The 88 Sportster has been in the garage for about a week now and it is pretty much tore down as far as I want/need to tear it down. Getting all the gasket material cleaned off of her and working to figure out exactly what needs to be done to get her running again. It’s going to take a bit of time and work to get it going, but I know she will run again.

Got every thing tore down. Took a bit of work to get all the gaskets off, especially the base gaskets and cam chest gasket and the oil pump. The base gaskets and oil pump gasket were a real pain in the ass, didn’t think I was ever going to get all the gasket material off of there.

Pretty clean now, got about 9 of the last 10 years of grime off of her.

I tore down the heads and cleaned them up as well. Going to get the valves done, replace the valve seals, and reassemble them this week.

Just a quick list of things I need to do to get her going (there is more than this for sure, but this is what I am working towards for now):

• Set of Cylinders and Pistons – Rear piston is too far gone. Picked up a set of cylinders and pistons off eBay from a 2000 Sportster that look to be runnable. Need to get a set of wrist pin clips.
• Engine Gasket Kit – Picked up a Genuine James Complete Gasket Kit from JP Cycles. Every gasket and seal on her needs to be replaced and this Genuine James Complete Gasket Kit has everything needed.
• Clean oil tank, repair oil tank mounts. Both of the mounts on the oil tank where the battery tray attaches are broken.
• New oil lines. The old ones are hard, cracked, and unusable.
• Need a CV Carburetor and Intake Manifold. Still looking for this. I may take this off the 90 Sportster just to try to get her going.
• Test starter and get it cleaned up. I have a few starters laying around so I should have one that works even if the one on it does not.
• Not sure about the electronic ignition and coil. Need to do a bit of research on what is on there. I am going to try to use what’s on it to get it going and if all is well replace it later.
• Rewire – all the wiring is a mess. Got to get it all ripped out and replaced. Right now it is all running through the frame, which makes it look clean but it is a pain to trace and replace… so not sure if I am going to put it all back in there or not.

The Aerosmith pinstriping on the oil tank is not really my thing, but I think I want to keep it so going to do what I can to repair the battery tray mounts.

Making good progress, more to come…