Kaw Carbs!

I started working on that Kaw this week.  When we picked it up it had been sitting for almost 2 years.  It would run but start up and idle were kinda rough. I rode it home, took it on the freeway up to 70 and it ran pretty good but it did need some tuning.  Soooooo let the tear down begin!!!

I decided to remove the carbs first.  It sounded and felt like a fuel delivery issue and I figured after sitting so long that the gas had evaporated and left an oily residual which thickened and might be causing issues.  Pulling the carbs was pretty easy once I got everything that was attached to them loose.

I would really like to get rid of the air intake and change the single filter and housing out for some dynomans.  Have to wait awhile since their right at a hundred bucks but it would be nice and they look kewl too.  Maybe after we clean the bike up and perform the necessary repairs well consider it.

So we pull the carbs and start sticking our noses in it and discover exactly what I thought we would.  Gummy sticky oily stuff!!  You can kind of see in the picture inside the valves the darker sticky substance.



I started cleaning and BEHOLD! YUCK!  I removed the float bowls, jets, fuel chambers, needle jet, everything and cleaned it all.  All that dark stuff came out of the just the float bowls.  If you look close you can see oily buildup inside the chambers and even some corrosion.  Fortunatly the diaphrams were still intack and in very good shape. The needle plates in 2 of the carbs were frozen solid inside and would not move.  I had quite a time trying to get them out. The carburator shaft choke would not move freely so upon reassembly I lightly lubricated it. After 2 cans of carb cleaner they were shining and beautiful, ready to be installed.

The fuel lines were brittle so I went to autozone and for $2 was able to replace those as well. The Cap Ends were brittle too and I thought they may be allowing air to be sucked into the carbs so I replaced those with the new fuel lines as well.

I also performed an oil change and when pulling the filter out discovered that the oil filter plate was on upside down.

I pulled the spark plugs and they were pretty bad as well.  One of them had so much carbon buildup I dont know that it was even firing.

I gapped the new ones correctly at .030 inches and put them in.

Now came the test!  The bike used to have to be choked to death to start so I decided to see what would happen without choking it.  And WOWOWOW!!! That thing came to life!  It fired right up and sounded like a freaking modern sport bike.  The idle was perfect and the throttle response was instant and without hesitation.  I took it out for a bit and it runs like a completely different bike.  Its fast for sure!  Its got a LOT of top end power and speed.  I couldnt be happier with the results from a few hours of work.

Vance & Hines Slip On Mufflers

At long last I was finally able to purchase slip ons for my bike!!!!  Vance and Hines 4" Monster Rounds!  Obviously this is an exciting moment.  Now the thing will finally sound like a Harley, not an air compressor.  I'll never forget the first day I pulled up to work on my new Harley.  There were a couple of ladies from work that were on their smoke break and they noticed I had a new bike.  They came over and said "Ooooooh, you got a new bike! What kind is it?"  I replied, "It's a Harley Street Glide".  They kinda looked it over told me how beautiful it was and then made the comment, "It doesn't sound like a Harley."  YAAAARG!!!!!  It was a bit embarrassing.  So the saving began for at least some slip ons to give it the rumble the thing deserves.

I talked to a lot of chapter members about pipes, slip ons, straights, etc. to make the decision on what to get.  I went to the dealership and talked with Gary in the service department about options.  He got excited to show me different pipes and let me hear them.  I would say he spent a good 30 minutes in the parking lot starting up bikes with different pipes to let me hear the differences.  The V&H monsters were the ones for me.  Thanks Gary for all the help and genuine care about helping with the decision on slip ons.  He also worked with me a few months ago on lowering the rear suspension.  We did the same thing, walked around and checked out different bikes and finally settled on Burly Slammers which lowered the rear by 2 inches.  They ride great, the bike handles excellent, and my feet touch perfectly on the ground now. I also want to thank the guys at the parts department, they too will go out of their way to help you find exactly what your wanting and offer options to ponder.

The good thing about the slip ons is that you dont have to do any intake modifications or mapping.  You get quite a bit more sound, deeper rumble, and their easy to install.  Down the road, a long time down the road, I may consider some V&H headers and intake but for now this will be just fine.  The next step of exhaust investment is kind of heavy so its just gonna have to wait.

 Side note: (The Street Glide stock shocks are air, you can see in the picture the new Burly Slammers I put on a few months back.  Unfortunately I didnt take pics of the process of installing them at home.  It would have made a nice blog to show how easy it is and that just about anyone can do it.)

So onwards to the installation.  I took a few pictures of the process but there really isn't much to it.  First take off the saddle bags.

I like to put the saddle bags on a cloth to prevent scratching the bottom.

Now you have to take off 2 screws that hold and support the rear of the muffler to the saddlebag support (1/2 inch socket), and loosen one bolt that holds the muffler on to the header (9/16 socket).  Do this for both mufflers.

Then just sit down on the ground behind the bike, brace it by putting your foot on the rear tire, grab that muffler and wiggle it while pulling.  It's really that easy, and it will just slide off.  Hehe, slip offs to put on the slip ons.  Then literally just slip the new ones on, use the 2 bolts that you took off the rear portion of the original mufflers to secure the new ones to the saddlebag support.  The slip ons have a bolt to secure them to the header which is the same as the stock mufflers.  The only thing you might want to do is measure the distance from the saddlebag support to the end of the slip ons to be sure they stick out the same distance at the rear of the bike before tightening the bolts.  Once you have them on be sure to wipe them WELL to remove any oil or residue of any kind.  If you dont and you have smudges, oil, finger prints, etc, when you start the bike and the slip ons warm up those smudges will permenantly be ingrained in the chrome.  I wiped mine, then used chrome polish before starting it up.

Here is the before pic with the original stock mufflers.

And here it is with the new slip ons.



It took 30 minutes start to finish to install.  Anyone can do it and you only need 2 basic tools to do it.  They look and sound great.

Here is how it looks from the side. Bah, not the best picture but it will do.

Cancelled Muenster Ride

Well our Muenster, TX ride was cancelled due to severe thunderstorms all over North Texas. Yup, all that red stuff is heavy downpour.  Not a lot of fun to ride around in that.  This gives me a chance to catch up with some blog graphic upgrades and some other exciting news. 

My wife and I went shopping yesterday to purchase her first pieces of riding gear.  She has been wanting to ride for a long time now and we have been mulling over ideas and plans to get her started.  She did get to try out using bike controls on the jumpstart at the dealership during our chapters Garage Party in June.  She was stoked after trying it with mentorship from our chapters director.  She kept talking about how awesome it was to turn that throttle and feel the bike rumble. Her desire was fueled and the addiction to want to ride had set in. Now all I hear is "When do I get my Harley?!"  Gotta learn to ride first baby!

Now comes the good stuff.  Like I said, we had been trying to figure out the best way to get her started.  We looked around for some cheap used bikes, looked at craigs list, had some of the chapter members looking around for us.  Then on last weeks Going to the Gap ride, a couple showed up that I had not met yet.  They were super nice and we hit it off like we had been friends for years.  I was telling them about my wife and that we were looking for a bike of some sort for her to get her feet wet on and didnt care what kind it was.  He contacted me the next day and said to get in touch with a long time friend of his.  I did. And could not believe what happened.  His friend has a 1981 Kawasaki KZ1000 that he was getting ready to donate to charity to clear some room in his garage.  He said the bike runs well and just needs a few maintenance tweaks.  Oil change, fork seals, and a small oil leak by the shifter is all that is needed.  He put a new battery, paint job, and tires on it already.  He said that bike has a history of being passed on to friends and family so they could learn to ride and that we could have the bike for her to learn to ride on!!!  WOW, talk about generousity from so many people. Another great thing about this is that our son has been wanting to ride as well and has saved for his down payment on a bike but needs to get some experience under his belt first.  So that Kawasaki is going to perfect for both of them to get going on. Thank you so much Jerry, Monica, and Russell for helping to make their desire to ride come true!

I havent seen the actual bike were picking up next weekend but here is what that model looks like. Pretty kewl!!!

So yesterday we headed out with a stomach full of butterflies in excitement about buying her some pieces of gear in preparation for her first solo ride! She's into the "Pink thing" so on and on we shopped until she found a suitable color and style. I'm sure you can relate to how shopping with most woman can be.... We shopped around quite a bit and eventually found a very nice helmet and gloves for her.

While shopping I found a super nice set of raingear on sale and bought it for myself.  Since the jacket and pants were sold separately they didnt come with a bag to put them in.  So my wife being the awesome seamstress she is, made me a nice bag for it.  She had embroidered an HD patch a few months ago while experimenting with her Husqvarna embroidery machine so I had her sew that on the bag for decoration.  It came out perfect and its small so it fits very nicely into my saddlebag.

Going to the Gap Ride

Destination: Cranfills Gap, TX

Todays ride began at Fort Worth Harley Davidson.  Thanks to our dealership for all of their support of our chapter!  Every ride begins with meeting 30 minutes or so before the trip to talk crap and like today, slob on donuts!  Then we group up, go over our road rules and hand signals. Just a side note here:  did you know there are mechanical hand signals?!

The underlying purpose of each and every ride is to HAVE FUN, and safe riding is part of making that happen.  After this we saddle our beasts and get in a riding group headed by a road captain.

We had right at 25 riders today and it was an absolutely beautiful cool morning.  Keep in mind, beautiful MORNING!  HAHAHA! The day surely did not stay cool.  We stopped at a gas station somewhere along the way, dont really remember where it was just to stretch and grab a drink before moving on to Glen Rose where we took another rest before pushing onwards for the longest leg of the trip.

Next stop was Cranfills Gap, TX where we stopped for lunch at the Horny Toad Bar and Grill.  And yes, there was a big horny toad inside the front door.  Keep in mind it took 4 hours to get to our destination. So good food, birthday cheers, and cooling off came just at the right time as the heat began blasting our faces at 104 degrees.  I would encourage any riders and riding groups to make the trip.  The scenery is great, the roads are winding, and the Horny Toad provides the perfect justification to make the ride.

Each group had 8 riders and this here is a look at the group of bikes I was in which was group 2.  We were the uber kewl group just because, we were.  My little scooter is the street glide that is next to the furthest bike back in the picture.

A quick look at group 3 reveals that since they were behind everyone else they were obviously the slackers today.

Group 1 heads out leaving the rest of us trailing behind to say Goodbye to Cranfills Gap!  We enjoyed the Horny Toad Bar and Grill and appreciate them having us as their guests!

Most rides are great, we get to see deer, rabits, squirrels, and squashed things sometimes unrecognizable on the road.  The scenery is always great, and the companionship is fantastic.  However on this ride home, a horrible thing happened to a cager, their car caught on fire on a lonely stretch of road.  As we crested a hill and were looking down seeing the smoke billowing violently into the air, we were able to plainly see an explosion from the car.  The trees and grass along the road burst into flames and apparently the debris or gas from the explosion shot across the road and caught the grass and trees on the other side on fire as well.  Fortunately no one was injured, the passengers had gotten out safely and there was a fire truck pulling up as we came upon the incident.  We were forced to wait until they extinguished the flames and cleared the road to safely pass.

This took about an hour to clear and we were on our way again.  We stopped in Glen Rose on the return trip and were hydrating when another group of riders came in and nearly carrying a lady that had suffered heat stroke.  She was in bad shape, pale, not sweating.  We helped them with wet towels to cool her off and after quite some time she kind of came back to reality and we knew she would be ok.  One of the men from her group left to bring back a truck to take her home in so she would not have to face the heat again.

Overall it was a great 240 mile trip, hot, exciting, and very eventful with the unusual side occurences that do not usually happen.