1934 Harley VLD Rebuild

Thanks, she's shaping up and she's back on her feet. Just waiting on a few small parts and we can wrap this up.

I finally finished working on my BILs 33/34/35 VL/VLD bitsa POS.

I ran into a lot of what you are resolving. The 2 main things that killed me and took for ever to resolve.

Would not charge. Genny expert said genny was good. Put in new harness (3 times basically) checking everything 10 ways to sunday to try and make it charge. Finally stripped the genny down for the 3rd time, clear down, and compared it to diagrams from the net. IT WAS WIRED WRONG INTERNALLY!!!!!! Fucking so called expert, I could have kicked him in the nuts. Once I wired the fields and brushes to the diagram it worked a charm. Just had to set that 3rd brush.

Next was the coil. It had what appeared to be the original but with destroyed leads. bought new leads and carefully dug the old ones out of the tar and got the new ones in and sealed. it worked great, for about 10 minutes at a time. Can't tell you how many times I had to end up pushing that SOB home. Then it would start and run just fine. Everything always tested ok. Finally just said screw it and bought a repop coil. Problem solved.

Have to ask on yours, do you have the helper springs for the seat? They also mount where the battery box mounts up I believe and might impact what you've done. It truly was a PITA.

On your throttle linkage. No matter how I arranged, adjusted, tweaked, etc. the grip, slides, junctions etc. I can not get the throttle plate to open 100%. I can get it about 2/3 open at best. To be honest, with the brakes, shifter, and abundance of tq of this thing it seems to be more than adequate anyhow, but I never could get it to work proper. Does your fully open the carby but allow it to close enough to idle?

I just went out and looked and mine doesn't open quite all the way either, maybe 3/4. Make sure your throttle cable is not maxing out on the oil pump stop though.

Yup, checked all that stuff 10 ways to sunday. Just no way to make it work like I think it should. But maybe that was the major difference between the std VL and the hopped up VLD...they made it so the throttle would actually open all the way.

How about shortening the lever arm on the carburetor? That would change the ratio enough to get you full throttle.

not too easy to do on those old carbies. All cast brass and would basically take a newly fabbed arm of some sort.

And like I said before, hand shift, foot clutch, manual spark advance, marginal brakes, it's probably best it can't go full throttle.

This is what I was kind of getting at: http://www.vtwinmfg.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/VTwinProd1_10101_10102_3308895_-1

This is my throttle linkage. It is different than the one on my UL but the distance from pivot to pivot seems identical.


This is WFO



It close enough for horseshoes, bocci, handgrenades, jazz, and Govt. work.

Yeah, and very likely close enough for an 80 year old motorcycle!

Great work, loving every minute of it.

Better than mine.

THIS will get you to slow down. I went for a long 75 mile ride on the UL yesterday and then I noticed this.



That will get you to slow down and head home, the threat of your left handlebar coming off in your hand. It was actually still very stable but I rode home slowly and carefully. Its off the bike and headed to the welder. A real pain in the ass as all the wiring and control cables are internal.

Wow, I guess I've been away from the thread or a while! Too much work followed by a much needed vacation. No riding or wrenching on this vacation but I did get to see the Cannonball riders on their run while in Colorado.

Regarding the horn, I took a photo of the mount on my VLD and it lookd good on the camera preview but not so good in reality. This is how mine is set up. Not sure if its 100% accurate or not. The left side mount hardware was original while the right side was missing (just the bracket half shown not the horn half which was there). So I installed the right side bracket half of the mounting spacers using the original side as the example. The mount screws are #037 I believe. You'll notice that on my VLD, which is a 1935, Harley-Davidson changed the toolbox to mount at the rear of the bike on the frame and not behind the horn. They also mounted the horn in 1935 with the wire terminals facing up.

Mine opens fully and closes all the way. Again, it's a 1935 VLD so has the factory Linkert M31 carb (vs M21).

I decided to mess with the throttle some more and get it open more. I figured if it was possible on MeRides it should be on mine. First I took off the spiral to see the position of the pin and it was no where near the closed position/left.



I had a lot of theads on my idle adjustment screw. So I loosened the pivot arms grip on the throttle shaft, turned the idle adjustment screw way out, and re-set the wire etc. Basically, the main thing was re-setting the pivot arm on the thottle shaft to maximize the throw.





New starting position:



Final product:



MeRide thanks for the pics on the horn that helps and I will get that corrected.

I got the wiring working last night, the contact in the dash weren't connectinf when I turned the key. I also have the rear brake assembly all set and adjusted. No pics, its all straight forward and just takes time and adjustment to get right.

I also took the bike off the lift so I can remove the front wheel and put the front fender and brake stuff on.

Hey, what happened to the Ducati ?

I was poking through my bookshelf and saw a book that is helpful in setting up the VL bikes. Its a compilation of many of the factory's 1930s service bulletins they would send out to the dealers. For example, one goes into detail on how to set up the oil pump for correct oiling at various speeds. Good book to reference.

These are the sealed bearings I have for the transmission per a readers question.

Got it, but its a friends. I need to get my own copy sometime.

Wow, you don't see SKF's "Made in USA" very often. Most I've used were made in one of the various european plants. Last couple I got for one of the other bikes were from the Brazil plant.

I have been working and have made some nice progress. We took the bike off the lift as I had to mount the front fender and wheel. Also I am going to move the lift over to make room for a wood sailboat of a friends that needs a paint job and a little carpentry work.

I had to take the rockers off to get the fender on. This is a lesson to others. Mount the fender first!



All these tools were needed for this 'simple' job.



Started mounting the front brake and lever. I HATE having the brake on the left but these early style levers aren't ambidextrous. The later one you can just turn it over and run it on the right.







Notice the little silver piece at the bottom. I'll talk about in a second. Notice how the arm is labeled SOLO and SIDECAR. I have gone against HD and mounted in the SIDECAR hole to get some more leverage.



I have had a lot of people tell me how terrible the front brake is on their VL. However, the front brake on my UL is actually pretty good and they are basically the same. Here is one major difference- see the long adjuster on my UL. This allows for very exact cable adjustment. Remember the little silver thing noted above - no adjustment. So I am thinking a lot of it is due to incorrect/imprecise cable adjustment. My UL needed several turns of tightening after just 1500 miles.

I set up the brake with a slight drag on the VL and hopefully it will work OK.

Some questions for MeRide or whomever else knows the answer. 1) What the heck is this screw for? 2) The colony axle adjusters came with this spacer and one bolt is longer than the other. What is the correct assemply?





I'll be in my bunk