| Author | Message | ||
     46champ |
It does not surprise me that you feel kind of "eh" about a BMW K model. It is hard to get excited about an appliance, after all how often have you really been excited about a toaster or a food dehydrator. | ||
| Rick_a |
They don't call em trouble heads and flying bricks for nothing. Dual plugs are also used on big bore engines.  20150430_124033 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr The wife wanted me to get an early K100. She can get her own. I got the Suzuki above for something fun, good on gas, and relatively low maintenance. The Buell seems to always have a slow oil leak somewhere. I was looking forward to having an externally dry engine. That oil leak sprung up almost immediately. | ||
| Greg_e |
Yeah, that's just it, it's just a thing to go down the road. If the color was different I might feel differently about it. If it was cleaner and all the pieces fit like when it was new... This one was just worn, nothing that speaks of abuse or neglect, just worn. Even thought that maybe if I painted it I'd be happier, but not so sure. Maybe it just wasn't different enough from what I've been riding since I started, all my cycles have been "sport" bikes. Maybe I need a big departure from that style of riding position. | ||
| Greg_e |
Is that aviation gasket goop? Pull that off and give hylomar a try, not a single leak from my top end rebuild with the hylomar. Think I ordered it from summit racing with a few other things, no one local had it in stock. | ||
| Tootal |
The plastic on the K bike is slightly adjustable. When putting it back on you had to line things up before you tightened the screws and it sounds like this guy just ran the screws in without lining things up. I will tell you the K bike is boring at normal speeds. It doesn't become fun till around 110 mph. It cruises at 130 all day and mine topped out at 140. It was an autobahn burner, a great GT bike. Around town it felt long and heavy but then I had the RS version and the narrow bars didn't help it any at slow speeds. | ||
| Greg_e |
The fiberglass body panels were good, it was the black plastic parts like from glove box covers, speaker grills, anything made from injection molded plastic seems like it shrunk a lot. IDK, just didn't get the feeling that I HAD to have this machine, so back looking for alternatives. There is a nice 68 BMW not too far away with a sidecar, says matching numbers, all original... Wants $10,000, this would probably be a really fun machine and something totally different. I'm not going to look at it because it's more money than I'm willing to spend on another toy, but someone on here might be interested. | ||
| Tootal |
Sounds like it sat in the sun a lot. Too bad. Well the R100's were pretty reliable but costly to maintain if not taken care of. If you could find a nice Road King with an evo engine you would probably be happy. I had an electra glide sport which was the precurser to the Road King. It had some teething problems but by 1993 they had fixed all the short comings. As long as you don't soup up an evo too much they are pretty damn dependable. Only factory problem is valve guide seals. Replace them with the spring loaded type and problem solved. Once you're use to the weight they do handle fairly well if you don't mind counter steering. | ||
| Tootal |
Here's a 97 police bike for $7000.00. 45,000 miles and last of the evo's. You'd need to change the seat but the police bikes got the better clutch and maybe cam, depending on the year. http://ithaca.craigslist.org/mcy/5212292848.html An EV13 Andrews cam and new valve guide seals would make this a really nice ride depending on condition ofcourse. | ||
| Greg_e |
Electra Glides are starting to get above my fun money limit, but I am looking at them. That police version would need a fairing too. Which brings up an issue, I look at all the newer faired machines, and they all seem to use the same single headlight, swept fairing so they all look alike to me. The FLT had that dual headlight and fairing mounted to the frame. Many consider it ugly, but I like it. Nothing for sale nearby or cheap enough to risk on the shovelhead right now. Need to keep looking and be patient so I don't do something stupid. | ||
| Greg_e |
How about a 2005 Electra Glide Ultra Classic with 58k for $7600? Got a line on one and going to give it a ride Saturday. It's a little worn, more so than the typical touring guys let their machines get, but runs and drives and is a fairly pretty color (I think, lighting sucked). | ||
| Patches |
Check to see if maintenance was kept up on the chain tensioners. You may want to upgrade the cams anyway. | ||
| Greg_e |
Put a deposit on it today, I was surprised how agile that big machine was once it was rolling. Plenty enough power for me, the 5 gears seem to be fine to 70mph. Thinking about the 2 year warranty, it just sneaks in under the limit to be able to have that warranty. Black Cherry/Black Pearl color scheme   (Message edited by greg_e on September 19, 2015) (Message edited by greg_e on September 19, 2015) | ||
| Greg_e |
Yes, it is at the local dealer (open house today), I'm sure they were going to wholesale it off, for $7600 it seems like a good deal despite being a little rough around the edges. Sorry about the second post, after screwing with linking the images I couldn't go through another edit! | ||
| Greg_e |
Where is a good Harley forum? Just signed up a V-Twin forums and just about every link there seems to be some sort of click bait, only good back there if the information is good. | ||
| Snacktoast |
How much for the 2 year extended warranty? The reason I ask is: Cam chain tensioners, the shift shaft seal, and front rubber engine mount will likely need replacement soon(ish) if they haven't been done already. All of which are covered by H-D's extended service plans. Having worked in an HD service department for years, I saw these items all the time with mileage. Otherwise the powertrain is pretty bullet proof if they aren't abused or modified. (Message edited by snacktoast on September 20, 2015) | ||
| Greg_e |
That is exactly why I was thinking about it. Looking at the paperwork, looks like around $1600. I've already checked out the above video on the cam chain sliders, not too scary and if I open it up, I'd probably go ahead and change them. Haven't looked up the motor mount yet or shift shaft seal. I'm sure the mount is easy, but what about the shaft seal, can it be done from the outside? | ||
| Tootal |
After 2002 Harley quit using forged cranks. After 2003 they quit using the double Timken bearing set up and switched to two roller bearings. At this time they no longer worried about crank run out. The tolerance went from .001" to .014". So if you get into the cam chest check your run out on the crank. If under .0015" then you might consider going with gear drive cams. Not a cheap option but it's a one time deal and you can just forget it. If the run out is more then they make a kit to change it to hydraulic tensioners. This is much better than stock. After seeing the damage that can be done by a chain tensioner failure I would change it to one of those options. | ||
| Greg_e |
Yeah, thinking about the hydraulic tension upgrade, need to research the cost. If I'm going to be in there, I like to get upgrades done at that time. | ||
| 86129squids |
+1! I've always liked that 2-tone scheme... down the line, see about getting that tour-pack detachable. Then, you've got a Streetglide! | ||
| Badlionsfan |
They do handle pretty well for what they are. I enjoy my 2009 Geezer Glide with 46k miles. I'm on HDForums.com. Pretty active board, a lot of good guys that know their stuff from my experience. | ||
| Snacktoast |
The shift shaft seal requires the inner primary to come off for replacement. Shops will typically bill 3.5 hours for this job. A good tech can do it in 2-2.5. So the labor will bite ya on that job. It does require some specialty tools as well. The front engine mount isn't too bad. I think the mount is something like $70-75, shops will bill 0.5-1.0 hours depending on if you have an oil cooler installed. The hydraulic tensioner upgrade is decent. If you're in there, make sure the inner cam bearings are replaced with the torrington bearings and that the lifters are replaced at the same time. An inner cam bearing failure can mean destroyed engine cases. Gear drive cams were mentioned, but you'll have to retune unless you use the S&S stock replacement cams, since gear drive setups require gear drive cams - you can't reuse chain drive cams. I'm not a huge fan of gear drives since due to the design of the stock HD crankshaft. With a pressed pin, there's no guarantee it wont scissor or shift on you. Granted the 4" stroke crank is about 90% better in this regard than the 4 3/8" stroke of the 07-later bikes, if you have more than .003" runout on the pinion shaft, you cannot use gear drive. We generally would only recommend gear drive for highly modified engines where the crankshaft was properly prepped or the customer used a new S&S crank, which is about 50000% better in this regard thanks to the superior design of it  | ||
| Sagehawk |
What are the inner cam bearings used in the Twin cam setup? | ||
| Greg_e |
Found this, guess I either need to make a tool, or pay the ransom for the warranty. With 56,000 miles the tensioners are due to be replaced again. Maybe I'll get lucky and they were done recently, have to wait until tomorrow to see what they have in the system. https://youtu.be/XLzXzsBJCR0 | ||
| Snacktoast |
Stock inner cam bearings are INA. Half as many rollers as the torrington or equivalent. | ||
| Greg_e |
I think I found a more slick tool on ebay, was only $25 with free shipping so I bought it. Read over the warranty card and it doesn't specifically say cam chain or cam chain tensioners so I'm pretty certain those won't be covered. Since I know it is probably time for those tensioners to be replaced, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy the warranty. Id be better off puting the money into parts and making/buying tools right now. (Message edited by Greg_E on September 21, 2015) | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Fun fact: The proper Torrington bearings are the same as the cam bearings for my Ironhead. The H-D dealership I bought them from told me they had like 30 of them in stock and I asked them why would they have 30 ironhead cam bearings in stock but not any other ironhead stuff? Everything else had to be special ordered but not the cam bearings  | ||
| Greg_e |
So when I rip this apart, let me make sure I'm doing this right... Inner cam bearings changed to torrington type Both tension arms replaced with newest slider New chain guide (plastic) New gasket for cam cover I'm not sure I want to go to the hydraulic tensioner, thinking that just replacing the spring pensioners with some regularity might be good enough and will take me 4 or 5 replacements to get up to the price of the hydraulic unit. Shift shaft seal doesn't look like it is leaking, cycle hadn't even been washed when I road it, so some trace should have been visible. | ||
| Tootal |
First off let me say that if you were to go with gear drive cams you could go with Andrews 21G cams. They work just fine with the Stage one upgrade to the ecm. Plus they will wake the engine up! If you stay stock then take the silent chain off and clean and dry it. Use a piece of glass or other flat surface and use some fine emory paper and polish the back side of the chain. The slicker the better and the longer the plastic tensioners will last. | ||
| Dwardo |
I bought a 2002 Road King in 2009 for the purpose of riding to Sturgis. It had 17000 miles on it. I took it to a local HD mechanic who does work on the side and he inspected the cam chain tensionsers and said I would have probably gotten to Philadelphia before they failed. I looked at the parts he took out and had to agree. He fixed it, I rode it out there, and it's been golden ever since. It does handle very well for its size. I raised mine an inch in the back with Works shocks and did some other upgrades. It sounds like a good deal but definitely have the chain tensioners checked. | ||
| Sagehawk |
More fun facts to add. I had a bud that bought a 93 dyna convertible. 13 months later he tossed an inner cam bearing. 3 years later ,my 96 road king was bought. At 28000, I capped a inner cam bearing. Fast forward to 2015, and yes we are still talking smack about inner cam bearings. Ina brand to be specific. What is wrong with this picture? Something like 22 years using a bearing that doesn't do the job? I hate to ask, but the folks that have been in their timing chests, what are the inner cam bearings in our xb's? I'll never buy another Harley product with that mindset in the company! Bean counters are the driving force there. |
