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Looks like it has electronic ignition with the red wire to the flasher. Most of us find a wire that is hot all the time the ignition is on and solder in a fused line. Yours is the way Dyna recommends, but if you lose a turn signal, you lose your ignition. Another upgrade is to use a relay to trigger a direct hot 12v wire to power the ignition. Old bikes, old corroded connections result in voltage losses that can affect performance, and these bikes have several connectors from the battery up to the fuses to ignition switch to ........... lots of places to drop voltage.

Right you are - I installed as per the Dyna instructions, with that terrible clamping fitting. It was just to try and squeak a ride in before the snow falls. I'll follow your suggestion and tap into a keyed hot line. off hand do you know what size fuse the ignition would require? I like that idea of a relay direct to the ignition. Clean and simple.


Regarding the earlier comment about the hanging idle - that issue actually went away pretty much. It was happening when I had the stock points and the advance mechanism was getting stuck. I removed it, cleaned and lubed, and installed a Dyna ignition, now it's much better.

Carbs are almost good as-is, just one of the o-rings around a main jet was ripped in half when I rebuilt them in summer. I put it back in best I could in the fall, and marked it down as "replace in winter". I think it's worth getting an entire rebuild kit of seals and gaskets and replacing them all to be safe.

Success last night. I got both gauges working.

First I removed the seat to inspect the fuel sender. Ah ha...there's the problem. One of the sender wires is disconnected! I cleaned both connectors and reattached. Still no activity on the gauge though. hmm...

Checked for good power and ground, and had both at the harness. Measured resistance of the sender and it registered around 80ohms. That's standard for an empty tank.

Wait a second...empty tank....haha!! Popped the fuel cap open and sure enough, the tank was nearly completely empty. So I moved the float up and down by hand and sure enough the fuel gauge responded. The needle moves quite slow, but I hear that's pretty typical.


Next up, temp gauge. I tested 7V at the gauge, and decided to trace the wire down to the sender. WOW is that sender in an inconvenient location. I was able to pull the connector off with some very long pliers, and found it was heavily corroded and green. Ah hah! Gave the connection a thorough cleaning, then grounded it out with the key on. Eureka! The temp gauge slowly climbed to max.


One thing I want to confirm - does the temp gauge have any way of turning on the fan? Or is that entirely controlled by the fan switch? The fan never turned on when the gauge climbed, but if I'm looking at this correctly, they are independent circuits.

The gauge has nothing to do with turning on the fan. It is controlled by a separate temp switch

Excellent. Then everything electrical is now working as intended. My key switch is a bit sticky, so I'll need to clean that out. But otherwise I think it's on to forks tires and brakes.

The 3 meters are bimetallic and only respond as they heat, so very slow - but prevents the fuel gauge from bouncing. Keeping connectors clean is an ongoing maintenance item.

Been quiet around here for a while but rest assured the wing has been progressing.

I’ve ticked a few boxes off the list now...

- acquired a set of forks with almost zero putting. Actually just a few small specks and one little rust spot. I wet sanded them with fine paper, cleaned, and filled the spot with super glue. Wet sanded and polished again and you can’t feel it at all. Smooth as butter. Polished the fork lowers and put in new seals and ATF fluid. Front end is back in action.

- flushes all the brake lines. The master cylinders and calipers aren’t leaking, pads retract fine, so I’m not rebuilding them at this time. Next year I’ll redo the lines and rebuild, but for now I’m not fixin it cause it ain’t broke.

- exhaust! I went to the local muffler shop and they made me a few sets of elbows so I could mount up the Harley sportster mufflers. It took a bit of fiddling but they work great now. I think I have a nice balance between having a gentle upsweep without having to point out sideways to much to clear the axle. Then painted my headers with VHT, curing in the shop oven, and they’re good to go.

- synced carbs. My left bank was running low compared to the right. After a sync my off idle bog is gone!

- replaces plugs. I found a few different plugs in the engine LOL. None of them the right ones! New plug caps on the way too, but I don’t have them just yet.

- Fresh tires! I’m running some Kenda something’s. Cheap and well reviewed on wings. I pinched the rear tube TWICE, that’s never happened to me!! These rims are so tall and delicate so it was slow going, but still the tube gremlins bit me. Oh and I had to cut the old tires off with a saw. The date code said 1982. They were ROCK hard.

- tomorrow is an oil change and a shake down ride. It’s starting to feel like “my” bike now.

Oops, missed a few pictures

Not sure if some of these are showing up upside down for you guys, but they are for me. Weird. They’re normal on my phone....grrr. Forum gremlins.

Looking great, even the upside down ones, lol!
Not to nitpick, but why not put those muffler clamps on the other way so the long end doesn't show?

Fair question!!

I put them on this way just due to convenience. I had to tweak the pipe position many times so it was handy having them point out. I was also not sure if they would interfere with the center stand.

However now that’s all settled - pipes are in the final position, and no issues with the stand. I’m going to trim the bolts back a bit and then rotate them so they’re hidden from view.

Just got back from a short test ride. The bike feels real good. Smooth, fast, just a treat. No signs of fork leaks so fingers crossed my repair was a success. No left-side popping like I had earlier either. Tomorrow a more thorough testing.

Sure is purdy! I think the blue is my favorite color for the early 1000's. Time to ride!

Good news today. The wing passed highway inspection and she’s officially official. Get my plate tomorrow.

In other “firsts”.... got my first speeding ticket on my way to the inspect haha. Guess I got a bit excited.

Bike looks GR8! knowing you are also from the keystone province, any and all speeding tickets are costly, hope you weren't too exuberant.

Wasn't cheap, but could have been worse I guess... I noted my unfamiliarity with riding a MPH speedo, and the officer suggested I request a reduced ticket based on my explanation, so long as I show I've swapped to a KMH gauge. I have a spare cb750 gauge with KMH faces anyway, so I'm going to swap it over and give it a try.

Think I'll spend the next few weeks putting miles on the bike and seeing what issues shake out. Already I've noticed a very slight weeping of brake fluid from the front reservoir. Not enough to form a droplet, but enough that I can see it's wet after a ride. I think an overall brake rebuild, suspension upgrade, cleaning some of the electrical connections, and a new seat cover would do wonders. That might be all I have to do for a long time honestly. I'll post some nice photos of it out 'in the wild' shortly