Nothing Happens Fast on a Shovel – Part III

Sometimes, the Shovel Wins

So at this point, I had made pretty fair progress – handlebars were done, front block was pretty much done, dash was mostly wired. I was pretty happy, and proud of myself that I hadn’t given up yet. But it wasn’t done yet, either.

This project would be nothing if it weren’t for some of the funny moments – mostly at my expense. Apparently I cannot go more than a week without pulling some sort of stupid human trick. I truly wonder sometimes how I am still alive… I was putting the enrichener lever on the carburetor backplate. Dropped a screw. That’s not new. I drop things constantly (especially if it is the only one of a thing). I reached down to pick the screw up off the floor, and my hair – the one time it wasn’t in a pony tail – swung down and landed on top of my propane heater. Tssssssssss!!!!! Smell of burning hair and smoke. Several profanities later, put the fire out in my hair, found the stupid screw, and kept working. The good news is I have too much hair anyway, and it’s curly, so I did some clipping on it, and you can’t even tell.

But sometimes… The shovel wins. At a certain point, every little task I tried to complete went completely sideways. 
I tried putting the LED bulbs into the rear signals. A 10-minute job, at most. Until I couldn’t get the one incandescent bulb out. I broke it. Then it took about 45 minutes to pry the base out. I was actually sweating when I finally got it out. Then I couldn’t get the LED bulbs in. Great. Me: 0 Shovel: 1.

Later I sent them to Paul, who determined that someone along the way had changed the bulb bases out and the lights take a completely different style bulb, which – wait for it – is not made anymore. Of course. But at least it wasn’t me. The bulbs really were impossible to install. However, he found some random electrical supply house that had some of the incandescent bulbs left, so that’s what I’m running in them now. Over this next winter, I will convert those lights to LED.

After I fought a losing battle with the rear turn signals, I decided to put the new throttle cables on, and bolt up the new carb. Wow. That was a nice dream….
I did get the carb on. Finally. I started with the throttle cables. Figured out how to get those on. Even figured out which was the return cable, and where it went. I was pretty proud of myself. For like, a nano-second. Until I put the whole assembly on the bar, and it was all wonky and loose. Oh well, the cables were on, I could figure that out later, so I moved on to the carb. I’m all focused on getting the cables attached to the carb, and then realize, I didn’t route the cables first!!! So I had to take them off the carb, route them, then put them back on the carb. Best part? I forgot to make sure I noted how the old cable was routed. Seriously a dumb move on my part. But oh well. Me: 0, shovel: 2.
Moving on, I got the main cable out, no problem. But the return cable end popped DOWN instead of UP. Argh! I spent probably 45 minutes trying to finagle that bugger back into the right position so that I could try, again, to remove it. I’m not proud of myself. I lost it. I was sitting in my garage swearing, and swearing some more, panicking because what if I can’t get this stupid cable end out? (Like what is the worst that can happen? I need to get someone to help me?) Then I just took a breath. Picked up the carb again, barely touched the thing, and that cable end popped right back into place. WHAT??? Another little bit of tweaking, and out it popped! WHAT??? 
Then it looked like the cables were too long. Ugh.
So I started back on the throttle. I realize the left grip is too small for the left bar, but the right grip is fine. But I did figure out why everything was loose. All I had to do was slide the throttle tube farther into the grip. 
But that helps me, not at all, because my left grip won’t fit. 
With everything attempted, the score is me 1, shovel 3. Maybe 4.

This was not a good day for my psyche! Sadly, I am that person who likes to – maybe needs to – finish things. At that point, nothing was finished, and I was back to figuring out how to make them work. Furthermore, I really just wanted to accomplish something on my own, and I was working way over my head, or at least it felt that way. I felt so stupid always having to ask someone else to help me, or give me information. 
If this were a home improvement project, I would know my options, know what questions to ask, know my limits, know the pitfalls, know where to get what I need. But this was something I’d never done before, so it was pushing me hard. All my self-doubt, high expectations, high standards, lack of patience with myself – all of that was showing in this moment. But even then, I didn’t regret starting this project at all. I never once said to myself, ‘you should never have tried this.’ Well, maybe once. But I took it back. 

It turns out that I got stubborn about asking for help at the exact wrong time. Dan could have ordered me the correct left grip if he had known I needed the larger i.d. But, no, I took the grip to the shop where I work, and asked one of our lathe guys if he could remove just enough material to allow it to slip on. No simple task to remove material from the internal diameter of a rubber grip. But our guy pulled it off somehow. Success! Finally!!!
It slid right on. I thought a previous owner had welded a tube over the bar, but later found out through Dan, that Harley actually did it to use the same bar for kick and electric start bikes. Being a ’74, mine was a blend. The primary ignition is electric, but it does have a kicker on it “as a backup.” Regardless, strict kickers have a retard on the left bar, thus a smaller bar with a tube in the grip. Electrics didn’t have a retard, so the left bar took a grip with no tube. That’s why the grip didn’t fit. Forehead smack!
Sometimes you don’t know, what you don’t know…
I couldn’t quite figure out how the throttle cables should be routed, because the cable on the bike wasn’t stock – not helpful. So I visited Dan, who showed me a bone stock ’69. I was able to check out the correct routing, and got the cables on. Not without taking the cables on and off about four times, but the up side to that is that I am now pretty good at getting those buggers on and off the carb, and the throttle tube!

Meanwhile, the tanks and tins came back from paint (Todd Wilcox, Medina, NY), and I got all new hardware to attach the trim pieces.

After this, I got the spots and the switch for them wired in, and I also got the front turn signals installed and wired in. Another friend of mine used Dan’s sketch to get the starter, starter solenoid, starter relay and battery configuration figured out, and partially wired. I got the rear harness connected to the rear block, got it routed back through the fender strut, and added more protective loom to it. I also put the light bulbs in the dash, and put the dash gasket on as well.
We tested the spots and front turns and they worked! Holy moly, I almost cried. It was such a great feeling to see even a small bit of the work I’ve done come to life in the form of light! 

Another day, I got the 12v outlet installed so I can use GPS on the bike. Just because it’s an old bike, doesn’t mean I can’t use updated travel methods. After I got the outlet installed, I put a RAM Mount on my handlebar to hold my phone, and I picked up a good quality USB cable to connect the 12v outlet to my phone. Slowly, all the pieces and parts that have been stacked up in my house and garage, are making their way to their proper places on the bike.

But slowly is the operative word. I planned to have the bike done in plenty of time to ride it 230 miles to the AMCA Allegheny Mountain Chapter’s National Road Run (June 2019). Of course, no matter how much you plan, there are unforeseen delays. At this point, I was running out of time to get the bike done, dyno tested, and still have time to do some shakedown rides on it before taking it out of the area. So I started skipping the gym, not grocery shopping, not getting much sleep, barely getting laundry done. All I did was go to work and then work on the bike.   After a three-day thrash, Paul and I got the wiring done. I was over the moon. I got to see the whole bike put together. All the Atomic Age accessories. The new paint. The bubble bags I opted for instead of the shovel-style squared off bags. Everything. The bike was a thing of beauty!

Until…

When Paul and I were thrashing to get the bike done, we didn’t test everything as we completed circuits. We tested some circuits, but as it got later, and we were running on empty, testing went by the wayside. So I ended up with at least one short somewhere in the lighting that I wasn’t aware of till later when another friend, Bill Phillips, went to hook up the battery.

The bike was already scheduled to go out to Dan’s for him to dyno, and at least the ignition system worked, so Bill and I figured, we’d haul it out there, let him dyno it, then I’d chase down the lighting issues afterward. But I still had a couple days to work on it before it went to Dan’s. I pulled the entire front block off, shimmed it out because it seemed like it was grounding on the triple tree. I remounted it, and rewired it. I hoped, no, I prayed, that would fix the problem. Nope. Shovel: 1, me: 0. Again.
Nothing to do but take it to Dan as is, and figure it out later. Then the completely unexpected – over the next couple weeks, Dan let my shovel live in his shop on a lift, and I went out every evening and worked through all the bugs. He’d help me where I needed it, show me how to do certain things, let me struggle until I’d ask for help, laugh at me (a little) as I tried to figure out how to hold three things and still tighten down a nut, but best of all, he shared a lot of his little tricks and special tools he’s made or modified over his many years of tilting with shovelheads.
The only thing I couldn’t get done was installing the rear crash bars. I wasted 2-1/2 hours of precious time one night, trying to bolt them up, only to find so many clearance problems that it was impossible for the right bar to go on the bike. Luckily I started on the right side, so at least I didn’t have to take both bars off when I gave up. Turns out, the exhaust bracket isn’t a stock setup, and that was causing clearance problems. So the rear crash bars will have to wait and be installed in the off season when Dan can help me figure out the best plan of attack on them.

If nothing else, this project has taught me that just because you order a part that is supposed to fit your bike’s year/model, doesn’t mean it will. And if it is a re-pop part, your chances are even slimmer. Another thing I learned is that each delay you run into because you need a part, is a week. At least. Need switches? A week. Need a bracket, or lights? A week. And I am fortunate, because shovel parts are relatively easy to come by, compared to pan or knuckle parts.

However, I digress. Once I gave up on the rear crash bars, I found the last remaining short underneath the rear fender right away, so I spent the next 1/2 hour wrapping every single wire in electrical tape to make sure nothing was exposed. I. Mean. Nothing.  Since I had trouble with the rear turn signals, and they won’t hold the LED bulbs anyway, I will probably rewire the back of the bike again once the season ends. Then I can take a better run at it, and rewire the turn signals while I’m there.
But at least I had all the electrical gremlins are sorted. Everything worked. Finally.