Wrenching

Ghost expounds upon:

Wrenching Philosophy

• To Thine Own Self be True
• Thinking Ahead
• Educate Your Guesses
• The Performance Mod Mindset

Safety Upgrades

• A Louder Horn
• Brighter Headlights
• Extra Tail Lights & Running Lights

Optimizing Your Bike for Touring

• Highway Pegs
• Luggage Rack
• Gauges
• Saddlebag Hardware

Common Repairs

• Front End
• Base Gasket Repair
• Camshaft Replacement

Performance Mods

• The Wake-up Call

Cruiser Photos

• Right Side
• Left Side
• Rear
• Dash
• Glamour Shots

Vector Photos

• Evolution

Performance Mods

The Wake-up Call

This mod comes almost verbatim out of the rec.motorcycles.harley (RMH) FAQ. To "wake-up" the powerplant, you install a better-breathing air cleaner and element, put on less restrictive pipes/mufflers, and modify the carburetor. I went with the Screaming Eagle Air Cleaner with a K&N Filter, Screaming Eagle Slip-on Mufflers (turnouts), and did the carb mods as described by Tusk and Ol' Hacker (look for the CV Carb Upgrade article on World Wide Glide).

A few notes regarding these mods:

• I had a hell of a time getting the clamps to seal the mufflers onto the exhaust headers. Make sure your clamp isn't too far up on the muffler. If must be totally on the notched area at the end of the muffler or it won't be able to seal. For overkill, I place a light bead of high-temp gasket material (RTV) at the joint to seal it up good.
• The bolts that the air cleaner mounts to have rough ends and may rub against your air cleaner cover. I purchased nylon acorn nuts to cover the ends of these bolts; this way, my air cleaner cover doesn't get carved up.
• A Dynojet kit includes a lighter slide spring than the stock one. I had good luck cutting a few loops off the end of the stock spring.
• A Dremel tool with a grinder bit does a really good job at radiusing the leading edge of the carb slide. After the grinding is done, go over the area with the wire brush bit, and finish up by wet sanding with some 600-grit emery paper.
• I ended up with a 45 pilot jet, a 170 main jet, and the stock needle. This was a little lean, but did no obvious damage. As with all carb mods, your carb might like this setup, or not.
• If you tend to run long and fast when you tour, your SE Slip-on Mufflers will likely turn a nice shade of gold, or worse yet, blue. The stock muffler shields on '95 and newer Softails are larger than their earlier counterparts, and can be retrofitted to cover the ugliness.