TOPIC:

pull the rear wheel and put the axle back in and get behind the bike and look forward while trying to line up the axle with the pivot bolt.if it is off they wont line up square and your eyeball will let you know.

other wise take the swingarm off and lay it on something flat and get the measuring tools out.some vee-blocks and long straight rods would help also.

hth,
leon

Cool little tail piece/seat pan! Is that a KZ1000 tail or a Z1/KZ900 tail? The sportster light looks like it belongs in there

Looks like u are off to a great start.
What year sportster is the tail lt. it looks like a nice fit.

The tail piece is the stock KZ1000 i just made it slimmer and shorter.

As far as the tail light goes i guess it isn't a sportster. I found it at a local bike salvage place that also sells some of aftermarket parts mostly crappy EMGO stuff, I was just wandering around the hundreds of shelves of parts looking for a light that would fit in the tailpiece nicely, and I found it in a box marked sportster lights. It didn't have any packaging or tag so the guy sold it to me for $20. After cruising around the internet I believe it to be this aftermarket HD fatbob light.

So I a bit confused right now, back when i was ordering parts for my bike I looked the engine VIN up on zedder.com and determined I had a 1978 engine. looking at my Clymer manual, it says that the nuetral detent arm, which i have, is only on 1979 and later models. I went o bikebandit.com to look at some of their engine diagrams and noticed the shape of my detent arm is the same as the 1980 A4. A guy I had do some work on the bike long ago told me that the engine was a 1980, but the VIN says otherwise. Can anyone shed light on this? Is there a way to tell just by looking at the engine?



i also noticed one of the side of this bolt was bent in so i decided to bend it back, (bad idea) and it snapped off. the bolt still holds the spring on it fine. do i need to track down a new one of these?

Is your bike an LTD ? Looks like you've got a 79 or 80 motor there - MKll style countersprocket cover ,squared ends on the valve cover and the tranny door cover in the pics of your shifter is MKll or J style not Z1. Count the teeth on your camchaincrank gear - Z1's had 15 teeth(and were used in some 79 LTD's) MKll has 16 teeth. Can't tell from your pics but if they are MKll cases there will be a reinforcing fin on the top case half running behind the engine serial number boss to the cases near the pcv cover.

like jack mentioned everything about your engine looks like an 80 model.it has the rib behind the oil fill cap.

what does the vin on the engine say?

leon

well it has 16 teeth and the fin behind the VIN so i guess it is an MKII.

The bike is registered as a 78 LTD and that checks out with the frame VIN. The engine VIN is KZTOOAE-068033 according to zedder.com that puts it in the correct range for a 78. So strange.... glad I have that figured out though. From what I have gathered the MKII is a better engine so i guess thats good.

you scored !!!!!!

beats a sharp stick in the eye

leon

So I have been working on the mold for my tail piece for the last week or so, here are some pictures of the process. I just bought some more fiberglass and am starting the first layup in the mold. I'm excited to see how this thing turns out! building the flange first layer of gel coat Fiberglass rough mold cleaned and prepped mold

this would be an awesome solution for those guys that are modifying 81 and later j block 1000's.
a little whack of the rear sub frame and weld a simple little subframe back on use one of these tails and bam,pretty dang sweet.

good work doctorot.

keep us posted,

leon

Hey Doc, I been wanting to replace the old factory shocks on my '81 LTD-1000 but have not had much luck with finding something. What are the shocks you have on there and where did you get them?
Maj.D.Saster