Posts Tagged ‘gastank removal’

Over the winter and during my my house remodelling project I managed to pick up a few pieces and parts for the old girl.  I acquired a 60602-79C inner primary new in the box (hope it interchanges as it should), a stock muffler bracket, a new set of CycleTech 37 inch slash cut drag pipes, and a HD Race Brace for the 91 circa softtail.  It doesn’t fit but I figure that I’m better off starting with something that has the basic geometry from which I can alter the fit to suit the need.  I also have ordered but have not yet received the stock rubber frame mount for said stock muffler bracket.  All good stuff that comes with high hopes of reducing/eliminating the mystery vibration and the torquing of the inner primary and the continuous loose pipes.  Could I be asking for too much?

As I noted in my last post, I noticed evidence of a blown head gasket on the rear cylinder (in the form of a hole burned through my jeans while sitting at a drive through window and touching my leg to the rear pipe – a little on the HOT side in my humble opinion.)   Yesterday the temperature got up to 62 degrees here.    I decided it was time to drag her out of the garage and tear off the top end.  This would give me the change to replace the blown head gasket and to see what shape my cylinder walls are in.  I might even pull the jugs just to shake the rods and to see if they are stock or stroked.  So, I spread out a tarp and commenced.

For those who have never done this I will document the steps that I took.  I like to document things as they were when I started so I take a lot of pictures during the tear down process.  I have a hard time remembering where I put the wrench I was using 5 mnutes ago let alone which plug wire went where (I have dual coil, single fire, dual plug ignition.)  If you undertake such a project I would recommend that you do the same.  Hell, you might even jot down some notes….

First thing is to remove that precious gas tank so that it doesn’t get dinged during the top end removal process.  You might not need to remove the center console to get the tank off.  If you choose to attempt such removal then be sure to trace your hot and ground wires to their termination point and remove them before attemptinig to remove the tank from the frame.  Since my guage isn’t working and I wanted to see what was under it, I decided to remove mine seperately from the tank. 

Simple removal of the three allen head screws and the gas cap (shown in images 2 and 3 below) is all that is required to get the console loose from the tank.  The fuel guage is wired to the tank sensor, a hot source and grounded to the frame via the front tank bolt so when you pull the console loose be careful not to pull against these wires. 

Carefully remove the console from the tank.  The rubber pads may come with or stay on the tank.  Be aware of their existence and gather them up in a safe place.  Free the sensor wire connected to the tank (image 4) first.  Then the ground  from the frame (image 5, sorry for the quality) and finally the hot wire.  I removed the hot feed from the guage itself Oimage 6 below) so I didn’t have to cut any wires or into any wire harness components.  The console is now free to be placed in a safe place.

I then removed the 2 bolts hidden under the seat that secure the tank to the frame (image 7.)  Then the crossover line seen in image 8.) and finally remove the long through-frame bolt holding the tank in place.  Now you can carefully rock the tank from front to back easing it from its perch atop the frame backbone.

Don’t forget to throw some wax under the tank before remounting it.  Alot easier now than later.  Now we go on to removing the coil from its mount in order to remove the top motor mount.

This thread is continued here.

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