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| This part is a
pisser. We ignored the suggestion by the instruction
that we get ourselves a 12 (or was it 14?) mm socket
driver that you could put on a torque wrench. We figured
there had to one in the shop somewhere, but alas – it
was a true Harley shop. And in case you’re wondering,
Sears doesn’t carry this part in stock and neither does
Harbor Freight tools. So, our advice would be – INCLUDE
THIS IN THE KIT! But until the day that manufacturers
are taking advice from grease monkeys like us…make sure
you have this illusive part before you start.
(NOTE: I guess my
whining worked - they now include this wrench in with
the kit. Way to go, guys!)
You CANNOT fab one out of shop junk that’ll take the
kind of torque this baby needs. Find a buddy who does a
lot of work on metric stuff and borrow it from him. We
eventually found said friend and sent Curt on a mission
of mercy (ok, he got out of the garage and got to ride
his scooter around in the cool summer air for a while)
to borrow this sorry-ass wrench. |
| Now thread the
handlebar wiring through your new triple tree tops. See,
you could barely find the diagram, so there was NO WAY
you’d have remembered where all those wires went. |
| Pull the fork tubes
apart. Really, it helps if you drain them first. You’re
going to swap out your stock tubes for 8 or 10 inch over
tubes to keep your newly minted chopper off the ground. |
| The old tube with the
lower removed. You’ll need to reuse the fork innards and
you might want to consult with an actual Harley manual
if you’ve never built fork tubes before. They ain’t that
tough, stick to the torque specs, put a little liquid
sealant around that bottom bolt, don’t forget new fork
oil and you’ll be fine. The tubes that came with the kit
were first class! |
| Trash is seen
installing the lower tree after torquing the special
custom spacer to spec. It’s like 120 ft lbs or something
(check with the instructions) so you really got to get
down on that thing. You’ll also need a bunch of locktite,
but all that was just lying around the garage. |
| The lower tree
bearing just slips on the spindle and a clip holds it
on. It kinda wangles around a bit – but don’t worry, the
tubes bring it all togther. |
| Look at the look of
insane joy on our intrepid builder’s faces as they slip
the second tube into place. It’s really the two tubes,
when clamped down – that bring the geometry of the AME
front end into place. |
| I bolt on the
headlight as the job comes to an end. There’s still a
bit of clean up to do and we need to bleed out the front
brake, but here’s the deal – our bike has an additional
13 degrees of rake with correct trail. We didn’t have to
haul the motor out, fire up the torch or doing anything
particularly tough and we have a VERY good lookin’
chopper. |
Next>
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Badass Bolt-On Chopper: The ONE DAY
Chopper Build
Continued...
I hear your collective cringe when you hear the words “bolt on”
– yeah, yeah, bolt-on if I’ve got a grinder, a bolt collection
the size of Ace Hardware and the patience of 6 Saints. You’ve
obviously experienced the “bolt on” part that took more time to
“bolt on” than if you’d fabricated the thing by hand from a lump
of raw steel. Rest assured, this is not the case with the AME
Chopper Kit – and because you really don’t know me personally,
I’m going to prove my point with the help of my good friend
Scooter Trash (he’s the guy with the arms), my buddy Curt (who
shoots really cool pictures for lots of motorcycle magazines)
and a 1992 Softail Harley Davidson with a buncha miles on the
odometer.
Next> |
