PS. I'll try to get some pictures of when I do the work.

Warming up

So here is the most popular way that I have found in how to warm up the bike.

1) Pull choke out.
2) Start bike, while holding in the clutch (this keeps it from going into first gear and running into something).
3) Let idle for about 20-30 SECONDS.
4) Push choke in 1/2 way, ride for 10 minutes or 3-5 miles.
5) Push choke in rest of the way, bike should be good to go.

Throttle lock

So apparently I have been warmnig up the bike improperly. You are supposed to only use the choke for a short amount of time. After that you are supposed to usethe throttle lock located between the throttle cable and idle cable lines under the throttle.

Can also be used as a "ghetto" cruise control. I will post on how it works. Especially since it's different than what the service manual says.

Fluid/Filter/Spark Plug Change

24,500 Miles.

A friend of mine helped me change the Engine, Transmission and Primary Oil. Helped change the Oil Filter, and Air Filter (both are K&N).

Engine Oil: 3 Qt. H-D Syn 3
Transmission: 1 Qt. Routech Trans Lube
Primary: 1 Qt. Spectro Primary Lube
2 washers, 1 for transmission drain bolt 1 for Engine drain bolt

Two H-D Specific Plugs gapped properly were also installed. Friend believes that the engine might be running rich and hot. Will see how they look at the next change.

So, the oil was about as black as the oil pan, all of them. Metal shards covered each of the drain bolt magnets. Cleaned those with engine degreaser and a flat head screwdriver. Also cleaned the Speedometer magnet located at the top of the transmission, was a PITA to get that screw out, and man oh man was that covered with shavings. That had been a while since cleaned as well.

The Air Filter, haha, looked like someone threw pink cotton candy at the bike. That was soo bad, tossed that and installed the K&N. Was literally take off old, put washer that was with filter on and put air filter on. Simple as could be.

Bike was not chugging at all on the way home and ran wonderfully. :)

How it works.

So I figure that it would be kind of cool to post what happens in and to the engine when the throttle is turned. This will be a work in progress as I learn and find out about specific parts, but I think the final product will be a relatively detailed explanation of what is going on in the Harley Twin Cam engine from start to finish.

Problems at 2500-2700 rpm

I mentioned in one of the previous posts that on the ride home from work of day two it was sputtering in the 2700 rpm range.

One option is that it wasn't warmed up enough, I doubt that was the problem since I know it was warmed up.

Another is that the air filter and plugs are in poor condition. Which is another possibility. I will be getting new plugs for it as well when I get the air filter at autozone along with a gap tool and plug wrench. Even if they are fine, having another pair won't hurt, and I need a gap guage and wrench anyways. I might have a wrench that will work for the plugs though, will need to see.

According to one of the guys on the Harley-Davidsonforums.com, it is likely a needle jet that needs to be shimmed or the bike needs an air/fuel adjustment and possibly a larger pilot jet. I have no idea what those are, but will eventually get to them if basic fixes don't do it first. I would also like to post pictures of where each of the drain plugs are when I do that. So stay tuned for those.

I've also got some S&P? carb and fuel injector cleaner. I'll put some of that in as well and see if that helps.

The bike has been sitting for a while, so I am hoping that it is just dirty.

Day 1 and 2

I got the Dyna on December 31st 2009. My wonderful wife did all the running around and paperwork since I was at work.

I got the bike that night, and rode it around to get the feel of it. Plus, the bike really needed some new gas. So I rode about 3 miles to a gas station that I knew was on the cheaper side, and filled her up. I noticed that the speedometer was not working properly, I just made a mental note of it and kept with the cars around me.

When I got to the Gas station I found out that there was no speedomer cable like my Shadow had. I found out that it was a magnetic sensor that goes into the transmission, I'll post a picture of it on this blog at some point, that will collect metal shavings and give false readings. I still need to pull it out and clean it.

Anyways, I filled up with premium and headed for home. That trip the speedomer worked. I got home and remembered I needed a new disk lock, so I started her up again to go to walmart. Speedometer wasn't working again (will need to remember to fix that), got the disk lock for $20 and went home. Speedometer worked on the way home.

Of course it had the rain that night, and the bike was still too warm to put the cover on, so it got a little shower. She'll have to get used to it untill I get a garage.

Day 2

It rained almost up untill I was to leave, but that didn't stop me, I rode to work anyways. Didn't really get wet until right before I got
to work, and boy is that giant windshield nice.

Posted on some forums with ideas to help with my bike since I don't have any manual, should be getting one when I get the air filter and oil.

Figured out how to check the oil. It's a large round cap that pulls off and the dipstick is attached by a ball joint.



Oil was almost as black as the bike, not good.

Rain passed and it was time to go home. Bike was sputtering in 3rd going 40 at 2500-2700 rpms. There are a few reasons this might be according to forums, so I will try the basic ones first then work out from there. Ate New Years dinner at the in-laws and rode home. Waved to the cop looking for speeders. Speedometer worked the whole day.

I might post more between now and when I do the work to the bike, not sure, I think I pretty much covered everything for now. Maybe I'll get a list of good forums and websites for bikers and Harley riders, some might even be good for metric.

History Lesson

Even though wikipedia is not a viable and 100% trust worthy source due to the ability of users to change and submit content, I am going to post the wikipedia links to information about the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company, the 88 Twim Cam engine, and the Dyna Glide.

Harley-Davidson (also goes into some detail with each model):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Davidson

The Twin Cam Engine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Cam_engine_(Harley-Davidson)

The Dyna Glide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley-Davidson_Super_Glide

A little about me

I know I am not the main subject but I figured I might as well tell you a little about myself.

I go by the name of Axe. And yes, I do ride with a Club but unless you actually know me then there is no reason to know any more than that.

I grew up in Upstate New York and I do not regret moving to Florida one bit. You get used to the heat in the summer, and eventually temps that you would have considered mild are now freezing.

I ride as much as I can, not usually a lot of long trips, but mostly too and from work. I will ride in the cold, but, like most, it is not my favorite.

My first motorcycle was a little 1989 100cc Kawasaki trail bike that I got when I was 13. Loved that thing, kick start was the best part. Laid it down a few times, and learned the ride on that thanks to my dad. Thanks dad, my love for riding is all your fault :). I think we sold it when I was 16. I just didn't fit on it anymore.

I did not have a bike again until I was 21 and bought a 2003 Suzuki Bandit 1200. That was a blast, but decided to trade it before I killed myself, plus, after one long ride my crotch said "hell no, not again!"

Second road bike was a 2002 Honda Shadow Spirit 1100. Great bike and I would recommend it to anyone learning to ride. It was pretty comfortable for the most part on long rides even for a guy my size. Very little happened to that bike in the near two years that I had it. I hate to see it go, but we just can't afford for me to have two bikes.

My most recent bike is the topic of this blog. A beautiful 1999 Harley-Davidson Dyna Glide Convertable. I have not had it long enough to give a full opinion on it, but that is also another reason for this blog.

Enough about me, back to the good stuff.

About the bike.

So, you already know the make and model, but know very little about the bike itself. I will post some pictures on this post when I have access to a computer with them.


The bike is black with red pinstripe. The logo on the tank is two tiered, Harley on top and Davidson on the bottom, with white lettering and surrounded by red. I looks good, but I think eventually I would like to get the tank, and fenders painted a matte black and put the well known Harley shield decal on the tank. I might even see about powder-coating some of the chrome pieces (I really like black bikes, and it helps cut down on rust).

The handlebars are a little too far aft, and those will need to be shifted forward. Also, it has mid-controls, and those need to be changed to forward controls so I don't look so damn silly, I'm 6'6".

It's got a couple extra chrome pieces with the "live to ride, ride to live" slogan. I don't really care at the moment, but I think I will replace those. It's just seen everywhere. It has a few scratches here and there, nothing to worry about. It did come with the bags and a HUGE windshield which is perfect for me, but it's going to go in the summer.

It has what I believe to be screaming eagle exhaust in it since it is just a little bit louder than stock pipes, but they have the EPA stamp on them so no worries legal wise. I will be getting a K&N air filter, just because they are so much better. I only ordered a replacement air filter and not the kit so I will post if that works out or not. It still has the stock air cover, which I actually like, so that will stay, might look for a new one though that is stock because this one is scratched a bit.

The kickstand needs to be fixed. It looks like the tip broke off, so they welded a piece on to extend it, but never ground down the sharp edges, so it scratches the hell out of the pavemet. I will need to find the kickstand piece one of my brothers gave me.

Finally figured out how the check the oil (will put that in another post) and it is almost as black as the bike, so I will be leaving the bike parked until I can change the oil next week, no point in killing the engine just because I want to ride.

When I got the bike she had right around 24,500 miles. She also already had her cam bearings replaced in '01, one of the big problems with the '99 model Twim Cam.
Well I think that's all for now.

Welcome

Hello and welcome.

For some strange reason suggested by my wife, I have decided to create a blog. I have no idea where I really want to go with it, so it will be an interresting journey.

I would like to apologize in advance for any typos or mistakes in my writing. Feel free to let me know, nicely.

As you can tell by the blog name and address this will be about a 1999 Harley Davidson Dyna Glide Convertable.

I figure this will be a good way to cronicle my learning experience of workig with a Harley, and maybe will even help someone out in the future.

I think I will post things that are done to the bike, things that I learn about the bike, problems I run into, and even a few runs that I will make. Well, I think that is enough of an introduction, let's get started.