Adventrures in previous owner land...again.

Hi all,
Thought I'd share today's accomplishments. I have owned an 82 550 LTD for over 10 years. A few years ago I had a mis-hap and smoked #2 piston. I rebuilt it, but it just wasn't quite the same since and had 5-10 less psi for that cylinder. Anyway, I came across a barn find 81 550 with only 6k on the clock. I swapped motors and all the parts that were better than mine over. The plan was to get the parts bike running and re-sell it for the same I bought it for, maybe more.

Anyway, the PO had done a good job making my life harder, mainly around the exhaust, the intake and the fuel tank. The bike came with the airbox and ROCK HARD boots that no heat gun could cure...they were mangled up, probably from trying to install them. Me being the tightass I am, I decided I wasn't going to buy new boots for my main bike and donate my somewhat soft ones to the parts bike, but instead, use the pod filters I bought last year after having a few too many beers and thinking it was a good idea. The exhaust...oh boy. Harley touring slip on's...way too big, plus no real baffle - there is an insert, but the ID of the insert is almost the same as the 550's header, so really, its a straight pipe... After F'ing around with making some mounts (he used wire...) and fighting the chicken crap welding he did, I manged to get it looking somewhat reasonable...still kinda rough looking. The fuel tank is NOT a 550. He mounted the petcock on the right, which makes routing of the lines a pain, and it can't be switched back, because the hole that is on the left side is modified so the petcock won't fit or the petcock that is supposed to go with the tank is larger, eye to eye on the mounting bolts. Also, its longer and not as fat as the 550 one I own. The mounting uses the big bolt with a grommet, which of course I do not have nor would the frame accept it - so I made a little fix and have the tank mounted at least.

Anyway, after countless other little things, I managed to try and start it. After fiddling and fiddling, I figured my battery wasn't strong enough. After letting it charge, I noticed that the bike would idle good (considering where it started at....) then it wouldn't idle at all. After I was about to smash it with my pipe wrench, I figured I'd take a peek at the advancer....and my heart sank. What I found was not good. The minute I cracked the cover off I remembered I didn't torque the plate down when I was swapping things. Thank goodness all I found was a few marring marks on the casting of the motor, no damage...but the plate was not secured. I re-secured it and cleaned the advance really well because it was tight as...well, it was tight.

Then...FINALLY...she came to life. Not sure if I like the sound of the pipes.... Kinda bad ass, kind of really annoying. At one point I even made an endcap out of a soup can to try and add some back pressure - not even joking. At any rate, I got a fresh motor and a few other comestic things for my bike, spent $300 on this one (with title), stuck maybe $20 into it, and I'm hoping to put it up for sale for $500...and we'll see where we go from there. If someone stuck some money into better pipes and boots, I think this thing could be half-way decent looking bike.

Anyway, heres a before and after pic and I got some videos to link once they upload.

Worth a laugh - soup can baffles - I was getting desperate, this is before I found the advancer...


Idling ok finally...