j.e.d.

Another 6 month WOF 12 months after the last one.. thanks Wuhan clan for the gift that keeps on giving

Splashed out on a pair of air shocks to remedy my minor rubbing issues. Removed the KYB’s and took them into Chris at Suspension Tech and requested some HD air shocks with about a 2 inch extra stroke to make it easier for me to change the tyres if I got a flat.. 

Bolted them in and ran the air lines into the boot..

Put 90 PSI in to test out the lines and it’s all good.. sits a bit high but with some trial and error and time I’ll work out the optimum pressures for the different loads it’ll take.

The ride is nice and firm in the back now though and I like it. (Don’t mind the jacked up look either)

Another long and drawn out mini project completed on the car yesterday.. fitting mags!

I’m normally arse about face when it comes to wheel selection and this car is no different.. I saw a pair of 15x10 Weld dragstar copies with 295’s back in January which I liked the look of so proceeded to buy them in the hope they’d fit the car. Little did I know the hassle involved in trying to find a matching pair for the front.

Test fit showed me they fit with about 10mm clearance to the leaf and the guard lip.

After no joy sourcing something local, I managed to stumble across a company in the States that sold something close to what I had. 2 months later these turned up.

At the same time I ordered another pair of centre caps as the ones I got had the brand “eight” and the new ones were different. Even though I ordered chrome centre caps, the two extras I got were grey.. too hard to send back, I got creative and swapped the centre of the caps over to my chrome ones to make a matching set.

Next job, fit tyres as big as I could get on the new 15x7’s (only managed 205’s as the top arm ball joint got in the way) and get them all fitted up to the car. 

Looked good, but big problem number one came up when I drove out of the tyres shop with the rears rubbing on the inner guard constantly. 8 months go by, and a chance conversation with a guy about the leafs brought about the suggestion of using helper springs to raise it up.. picked up some Load Hog spring helpers and got to work. I’d previously flipped the shackles to try and gain some height but I felt that made it worse so I flipped them back. Flipped shackle in the background, proper setup in the foreground..

One side installed..

Gave the inner guard a little massage while the wheels were off. To fit these rims is a process as well, I need to loosen off the bottom nuts of the shocks to the end of the thread so I can angle them up into place.. not ideal.. but they’re on! The Load Hogs lifted the rear about 30mm and that’s all it took for no more rubbing for the most part. Sharp uphill corners rub on the outer wheel still, so I’ll need to massage the inner guards a bit more. Also I’ll get a pair of HD shocks or maybe even some HD air shocks to jack it up a little higher and stiffen it up as well as it still rolls somewhat.

I consider this a win for me though, and I love the look.. always been a fan of 15’s and 295’s. Funny thing is a couple of weeks ago I came across a full set of these style mags for sale so I snapped them up as they were 15x8 & 15x7 with the 8’s having 265’s so that’s an option, otherwise they’ll go on another project I just picked up. 295’s are the way to go for me though

Like getting a tattoo and at the time saying “never again”, then a few years later you start forgetting that pain and wanting to go through it again, I decided I wanted to buy back my old bike.

Bought the Don Morrison frame back in 2004, took 8 years and a shit ton of money to finally get it certified and on the road, then sold it 3 years later in January of 2015 for fuck all and having only done about 1200 miles as the oil pump decided to shit itself and I got pissy with it.

Fast forward to November 2017 and the guy I bought it off asked if I wanted to buy it back as his Mrs was having a kid and Harley life wasn’t on the cards for the foreseeable future so he was gonna sell it.. he’d spent a bit getting the oil pump rebuilt and oil tank cleaned and sealed (shit in the tank got into the pump).. I nearly bought it but pulled out due to finances and memories still fresh. 

Fast forward another 2 years to November 2019.. carbon copy conversation of 2017, he still hadn’t gotten round to selling and gave me first option to buy before he tries to sell.. I chickened out again, deciding the money was better spent on a trip to the States with the family instead.. 

Fast forward 2 more years again, November 2021.. (there’s a theme here and I don’t know why).. my circumstances have changed, I’m single, I have money, and I’m up for making stupid rash purchases, so I rang the guy up and sure enough, he still had it and he wanted less than last time so I bit the bullet and picked it up the next day before changing my mind.

Mix of emotions when saw the bike.. happy to get her back but sad to see the state she was in.. only 1640 miles on the clock assuming it’s still working, but she looks like shit. Kinda like a “Barn find” but maybe not the good kind, A lot of the chromed alloy finishes have deteriorated, and a fair bit of rust pitting to nuts and bolts here and there.

Gonna probably change the look of the bike out of necessity to my minimal budget, and look at blacking it out.. stay tuned if you like, it’ll probably take as long as anything I do on the Galaxie tbh

Long time no update!

Not a lot has happened car-wise.. lots of personal stuff going on, but I’m happy I managed to find some time to spend on the old girl today.

The leaking was getting worse and worse under the car so back in August I decided to investigate.. initially I thought it was the power steering ram, but after cleaning up the built up crud around the control valve I found out that was the culprit.. it was getting that bad, that I might as well have been pouring the power steering fluid straight into the drip tray under the car.

So, took the control valve and the ram out and decided to drop both off to PG Hydraulics as I had a rebuild kit for both, and they could determine what was the best thing to do.

Two days later lockdown happened, so nothing happened. For weeks.

Finally when we hit level 3 I got a call a week after with the bad news that the control valve housing was on its last legs, so gave the go ahead for a new housing to be made, so they rebuilt that and the ram just to be on the safe side. A week later and it’s all done!

Well that was back at the beginning of October.. life got in the way again til today when I decided to put it all back in..

Not too much drama putting it all in.. had to grind a mm off the rubber mount where the ram attaches to the body bracket as I couldn’t compress it enough to start the nut, then dramas getting the hydraulic lines screwed in.. Time between removal and reassembly is never a good thing I tell ya.. got there in the end though and she all works perfectly.. lock to lock feels so much smoother. Took her for a drive to the gas station and had a heart attack at the current price per litre, then drove up and down the motorway feeling damn happy with myself.. now on to the next thing to fix!