It does say other makes and models up there near top of page so I guess a Sportster counts, but not for some of the "Real Harley Groups".
Well don't recall if I wrote before about the problem I had on our last ride in the fall. Well the short story is had a mess of trans oil down the side of the bike, good thing it has a sidecar or it could have be tricky with oil soaked rear tire. Trying to keep it short, really I am, problem was the output shaft seal had popped out, not sure why but it did. In a way that was good luck as the front belt pulley or is it a sprocket?, never sure, well splines were missing in action so probably 90% of the drive torque was being controlled by the lock plate and two 5/16 inch lock plate bolts and the fact Harley used left hand threads on the nut so any slip just tightened the nut the lock plate held.
Anyhow not having luck keeping this short! A few weeks back we had some nice weather and were all set to take a first ride of the season well that's the time the 7 year old battery in wife's Vespa decided it had enough. Took stopping at three places to find a battery instock to fit it. By then the urge to ride was gone as well as having an even head to be riding. Then the weather to a turn for the worse among other things.
Well today weather was co-operating and no other pressing things that needed doing so we decided to get that first ride in. Both the Vespa and Sportster/sidecar outfit fired right up. Only problem was I guess I forgot to turn of my intercom back at the last attempted ride, easy fix have the charge cable in sidecar and the outlet for is stuck to back of tachometer. Finally on the road.
Probably did around a 40 mile loop of some of the small villages and at the last intersection about 1/4 mile from house I decided to run the Sportster up through the gears. Took off in 1st gear making the left on to our road and close to red-line clicked it into 2nd. What the heck did I miss the sift never had that happen on the Sportster? Tried a few more shift and still engine rev's with no acceleration. Lucky it was almost level down to drive way so I was able to coast down the road and into the end of drive.
First thing I notice is the lack of a oil slick out the back of the transmission, that's good but I do notice that the rear wheel belt pulley teeth are nice and shiny but very visible! Isn't there suppose to be an 1 1/8 inch wide belt covering that thing? Push outfit into the garage and jump in car and we go back up the road and guess what there was this long flat snake looking thing right in the middle of the road! Wonder how many zip-ties I need to hook those two ends back together?
Two other times I have had a belt fail on this Sportster but this is the first time it was polite enough to do it where I could coast in to my driveway. Both other time I was lucky to have the tools and a spare belt in the sidecar so they were changed on the side of the road something that I'm told is not possible with at least most of the bigger Harleys as I believe those need to have the swing arms removed to get the belt on.
Just for kicks I call the two closest Harley dealers and neither one of them stock drive belts to fit a 1992 Sportster!
Well don't recall if I wrote before about the problem I had on our last ride in the fall. Well the short story is had a mess of trans oil down the side of the bike, good thing it has a sidecar or it could have be tricky with oil soaked rear tire. Trying to keep it short, really I am, problem was the output shaft seal had popped out, not sure why but it did. In a way that was good luck as the front belt pulley or is it a sprocket?, never sure, well splines were missing in action so probably 90% of the drive torque was being controlled by the lock plate and two 5/16 inch lock plate bolts and the fact Harley used left hand threads on the nut so any slip just tightened the nut the lock plate held.
Anyhow not having luck keeping this short! A few weeks back we had some nice weather and were all set to take a first ride of the season well that's the time the 7 year old battery in wife's Vespa decided it had enough. Took stopping at three places to find a battery instock to fit it. By then the urge to ride was gone as well as having an even head to be riding. Then the weather to a turn for the worse among other things.
Well today weather was co-operating and no other pressing things that needed doing so we decided to get that first ride in. Both the Vespa and Sportster/sidecar outfit fired right up. Only problem was I guess I forgot to turn of my intercom back at the last attempted ride, easy fix have the charge cable in sidecar and the outlet for is stuck to back of tachometer. Finally on the road.
Probably did around a 40 mile loop of some of the small villages and at the last intersection about 1/4 mile from house I decided to run the Sportster up through the gears. Took off in 1st gear making the left on to our road and close to red-line clicked it into 2nd. What the heck did I miss the sift never had that happen on the Sportster? Tried a few more shift and still engine rev's with no acceleration. Lucky it was almost level down to drive way so I was able to coast down the road and into the end of drive.
First thing I notice is the lack of a oil slick out the back of the transmission, that's good but I do notice that the rear wheel belt pulley teeth are nice and shiny but very visible! Isn't there suppose to be an 1 1/8 inch wide belt covering that thing? Push outfit into the garage and jump in car and we go back up the road and guess what there was this long flat snake looking thing right in the middle of the road! Wonder how many zip-ties I need to hook those two ends back together?
Two other times I have had a belt fail on this Sportster but this is the first time it was polite enough to do it where I could coast in to my driveway. Both other time I was lucky to have the tools and a spare belt in the sidecar so they were changed on the side of the road something that I'm told is not possible with at least most of the bigger Harleys as I believe those need to have the swing arms removed to get the belt on.
Just for kicks I call the two closest Harley dealers and neither one of them stock drive belts to fit a 1992 Sportster!
Sidecar putting unusual loads on the chassis, causing deflection? 
