Did a bit of tinkering on the 1988 Sportster over the weekend. Got the oil tank painted, mounted, and plumbed up. Looks pretty good on there.


Also replace the 11″ rear shocks with a set of 12″ shocks which I got for a good deal off eBay. They are off a 2009 Sporty so it took a minor modification to get them to fit, but they fit and look good. I started to make a list of the rest of the stuff I need to get her running and then to get her riding.

First off this is the stuff I need to get her running…

• Ignition – Going to keep it simple (and old school) with a mechanical advance. Thinking I’ll use the Dynatek S Ignition System for this one. The Dynatek S kit comes with the ignition module, rotor, and coil. I have a mechanical advance already. Gonna need to pick up some plugs and plug wires as well.
• Exhaust – Going to pick up some cheap drag pipes to get things going. Probably something off eBay or whatever. Eventually I would like to make a custom exhaust for it, will probably pick up a DIY builder exhaust kit from TC Bros and see what I can come up with.
• Carburetor – I picked up a Harley CV Carb at the Peanut City Swap Meet a few months back. It is in good shape other than the choke cable is broken. Going to go through it to make sure all is well and replace the choke cable, should be good to go.
• Charging System – Replaced the stator while I had the primary apart. Have a regulator, need to pick up a battery.

Once she is running there is still a bunch of stuff I’ll need to get her moving down the road.

Here is a quick list of other stuff I need to start looking for…

Brakes…
Brake rotors. I think I have a good front one, need one for the rear.
Have the stock front and rear calipers. Cleaned them up but going to need rebuild kits for both front and rear.
Front master cylinder and front brake line.

Wheels…
Tires for front and rear. Have the stock cast wheels and new bearing and seals.
Rear axle adjusters. Have the plates, need the adjusters.

Wiring…
Have the breakers, starter relay, and some other misc switches and such. Just need to figure out how I am going to wire it all up. Planning to keep the handlebars pretty clean, so the switches will go somewhere else.

Foot Controls…
Still not sure exactly what I am going to do here. Think I am going to get a cheap set of Chinese forward controls, there are lots of them on eBay. May just use the stock stuff, I have most of that. Not sure yet.

Throttle…
Grips and throttle cables.

Paint and other finishing touches…
Rattle can flat black. The rest… we will see what happens.

Keeping an eye on eBay and Instagram for the stuff I need.
Seems like there is still a lot to do. Probably because there is, but it is getting there…