883-to-1200: Part I, The Preparation
WHAT DO YOU DO ON RAINY WEEKENDS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET YOUR SCOOT WET?It was one of those normal NW Oregon kind of days; ugly grey and rainy on and off. The only difference between Oregon rainfall and San Diego rainfall is that between wettings, in San Diego the streets and sidewalks dry out. If you had been in San Diego this weekend and had an 883 sitting' in your garage, you might have done what I'm about to tell ya' too.
Saturday, I moved my cage out of the garage to make room to begin my performance upgrade on my 49-state Victory Red '94 883. The plan on the performance side: Wiseco dished pistons, James base gaskets, Bartel's .027" head gaskets, Andrews N2 cams, Yost Power tube, and an SE Ignition module. On the poseur points side: Black H-D mirrors, black K&N Super Bars, Vance & Hiine's SS2r racing exhaust, black shocks (Progressive or Koni's), rear sets and much more (of course). I've already done Stage I mods (die. SE air cleaner kit, re-jet carb, slipons, SE fork brace, etc.).
As the 883 sits, with its trademark classic H-D peanut tank and only 6,200 miles on the odometer, its perfect! Good power, nary a cough through its re-jetted CV, nimble handling, and narrow enough to split the tightest lanes in freeway stop'n go traffic. But perfection can always be improved on, right?
After making a lot of room in the garage and laying an old white sheet down to put all the parts upon, I began stripping the scoot. I logged each step as I went along, for one reason, I'm kind of anal-retentive, for another, so I remember how to put it all back together again (grin), and lastly, to type this story up so that some future 'wrench' can find it archived here for reference.
The good news is, I had every tool I needed to strip the scoot down and remove the jugs except a 12pt 1/2" socket for the head bolts. The bad news, none really. Well, I was a little nervous when I came into the garage Sunday morning and found the scoot leaning over on its kickstand. No biggie you might be thinking' but when I left it Saturday night it was sitting on a Dunwel Lift about 6" off the ground! I'll elaborate on that in a later article.
The only moments of frustration were when I accidently knocked the 1/2" socket off the rear lower left hand rocker cover bolt without seeing where it landed. I just heard two metal-on-metal clicks as it hit in two places. I never heard it hit the ground though.
I searched and and searched. Thought it might have lodged under the starter. Nope, not there. When I looked directly under the bike from the left side to the right, I noticed that one of the two bolts that hold the front part of the rear exhaust bracket to the lower frame was missing. Strange, I could swear when I looked at the other side I saw the two nuts. Yep, I looked again the nuts were there as I thought.
After closer inspection, like looking through the hole the bolt should be in, I could see it had sheared off about 3/4 of the way towards the nut sometime in the past. I don't know if this is a weak point but, you Sporty owners might just check your scoots and see if either of these bolts have sheared off too. Look from the jiffy-stand side to the exhaust side right behind the tranny case. If you are unfortunate enough to have a Calif. bike with the catalytic converter still attached (it hangs right there where I'm suggesting you look and obstructs your view) you'll probably need to use your fingers reaching behind them from the exhaust side and feel if both bolts are there.
After 10 minutes of looking for that god-blasted socket I gave up and borrowed another from my neighbor. As I walked back into the garage with his socket in hand I noticed, looking very regal almost looking proud, my 1/2" socket perched on top of my rear brake master cylinder reservoir. Its dirty chrome matched the reservoir's so well I overlooked it earlier.
Now its Monday. The heads and cylinders have been removed. All the parts are labeled and laying on that old sheet. Tomorrow I'm taking' the cylinders in to be bored and honed and the heads to be ported and valves & seats reground a little for improved flow.
While I'm waiting to get 'em back I'll be doing the Yost Power Tube upgrade. Then, on another free night, I'll be pulling off the cam gear cover and begin swapping my stock cams with the Andrews N2 high torque cams.
While doing the Yost Power Tube upgrade I'll bump my main jet up to a #180 from the #170 I'm running now. The slow jet is a #45. If I notice pinging or poor higher RPM performance after the upgrade is done, I'll swap the #180 with a #185.
I just thought back and realize its been 38 years since me and my high school bud first tore into an old '50 Ford flathead. That was my first experience working on engines. Since then I've completely torn an old Renault 4CV down to its block replacing its innards. And along the way, fooled around with VW's and Mercedes engines and carbs for many years. The only thing that's changed from those days is, I've got a creeper seat and a lift. In the old days I did all my work while the cars sat jacked up on the street at the curb.
It wasn't until home computers became popular that I realized you could have just as much fun tearing into them, modifying 'em (making' 'em go faster), then buttoning 'em up and *never get your hands dirty*. That's when I stopped working on cars but I must confess, I am enjoying getting a little dirty again working on this project.
It's always amazing to me to think as you see all the individual parts laying on the floor, that when put together (the right way), these inanimate pieces of metal and rubber can come to life creating that famous Harley sound, motion, and big grin on my face as I head into the wind!
Part II- The actual teardown disassembly steps.
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Date this page last modified: 03/18/2005