Hi Jason. I know what you mean. Those split tanks are a pain in the ass. Especially if you shim them with stacks of washers. The flat side tanks on the later Evolution Softail bikes aren't so bad. Just make sure you shim the mounting tabs properly when installing the shovelhead ones. I don't know if you know, but if you bend the tabs while tightening them up, they develop cracks from metal stress & vibration. I wonder how hard it would be to convert them to the flat side style. I might be doing my home work soon on doing just that on my shovel. I want to upgrade to screw in style gas caps. 'Mid West/Ultima' sells screw in style with the shovel style mounting.
@@theabyssgarage The inner ones on the back too. They can develop cracks around the screw bung if you stress them too much. If do have to stack washers like I did, (I got aftermarket tanks & frame) I learned to tack weld the washers so they don't fall all over the floor when dismantling. Measuring up the washers & spin some aluminum spacers on the lathe is a nice touch. I just found a company on line called K & G Cycles that sell a weld on flat side conversion kit for 4 speed frames. V-Twin in New York also has a kit. I just did my homework on the subject.
@@theabyssgarage Also I was gonna mention I heard of at least 1 old timer tapped out the top front tank mount on each side to a thread & put a bolt on each side so he didn't have to deal with that 'through' bolt. I just thought I'd throw some info out to help you since the subject is presently close to me.
Wish you were my son to take care of my 77 Shovel since I'm 77 years. One suggestion while the engine is out replace the Alternator with a new one before reassembly. Eash to their own, but beach bars and a front fender would look good on that bad boy....
Cool bike dude
Great video, nice time lapse. Earned a new subscriber. Look forward to the follow up vids.
Thanks!
Hi Jason. I know what you mean. Those split tanks are a pain in the ass. Especially if you shim them with stacks of washers.
The flat side tanks on the later Evolution Softail bikes aren't so bad. Just make sure you shim the mounting tabs properly when installing
the shovelhead ones. I don't know if you know, but if you bend the tabs while tightening them up, they develop cracks from
metal stress & vibration. I wonder how hard it would be to convert them to the flat side style. I might be doing my home work soon
on doing just that on my shovel. I want to upgrade to screw in style gas caps. 'Mid West/Ultima' sells screw in style with the
shovel style mounting.
Thanks for the tip on the tabs, I’ll make sure to check that out when it goes back together.
@@theabyssgarage The inner ones on the back too. They can develop cracks around the screw bung if
you stress them too much. If do have to stack washers like I did, (I got aftermarket tanks & frame) I learned
to tack weld the washers so they don't fall all over the floor when dismantling. Measuring up the washers
& spin some aluminum spacers on the lathe is a nice touch. I just found a company on line called K & G Cycles
that sell a weld on flat side conversion kit for 4 speed frames. V-Twin in New York also has a kit.
I just did my homework on the subject.
@@theabyssgarage Also I was gonna mention I heard of at least 1 old timer tapped out the top front tank mount
on each side to a thread & put a bolt on each side so he didn't have to deal with that 'through' bolt.
I just thought I'd throw some info out to help you since the subject is presently close to me.
Thank you for the other tidbits on the split tanks
Wish you were my son to take care of my 77 Shovel since I'm 77 years. One suggestion while the engine is out replace the Alternator with a new one before reassembly. Eash to their own, but beach bars and a front fender would look good on that bad boy....
I have the front fender in primer. I had to do some repairs to it. Hoping to get some color sprayed on it soon.
😎👍😎
👍🏻🇨🇦