Sportster Parts

I posted a question...(posed a question, in a post?) over on the XLForum about just where the coil should be properly located on my Sportster. In 69' (on an XLH) they put it under the seat. Well, I wasn't sure how a coil was going to fit in that spot. I posted a picture of my fender and folks got all excited about how my fender was not the correct fender. The one I had was from an earlier model. Mine should have an indentation for coil clearance.

As it turns out, my fender was a fairly rare piece so I took the opportunity to trade up. I swapped my fender for the correct fender and some other parts I needed. You can see in the top pic what it looks like now. Hardly a noticeable difference in the fender but if you are restoring a 58'-64' you are going to want that correct fender. The one for mine is available as a repop with the dent. My shocks were shot. They were frozen at two different lengths. Not sure how that happens but I couldn't even get them both on. I now have a decent set of originals. The springs should be black rather than chrome but I'm not going for 100 point resto.

That thing there is the timer. Apparently, Indians used a distributor but The Motor Company was not distributing sparks so much as timing them. So in the parlance of early Harleys, that's a timer not a distributor. The important part here is that timer is naked. It's also how the tach would be driven. It's probably not very weather-proof like this. 

Ahhh....that's better. I got a timer cover with tach drive in the swap. The tach drive is frozen but at least it's covered and kind of a hard part to find. This bike would have had a Tillotson carb wth no float bowl. You can see I have a float bowl there that might pose a clearance issue with the tach cable. Fun, fun. 

So here we have the key switch, coil, and some expensive plug wires that really wont work well on a bike this old that were apparently arcing like crazy. No horn in this pic. Later bikes were set up this way. Nothing wrong with this other that I'm shooting for a more original set up. But I got's no horn, or choke cable.

Not now, no more. I don't think this horn cover is exactly correct but it's good enough for who it's for. The choke cable goes through a tube between the jugs and attaches through that bracket just above the horn. That was another part of the trade. I can get a complete tube/knob/cable assy. from J&P. No clue what the red wire is for. I'm going to have to rewire the whole thing.

Now the coil lives here nestled snugly behind the battery that looks it came from a forklift. I was fortunate to find the coil bracket in the parts that came with the bike. The key switch was also moved back to it's original location. Funny place for a switch but that's where it goes.

I'm thinking about a Lakers theme for the paint. What do you think? 

 The wheel that was on her was a 16 incher with a tire that was grossly oversized. It would rub the fender for sure and it definitely rubbed on the chain. I'm sure that problem would solve itself in time. It was quite a chore getting the wheel off. The stocker probably weighs five pounds less than that big Dunlop on the black rim. I kind of liked the black though. I had the original and some spare bearings so I mocked it up and it's starting to look like a 69' Sportster again. So I swapped a fender for a fender, a horn, a timer cover, choke bracket, and some shocks. It still looks like it was just rolled out of a barn but it's coming along. I scored some handlebar mounts from ebay a while back; now I need to find a proper set of bars and get that seat mounted.