I've been tackling repair and maintenance matters as they come up. I've been learning a lot. I'm proud of the fact that, with very little experience, less aptitude and cheap supermarket quality tools as a base set, I've been able to get and keep my bike running better than it was when I bought it. We're getting to know each other.
One of the best resources I have is an internet forum for Sportster owners, I've had some good advice from them. I like to repay the favour by documenting my misadventures, which might stop someone else encountering the problems that I have. This is what I sent them today. Even if you don't know a wrench from a spanner, you should get the gist of it.
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I recently flattened two batteries in a week and after a bit of poking and prodding, I was told that my stator was No Longer Serviceable. Flushed with my successful elimination of gas cap rattle and replacement of rocker cover gaskets last season, I thought it would be a good idea to tackle the replacement myself and get to know the innards of my bike a little better while I was at it. And give you something to read about if, like here, the weather has turned inhospitable.
It was easier than I thought. Tracking backwards and forwards to the auto parts store to buy tools (a multi-meter, large 1/2" drive sockets, 3 separate sets of snap-ring pliers, red loctite, and a few other odds and sods) took more than its fair share of time, but between the HD shop manual, the Haynes manual and the odd website printout, I got it stripped down pretty easy for a novice Harley mechanic.
Thanks to all on the XL-List who offered advice last week about the chipped rotor magnets - I gave the rotor a wipe-over with petrol and a rag and reinstalled it after I installed the new stator, went for a run around the block in increasing circles, stopping to check the battery charge level. Ended up knocking out a brisk 25 miles around the local back roads before the rain hit...so far, the battery is holding it's charge, I'm still trying to figure out how to use my new multi-meter, and once the worst of this rain clears I'll take him out for a spin around the mountain, about 160 miles, and see if anything rattles loose. Once you've taken a primary cover off, it's not hard to see what interesting damage you'd cause if something - like a magnet - went flying about inside there....is this why some people favour open primaries?
Some things I learned, that might be useful to other wannabe mechanics and might save as many trips to the parts/tool store:
- a $50 bike/atv lift from your local auto parts store is a good investment if you're going to be doing big, time consuming jobs like this. This job would have been a real pita if I'd had to do it with the bike on the side stand.
- when you remove the primary cover, you'll be surprised at how much tranny fluid is left in the primary case after having drained it....quite surprised....rags and sand will soak up a fair bit, but not a bad idea to have a suitably sized container underneath the bike when you loosen that last bolt....
- I have learned that kitty-litter is a must-have in the amateur mechanics garage...it costs about twelve bucks for a bucket load that should be a few years supply....soaks up relatively large quantities of petrol, motor oil and transmission fluid in a short period of time.
- in order to remove the nuts securing the rotor/front sprocket and the clutch basket/rear sprocket, you need to stop the shafts rotating. If I hadn't just told you that, you'd realise it pretty quick. It's not immediately obvious how to stop the shafts rotating. Or, really, obvious after quite a while spent staring at it. Time to consult the oracle.
- as an aside, both these nuts are torqued on there pretty well, and as you will learn when you re-assemble they have been secured with red loctite. You can pretty much guarantee you're going to need a long breaker bar. I use my big torque wrench - it puts 'em on, I figure it must be close to perfect for taking them off.
- all that you'll get from the HD manual, with understated simplicity, is "Remove the engine sprocket nut"...well, it's the 'How' that we're really looking for, so no real help there. I've worked out that these guys really just don't want you working on one of *their motorcycles unless you're suitably qualified. HD manuals are a necessary evil, in my view, but a Haynes manual to supplement it has been worth every penny of the $25 I spent on it. Anyway, the HD manual does refer to a special tool, a Sprocket Locking Link (Part #HD-38362), but there is no immediately obvious picture or description of the tool or how it is used. Back to the drawing board.
- the Haynes manual suggests reinstalling the gear shifter, putting the bike in gear, and applying the rear brake with the back tyre on the ground, which will lock the engine while you loosen the nut.....this is a cruel hoax....I reinstalled the lever and shifted up into second gear; sat on the bike which was still upright on the bike lift, braced the rear wheel with a wooden block, then put my right foot on the brake while holding the 2' torque wrench and socket on the engine sprocket nut with my left hand while controlling the bars with my right hand and trying to stop the bike falling off the jack with my left foot while holding the socket onto the nut with my left knee.........
- in anticipation that you will attempt this and fail, Haynes have a contingency plan: remove the sparkplugs, find TDC compression, back off 1/8 of a turn then fill the compression chamber with thin nylon cord, inserted into the spark-plug hole. Once full, you can then easily rotate the nut with the piston jammed up against the nylon cord.
- you can't really imagine what it's like to feed 48 feet of thin nylon cord an inch at a time into a spark-plug hole, it's one of those things you have to experience for yourself. I experienced it for myself five times. I'm no quitter. A little more each time, but never quite enough to stop the piston moving through its arc. If there is a trick to this, I didn't get it. I did get a smile at Haynes advising "Be sure the end of the cord is still outside of the engine" before turning the nut. I don't know about you, but I get an instantaneous mental picture of a guy who has just watched his compression chamber swallow the last inch of the retrievable end of a large ball of twine....enough people must have done it to make it important to issue the warning....
- enough messing around with manuals, time to CONSULT THE XL-List ARCHIVES! Not more than a few minutes later, a 4" brass door hinge (#HD-38362) is installed between the two sprockets, and the nut is off.
- the nuts are different sizes. The one for the engine sprocket and the one for the clutch sprocket. You'd think they would be the same size, really, they're only a few inches apart in there. Not many people have a 1 1/8" socket in their 42-piece Bi-Mart socket set. I didn't. They cost six bucks each. So, I'd glanced quickly at the two nuts on the way out the door to the parts store and figured they would be the same size, but I've never really been good at that stuff. Anyway, once you get the front sprocket nut off, you quickly realise that you need a 1 3/16" socket to remove the clutch basket nut.
- it's left hand drive, that's why the 4" hinge works both ways.
- the nuts are recessed, so I couldn't measure them accurately with a ruler before I went to the parts store. I ended up getting a piece of stiff cardboard and slowly cutting it down until it was exactly the same width as the nut, then measured the card. I doubt I invented this idea, but it worked for me both times and saved me from buying the wrong size sockets.
- you have to route the plug end of the lead from the stator through the side of the primary case and across the top alongside the starter then down through the inside of the cam cover and along the right lower frame rail to plug into the regulator on the front downtube, well...all I can say is that it's easier said than done...I tried tying a long piece of thin nylon cord (I had a bunch just lying around the garage) to the old plug, and pulling it back through the primary so I could pull the new lead & plug back through with the cord (another Haynes suggestion). This didn't work well. The old plug just kept getting caught somewhere up underneath where I couldn't see or feel. Even when I jacked the bike up and lay underneath with a flashlight, I couldn't see what the problem was. I ended up cutting the wire off the old stator just past the sealing plug, then braided the wires around the plug from the new stator, wrapped it tight with a lot of electrical tape until it resembled a small torpedo, then drenched it in WD-40...and pulled the old plug down and through the front, pulling the new plug behind it. Messy but effective.
- when you're almost done replacing everything, there's a point at which you'll encounter an internal spring retaining clip that holds the adjusting screw assembly in place. You'll know the one I'm talking about when you find it. It was pretty easy to get out, using a screwdriver as a lever. It's a little harder to get back in. If you don't own a pair of proper spring clip pliers, may I suggest you purchase some...and pay the extra couple of dollars to get robust, good quality ones...on the third trip back to Schuck's, I got the big, one piece pliers - I could not, for the life of me, get those spindly removable tips to withstand the spring tension without bending or breaking....
- now I come to think of it, the cost of the new tools was more than the cost of the new part....although I believe I saved several hundred bucks by doing the job myself.
- don't forget to refill the primary when you're done. A long skinny funnel (I use an empty Bloody Mary Mix bottle) is a help. I'd only changed the primary fluid a few hundred miles ago, so I saved it and reused that. I note that this means that the primary now has 4 ounces less than it had in it before, the 4 'secret' ounces from the primary going on the garage floor, so for the sake of $5 or $6 I'll trundle down to the dealer tomorrow and buy a quart, which will be enough to top it up and have enough left to do a complete change next season.
Jack the nomad
2001 XLH1200, tax paid
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