Ironic post there Dave. I ordered a new (longer) clutch cable yesterday to accommodate the different style handlebars I put on the shovel I recently purchased. It's been over 20 years since I worked on a shovelhead (or any bike for that matter) and I got this CRS syndrome (can't remember shit). I'm looking to take off the existing clutch cable and I'm thinking, "wait a minute. I don't recall having to go through all this crap to get this cable off. I've done this on the road a few times". Well it finally dawned on me but not before I felt like a complete idiot.
Also, my other shovelheads had an isolated oil system. All the oil lines to the primary side were blocked off when I got bought them so that I had to add oil to the primary. The only shovelheads I knew anything about were the 3 that I had owned. Imagine my befuddlement when I go to drain the primary side and there's nary a drop of oil there?. WTF? I called up a brother of mine who has every Harley manual made and he brought over the one for my current bike. I really had no idea about that circulating oil but I've since been edumacated. LOL
So now I'm wondering Dave. Do you have your engine oil isolated from your primary or do you let it circulate like originally designed to do? I've had guys tell me they don't like the idea of the engine oil circulating back through the primary and they "always" block off those oil lines and do their own adding of oil to the primary. I'm not changing mine. I'm going to let it circulate as designed. I figure my PM habits are so compulsive that I'll not have a problem checking those hoses and ports. However, there is a crankcase breather which is not stock that I plan on removing. Looks to me like that could become a real PITA.
Just to reiterate here; it's not that I can't be mechanically inclined, it's more like I'm not inclined to be a mechanic and yet I'm not going to let anyone else work on the shovelhead. It keeps me in the garage on nasty days and out of the way of the OL. I'm getting a bit more edumacation and the OL can't hear how many times I pop open a beer.
Peace
Oh yeah, one more look at my bike. Note the crank case breather in front of the kicker
