RocDoc7
Member
Thanks again to all for the kind welcome I received in January and February.
The 1989 FXR is looking much better now, after a lot of grime removal, especially underneath; removal of black engine paint from all the covers and housings; removal of some chintzy, scratched chrome covers, especially on the rear wheel pulley.
I polished the rim of the pulley and painted the rest in a metallic red finish, close to the color of the bike's fenders and tank.
Notice the mirror gloss (it's not chrome) on the primary cover and derby cover. I stripped the black paint off and machine-polished all the external parts. Refreshed the black engine paint on the cylinders and then sanded the edges of the fins. They now resemble my Twin Cam Road King much more closely.
All lighting is now LED. The chrome bullets act as turn signals. The LED taillight/brake light has turn signals built in also -- what the heck, so I wired them together, and there's now a left pair and a right pair that blink , depending on the chosen direction. For a flasher, I used a generic electronic one. It came with an adjustment dial for the flash speed. Not bad for $5 (Amazon)!
Had to replace the spring on the kickstand and do some welding on its arm. It had lost its foot hook, so I made a new one and the kickstand is now behaved better. The spring was so lame that the arm was almost dragging on the road.
The aftermarket buckhorn handlebar was pulling me too far forward. I added a pair of 5-inch pullback risers, and it feels much better now (haven't ridden the bike yet, though).
I gutted the left handlebar switch and replaced the turn signal button with a L-0-R toggle switch. This is similar to what they have on metric bikes. It eliminates the self-canceling function. In 12 years on my Road King (FLHR) I haven't made friends with that feature, so it probably won't ever happen. I like to turn my blinkers on when needed, and off when I'm done. Don't like to guess if they're on or not. (Can you tell I'm one of the stubborn hard-headed 1970's riding dudes?)
Gee, that tank tunnel is tight. I had hoped to park most of my new wiring under there. But there's no room. So I made it as compact as possible, hid the colored wiring in black shrink tubes, and added a few split plastic spiral tubes on the outside. Those are now visible on the left side of the frame, on the way to the headlight and handlebar. But I saw no other way. The left side cover is full with circuit breakers and the turn signal flasher. The right side cover is totally full with a bunch of relays that I added to eliminate the old two-handed turn signal system and the self-canceling function. Could have done it without relays, but it allows for very thin wires to go to the handlebar, and they carry NO current. I have set up the relays so they are switched by the ground wires on the handlebars, not the hot wire. If there's ever a short, a rub-through or water intrusion, the worst that'll happen is that the turn signals come ON by themselves. No dramatic arcing, overheating, wires melting and crap like that which I experienced in the 1970's and 80's.
This looks pretty crazy, but it works well. Again, the advantage is that no live current runs to the handlebar switch. It switches only the ground to the relay, and then the relay sends the actual operating current to the lights. The middle relay in the picture is for the headlight. All of this is protected with a 10A fuse. Its cap is visible immediately to the right of the long yellow wire group (it's a black rectangle).
Here's the entire right side of the bike:
Notice that now the tranny cover and nose cone are fully polished. Same for the footboard supports, which don't show well in this photo. The seat is Mustang. I had a bear of a hard time inventing a way to attach it to the frame. Ended up welding two tabs to the frame that receive two pins I made from 5/16" bolts and welded to the underside of the seat. On the front, I welded a metal tab to the seat pan which slides under a metal bow where the tank attaches, too. The pillion pad is screwed in normally, I found pre-made places on the fender. The sissy bar is from Drag Specialties. Or maybe Custom Chrome? I forgot.
New rotor on the rear brake, and new pads inside the stock caliper.
Stock rubber oil hoses were brittle and porous. I wanted to replace them with a ready-made kit of stainless steel lines. But the bike came with an oil cooler at the front, so I couldn't find a kit that included this feature. So I bought 50 feet of 3/8" SS oil line and made my own hoses. I have the bites and cuts on my fingers to prove it. Those of you who have messed with stainless steel braids know what I'm talking about.
I haven't taken the carburetor off yet, but replaced the air cleaner with a K&N washable, oil-soaked one. I use K&N on all my bikes (7 total), as well as the old Chevy van I get around in. It's always an instant improvement.
Today I've taken out the stock ignition. It's still the old mechanical advance unit. I have purchased an ULTIMA ignition system that I'm installing during the next few days. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
Just for kicks and giggles: this is one of the steps toward polishing the primary cover. I removed the paint with one of those evil methyl-ketone (? I think) stripping gels. Yuck!
Absolutely wear long-sleeved rubber gloves. The stuff really bites into the skin if you get a squirt of it while brushing the paint goop off. I don't know what it'll do to your eyes, but presumably something horrible, so I always wear eye protection. Both doors in the shop wide open because the fumes are nasty also.
After the part is clean and rinsed, the real work begins. Polishing doesn't mean rubbing with a soft cloth and Turtle Wax. It means reworking the part on a high-speed cotton buffing wheel, along with White Rouge compound like the chrome platers use. Aluminum gets very hot in the process, which helps create a polished surface. Regular gloves don't work, use hotmill gloves. All my supplies come from Tarheel Parts in North Carolina. Been dealing with them for 20 years now. Good people.
Back to the shop now to unwrap my new Ultima Ignition parts.
Best,
RocDoc
The 1989 FXR is looking much better now, after a lot of grime removal, especially underneath; removal of black engine paint from all the covers and housings; removal of some chintzy, scratched chrome covers, especially on the rear wheel pulley.
I polished the rim of the pulley and painted the rest in a metallic red finish, close to the color of the bike's fenders and tank.
Notice the mirror gloss (it's not chrome) on the primary cover and derby cover. I stripped the black paint off and machine-polished all the external parts. Refreshed the black engine paint on the cylinders and then sanded the edges of the fins. They now resemble my Twin Cam Road King much more closely.
All lighting is now LED. The chrome bullets act as turn signals. The LED taillight/brake light has turn signals built in also -- what the heck, so I wired them together, and there's now a left pair and a right pair that blink , depending on the chosen direction. For a flasher, I used a generic electronic one. It came with an adjustment dial for the flash speed. Not bad for $5 (Amazon)!
Had to replace the spring on the kickstand and do some welding on its arm. It had lost its foot hook, so I made a new one and the kickstand is now behaved better. The spring was so lame that the arm was almost dragging on the road.
The aftermarket buckhorn handlebar was pulling me too far forward. I added a pair of 5-inch pullback risers, and it feels much better now (haven't ridden the bike yet, though).
I gutted the left handlebar switch and replaced the turn signal button with a L-0-R toggle switch. This is similar to what they have on metric bikes. It eliminates the self-canceling function. In 12 years on my Road King (FLHR) I haven't made friends with that feature, so it probably won't ever happen. I like to turn my blinkers on when needed, and off when I'm done. Don't like to guess if they're on or not. (Can you tell I'm one of the stubborn hard-headed 1970's riding dudes?)
Gee, that tank tunnel is tight. I had hoped to park most of my new wiring under there. But there's no room. So I made it as compact as possible, hid the colored wiring in black shrink tubes, and added a few split plastic spiral tubes on the outside. Those are now visible on the left side of the frame, on the way to the headlight and handlebar. But I saw no other way. The left side cover is full with circuit breakers and the turn signal flasher. The right side cover is totally full with a bunch of relays that I added to eliminate the old two-handed turn signal system and the self-canceling function. Could have done it without relays, but it allows for very thin wires to go to the handlebar, and they carry NO current. I have set up the relays so they are switched by the ground wires on the handlebars, not the hot wire. If there's ever a short, a rub-through or water intrusion, the worst that'll happen is that the turn signals come ON by themselves. No dramatic arcing, overheating, wires melting and crap like that which I experienced in the 1970's and 80's.
This looks pretty crazy, but it works well. Again, the advantage is that no live current runs to the handlebar switch. It switches only the ground to the relay, and then the relay sends the actual operating current to the lights. The middle relay in the picture is for the headlight. All of this is protected with a 10A fuse. Its cap is visible immediately to the right of the long yellow wire group (it's a black rectangle).
Here's the entire right side of the bike:
Notice that now the tranny cover and nose cone are fully polished. Same for the footboard supports, which don't show well in this photo. The seat is Mustang. I had a bear of a hard time inventing a way to attach it to the frame. Ended up welding two tabs to the frame that receive two pins I made from 5/16" bolts and welded to the underside of the seat. On the front, I welded a metal tab to the seat pan which slides under a metal bow where the tank attaches, too. The pillion pad is screwed in normally, I found pre-made places on the fender. The sissy bar is from Drag Specialties. Or maybe Custom Chrome? I forgot.
New rotor on the rear brake, and new pads inside the stock caliper.
Stock rubber oil hoses were brittle and porous. I wanted to replace them with a ready-made kit of stainless steel lines. But the bike came with an oil cooler at the front, so I couldn't find a kit that included this feature. So I bought 50 feet of 3/8" SS oil line and made my own hoses. I have the bites and cuts on my fingers to prove it. Those of you who have messed with stainless steel braids know what I'm talking about.
I haven't taken the carburetor off yet, but replaced the air cleaner with a K&N washable, oil-soaked one. I use K&N on all my bikes (7 total), as well as the old Chevy van I get around in. It's always an instant improvement.
Today I've taken out the stock ignition. It's still the old mechanical advance unit. I have purchased an ULTIMA ignition system that I'm installing during the next few days. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
Just for kicks and giggles: this is one of the steps toward polishing the primary cover. I removed the paint with one of those evil methyl-ketone (? I think) stripping gels. Yuck!
After the part is clean and rinsed, the real work begins. Polishing doesn't mean rubbing with a soft cloth and Turtle Wax. It means reworking the part on a high-speed cotton buffing wheel, along with White Rouge compound like the chrome platers use. Aluminum gets very hot in the process, which helps create a polished surface. Regular gloves don't work, use hotmill gloves. All my supplies come from Tarheel Parts in North Carolina. Been dealing with them for 20 years now. Good people.
Back to the shop now to unwrap my new Ultima Ignition parts.
Best,
RocDoc
