Harley Starter Problem

I'm pulling this from memory, so forgive my lack of detailed info.

I had a 1989 Harley-Davidson FXRT Sport Glide that I bought new that year. One of the improvements was a high output starter. I didn't find it to be a damn bit better than on my 1975 Super Glide, so I figured it was just marketing hype.

A few years later, the starter acted up. I'd hit the button and nothing would happen, a couple of more tries and it would work. I cleaned and tightened whatever wires I could, but no good. The button seemed to be working fine. Then it died completely, and I trailered it to the shop.

I brought it to Mancini's in Danbury CT on Kenosia Avenue. Sorry, Ray Mancini is no longer there and it's a shame because that guy was one of the best bike mechanics I've ever known, and certainly the most honest.
He checked it over, and determined the starter was shot. $300 later, I had a brand new genuine HD starter. It was no better performing than the original.

A few months later, that starter died abruptly, no warning as with the original. Back to Mancini's.
Ray took the starter apart, and found that one of the structural rods in it was also a current conductor. It was made of a very weak metal, much like potmetal, and it had simply melted!
Ray replaced it with a high strength steel unit he fabricated.

HOLY CRAP what a difference! The starter now was indeed a high output! One touch of the button, and that engine spun like mad! It was beutiful!

I don't remember what Ray charged me, I actually think it was nothing since the starter he installed hadn't lasted but a few months. Customer service to the max, as usual.

So, it's likely the original had that crap metal as a conductor too.

I sold the bike a couple years later, so I don't know what the long term result was. I am sure it is still working though.

So, this comes about 20 years too late, but if you have an 89 Harley big twin with a factory starter (I don't know how many years they used the same starter), and it dies or acts up, don't replace it, take it apart and look for crap metal rods and other parts. Replace them with good steel and prepare to be amazed.

Tools Explained

This is at least 3 years old, and I can't find out who first wrote it. But it's funny enough that I can't resist posting it.


DRILL PRESS : A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Oh shit!"

SKIL SAW : A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS : Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER : An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW : One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS : Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH : Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW : A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK : Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes , trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW : A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST : A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER : Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER : A tool for opening paint cans . Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

PRY BAR : A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER : A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER : Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE : Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

SON-OF-A-BITCH TOOL : (A personal favorite!) Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "Son of a BITCH! "at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

Hope you found this information useful.

4 Favorite Harleys

I've made fun of Harley Davidson (AKA Hardly Ableson, or Hardly Riddenson) quite a few times. But there are some models of Harley that I just love and would immediately buy if I won a lottery.

First up is the very first Super Glide.

1971 Super Glide

Unlike most people, I love the fiberglass boat tail back fender.
I first saw one of these in a Hot Rod magazine ad when I was in elementary school. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen and remains so to this day.
I would leave it absolutely stock except to modernize the engine internals, such as hardened valve guides.

Next is a 1986 FXRD, the only year they made them.

FXRD

I had an 89 FXRT, which is a slightly stripped down version of the same bike, having just the fairing and saddlebags. I added everything you see on the FXRD except the floorboards and I was going to get to those when I had to sell it (layoffs, kids, minivans...). These are, to my mind, the most functional HD's ever made, but they "Duh-uh, didn't look like a Harley" so they didn't sell.

Third we have the 1973 Sportster. Same as the 72, but with a front disk brake.

You Tube 73 Sporty

I had a 72 with an updated front brake. Oil leaking, vibrated like a paint shaker, unreliable, handled badly. But man she was sexy and just a hoot to ride.

And last, but not least, the XLCR.

XLCR Cafe

Again, "Duh-uh, didn't look like a Harley" and so a functional bike didn't sell.

There you go. Four Harleys that I would love to have in my stable (if I had a stable).
Just to bop around on short trips and to stare at.

Touring? Nope, I'd get a Victory Vision

Daily ride? Nope, I like my 82 Honda Magna for that.

Now I know there are many other very good Harleys, but overall, these are the only ones that truly interest me. Of course, I need to be realistic, none of the four are easy or cheap to come by. If I ever do get another HD, it will likely be a late model 883 Sportster which is OK really. After all, I was thinking about getting one as a first bike for my oldest daughter. That plan has changed, more about that later.

Motorcycles: A bit more explanation

Before I bore you, check out this unrelated comic. I don't care what your politics are, this is funny (you'll have to click on it to see the whole thing):


see more hipster robot webcomics and pixel t-shirts

Anyways, I realized that I want to say more about Harleys and give additional explanations to my last post.

Yes, Harley's quality stinks. Yet, I do feel that a Sporty, specifically an 883, is a good beginner bike. They are fairly light, have a very low center of gravity, lots of low end torque, yet are not very quick, quite anemic actually. They handle OK, but don't do anything fast, that is, they are not "twitchy" or in any way sensitive. They have a very low seat height. They are very simple, basic machines. Parts are plentiful and easy to get, even for 30 year old models.

But I have 2 laws of Harley buying that are very important to this whole blog:

The first law of buying a Harley:

NEVER BUY A NEW HARLEY. ALWAYS BUY A USED ONE, PREFERABLY OVER 4 YEARS OLD

You see, a new Harley is guaranteed to have some kind of awful design defect, which may not show up for thousands of miles. This is as true today as it was 20 years ago, though a better situation than 30 years ago. There are numerous examples, such as el cheapo cam bearings, defective cam tensioners (there were actually 2 or 3 separate defects here, spanning I don't know how many years), offset wheel alignments - the list goes on, it could fill a book. How would you like to dump $25k for a bike that is equaled or surpassed in performance and features by an under $20k Jap bike, and then have the cams shred all over the inside of your engine in a few thousand miles?

But both the motor company and an unbelievably huge aftermarket will quickly come up with fixes for the defects as soon as they are uncovered. Your job, as a smart Harley buyer (no such thing really, but I've been there and may again, so I say "smart" instead of "not quite criminally stupid"), is to wait until the particular year and model defects are discovered and a fix developed, then buy the thing, knowing now what you need to do to make it roadworthy. Better yet, wait until a previous owner has done the fix and then buy the bike after.
Also, there will be some assembly line defects, such as loose or ill fitting parts, that will cause you some inconvenience. Better to let someone else take care of all the assembly line gremlins and buy the bike after that.

This brings up the second law of buying a used Harley:

NEVER BUY A HARLEY WITH LESS THAN 5,000 MILES ON IT

This seems like a no brainer based on over 4 years old, but with Harley's t'aint necessarily so. Riders of other bike brands will commonly refer to Harleys as "Hardley Ablesons" or in the context of this blog "Hardley Riddensons" You see, it is very common for people to buy a Harley and only ride it an occasional short distance to show it off. Check the classifieds and you will see 4 year old Harleys with less than 3k miles on them, and I'm being generous. Bikes referred to by the term "trailer queen" are almost always Harleys.

But you can't be too sure that all the assembly line issues have been exorcised until at least 5k miles. Keep looking.

So, a used Harley, while grossly overpriced, is a safer bet than a new one, provided all the work was properly done. Of course, that's usually hard to be sure of, so all the normal used vehicle precautions apply.

Now, the idea with my daughter's bike, if we ever do it, is to buy a Sporty that's pretty ugly, but not mechanically terrible. There aren't too many of those, but they can be found here and there. I have no problem with stripping the bike down to the frame, and in fact that is what we would do, then painting it as she wants (she won't paint it pink, so I can get away with this). The only super expensive, difficult work would be if the tranny, or some major engine component was bad.

I've probably sworn you off Harley's forever. That's not my intent. Remember that I do hope to buy one or more sometime down the road, and I will gladly let my daughter have one for her first bike. It's just that you cannot trust the motor company, you cannot buy a new one unless you can afford to go through a lot of troubles. Then too, new Harley's are enormously expensive to maintain, the service charges are astronomical. But the bikes are very basic and easy to maintain, so if you get a used one, well there's no warranty, so you can buy a service manual and do it yourself.

There you have it, a further explanation of my previous post. Hope you're not as bored as I think you are!

Motorcycles: Never Satisfied Again

Ah motorcycling used to be so easy.
Note: none of the images linked herein are of my own bikes. One of these days, I'll upload those and link to them.

When I was a kid, I loved Suzuki’s so that’s what I rode, no problem, no question.
Then, in ’82 a buddy let me ride his Harley and I just fell in love with them. Sold the Suzuki GT 750 I had (yes, as a matter of fact, I do regret selling that bike) and bought a used ’75 Super Glide. I later had a ‘73 Sportster and an ’89 Sport Glide. No decisions to make except what model Harley to ride.

Times got tough and I had to sell my Harley. Years later, my wife said “time for another bike” and we bought an ’82 Honda Magna.

Well, now my biking life is complicated and pretty unhappy. Bottom line is that unless I win a big fat lottery, I’m never going to be satisfied. The reason is that I love this bike, but don’t have the time to work on it, can’t afford a new bike, don’t like most of the new bikes anyway, and won’t be satisfied with a Harley either.

Follow this stupid, tortured path:

Even though it’s a Honda, the Magna is 26 years old at the time of this writing, and the previous owner didn’t take too good care of her either, so believe me she requires a lot of work to keep running. Now with something simple, like a Harley, that wouldn’t be too big of a deal. But this thing is a V4, double overhead cam, water cooled, 4 carburetor, freakin’ nightmare. Almost every component on this bike is buried under something. The clearances between parts are tighter than a homophobe’s butt cheeks in prison. Bottom line is that the simplest, most basic repair or maintenance, other than oil changes and tire pressure checks, is a long torturous project. I can tell you for a fact that it takes longer for me to replace the choke and throttle cables on this thing than it does to completely remove and reinstall a Harley carburetor and cables. I have lost countless days of riding due to this.

OK so why not have a shop do the work? Well for one thing I can’t afford it. For another, most motorcycle mechanics don’t know anything about these bikes and are just as likely to screw them up as fix them. That includes Honda certified mechanics. So, without that lottery win, I’m on my own.

“Hey jackass” you say, “why keep fighting with such a pain in the neck bike? Why not buy something else that doesn’t eat your time?” Well, yeah, God knows there are all sorts of affordable used bikes that would require less work and / or be much easier to work on. But I don’t care for any of them, so I won’t be satisfied. I do think a BMW 900 would do the trick, but I’m not sure.

Harleys? Ah, I do still love those things, and I do wish I had one, but they are horribly overpriced and underperforming. I don’t think I’d be satisfied. Perhaps I should try to take one for a test ride to find out. But I still really couldn’t afford it anyway.

The thing with this Magna, the thing that keeps me fighting, is that absolutely no motorcycle manufacturer in the world makes a bike like it anymore. I’m not kidding nor exaggerating. The closest thing to it is the Yamaha VMax, and those are not as comfortable, don’t generally handle as well and are just as complicated.

The early Magna’s like mine (officially she’s my wife’s bike, that’s another story), have the most perfect balance of power, handling and comfort of any small (750cc) cruiser bike ever made. No bull. This thing is light and nimble at slow speeds, yet perfectly stable and smooth at high speeds. The ride is very comfortable for such a small bike, yet she has ample ground clearance and would go around corners very well were the shocks and fork springs not trashed. I can push her around the garage and driveway with no trouble, yet she can carry around my fat ass and one of my kids without complaint. She will flat blow away any unmodified Harley except a V-Rod (my opinion of those is yet another story), yet will get over 40mpg if not ridden maniacally. The power delivery of this engine is fascinating to me. She pulls fairly strong right off idle, then gets pretty lively once over 3,000 rpm, and then very suddenly at 7,000 rpm it’s as if an afterburner kicks in and she pulls my arms back right up to redline at around 10,000 rpm. It’s a rush that only a Magna or a sportbike can deliver. The V65 (1,000cc) Magna is even more powerful, but that’s more than I need.

The reason that there are no cruisers like this any longer is that the Jap bike manufacturers have decided to go completely over to V-twins like a Harley. It’s basic economics, I can’t blame them. Most everybody who’s into cruisers wants a Harley or something like it, so imitating Harley is where the sales and money are. I personally couldn’t give a rat’s patoot about the Harley “mystique,” and really, most people buy Harleys as faux penis enlargers (look at me, I’m sooooo tough, I’m soooo cool). But once again, I will say I do love the look, sound, and feel of a Harley. But even if I could afford it, I find it so difficult to pay so much money for something that performs so poorly and is of such low quality. Yes folks, Harley quality sucks, has since AMF bought them in the early 70’s, and still does now that they are independent, and always will.

And yet.

Every time I have to do any work on the Magna, I cringe. I hate it, and I will be missing a lot of good riding days this year too. The torture never stops. My oldest daughter has suggested that I buy an old Sportster that needs fixing up and then we can work on it together and it would be her first bike. I love that idea and a Sportster is a good first bike, believe it or not. Yeah, but when can I work on her Sporty (short for Sportster), when I have to sink time into the Magna? Also, I can tell you that I missed more riding with the ‘89 Harley than any other bike I’ve ever owned. That pig broke down just pushing it out the garage. I finally got it running right and not breaking down just the year I sold it. On the other hand, my ’75 almost never gave me any trouble, year after year, mile after mile. Go figure.

Well, there you are. I have a bike that I hate to love, new bikes suck (oh yeah, I can’t fit a sportbike), most old bikes aren’t too interesting, and Harley’s are wicked expensive and slow. Actually I think my family would prefer that I get a slow bike, but I aint asking them.

I don’t think I’ll ever be fully satisfied again.