46 FL Maintenance...After 4 Years of Abuse

Nothing left to give...

Fork springs too short, front tire gashed.... Every time I hit a bump I would get sprayed in the face with rubber from the tire bottoming out!

Major disassembly required to change the lower springs...Holy Shit!!! The fork was so friggin' loose the ball bearings were about to fall out...no wonder I had to hold on for dear life the last time I did 100 MPH (not kidding)...

Brakes and rockers...check

Old tire removed...check

New Firestone installed (I love this old valve stem tool I got from my buddy's dad years ago)...check

While I'm at it I decided to add some much needed accessories, so I went parts picking

Stripped the fork as needed...

Old springs (in front) too short, someone decades ago installed the wrong springs...

Installed lock/cover in prep for steering damper

Steering damper installed and blending right in...

An "up skirt" shot of the damper workings...

I figured I'd replace the early style bushings with the later '46 set up while I was in there...

I also installed the inner springs that had been neglected on the lowers before. 

Spring compressor...a one man operation...

Having 4 kids that have no interest in this stuff makes me very self sufficient!

Oh yeah, the tire's done...

I'll have to ugly it up...I'm not too happy with the profile on these tires with a fender. I would prefer a higher profile tire...let's see if I get used to it...I may be changing it again...

The front end work is done! Now I'll just work my way back an inch at a time...Now to the clutch pedal...I noticed that it's a 1939 (notice the spring stud is not threaded and the cover has a lip around the hole) and I can use it for another project and get the correct one on at the same time...this chassis came out of the same basement as my "Dirty Nine" EL and had a lot of  '39 parts on it, as if it was a '39 that got wrecked in the late forty's and had the frame and fork combo changed out to a 1946 set up and then re-installed the '39 parts that  were OK...but I'll never know for sure...

By the way the kickstand stop was worn out...fix, fix, fix...

Sweet! Now I can dig into the primary...the bike developed a strange hammering sound that was reminiscent of a compensating sprocket. I suspected something in the primary...let's see...

All appears OK, but wait...the sprocket is not tight on the taper and moves back and forth on the key...I can't believe the key didn't sheer off! That would account for the compensator feel...

The key was beat up so I installed a new one and tightened the shit out of the nut...It's tight against the sprocket now! Let's hope it stays that way...

My 46 FL was looking lonely and beat (rode hard...). I decided to overhaul all the fucked up, worn out, abused and neglected parts and pieces as well as correct some items that have been nagging at me. I like to start at one end and work my way through. Today I would start at the front. This chassis was together when I put the 46 motor in it so I didn't mess with stuff that was already on it (I should have checked/changed a few things). But hell I hammered the shit outta this bike for four years and it all stayed together and never let me down! Time for some TLC. More to come...