So I got this Victory V92 Cruiser Harley wanna be.
I last rode this turd after an attempt to take it to the beach in the summer of 09.
I left the house that day intending to take the back roads,....stopping every hour or so to give my ass a break. It became apparent after the first hour, that the only break I could give my ass would've been to take the bike back to the house and drive my car,.....but I was determined to tough it out.
By the second hour,...My lower half was numb, and the simple act of putting my legs down to support the thing at a red light was mortifying. 4.5 hours later, I was in panama city,...w/ a defibrillator strapped to each ass cheek.
For the record,...those memorials you see along side the I-state, and highway is where I had to bury my ass each time I was unable to revive it. It's not what you think after all.
Riding it back found me caught in a day long rain storm,.....it took 7 hours to get home. When I got home I was so sick of the dam thing I parked it.
It sat under a cover until last month, when I decided to get it running so I could sell it and buy another "4 wheeled project".
Needless to say,....when the cover came off last month, what was underneath was a little "rough". The gas tank had rusted, and the whole tank was full of 4 year old flammable sludge. The paint was oxidized, the chrome was horrible, and the plexi was as fogged up as my shower door gets at 6AM.
I was gonna take it easy, and fix it at my leisure, as I had no burning reason to sell it.
That is until the Cobra became a reality.
The wife mandated that the Ranger had to go, as I could not afford two payments, and the 4k or so that the bike would bring would offset the upside down balance of the Ranger, and the proceeds from the sale of the ass killer would bring it down to reality that would ensure a quick sale.
So that brings me to today.
For the past two weekends I've been working on the piece of crap, trying to get the trashed tank clean and sealed, stripped, primed and repainted ( sitting under a cover for 4 years works wonders on the finish) . Ive been worrying about the "what ifs",....all revolving around the fact that I cut the tank open in order to get the rusty crap outta the tank. What if the tank leaks,...what if the pump has died, what if the regulator is jammed w/ sludge, what if......blah-blah-blah.
Well the tank is solid,...sealed w/ the same red kote I sealed the last car with. The pump works, the regulator isn't jammed...fuel pressure output is a solid 49 psi.
Will it start?.........Hell no. I ck spark,....it's got it. I ck fuel,...it's got it,...What it doesn't have is an injector the opens and lets that fuel into the cylinder........That was at 11 am this morning,..after thrashing all weekend to get it to the point of being ready to turn the key.
Now it's all back apart....I had to remove the tank,..cut the airbox apart so I could get the injectors out,..test the injectors for flow and operation, and start to put the thing back together,......with no better feeling about the whole wasted day,..because I didn't find out what was wrong with it.
So at 6:00 PM I trudge outta the garage,...broken,... smelling like gas,..hands and nails stained black w/ stupid black silicone, my back and knees screaming at me,....beat. All because I gotta get it outta here to make room for the supercharged yellow jacket soon to be in my driveway.
Now I remember why.......some days,......you wonder why you just didn't buy a KIA Optima.
I last rode this turd after an attempt to take it to the beach in the summer of 09.
I left the house that day intending to take the back roads,....stopping every hour or so to give my ass a break. It became apparent after the first hour, that the only break I could give my ass would've been to take the bike back to the house and drive my car,.....but I was determined to tough it out.
By the second hour,...My lower half was numb, and the simple act of putting my legs down to support the thing at a red light was mortifying. 4.5 hours later, I was in panama city,...w/ a defibrillator strapped to each ass cheek.
For the record,...those memorials you see along side the I-state, and highway is where I had to bury my ass each time I was unable to revive it. It's not what you think after all.
Riding it back found me caught in a day long rain storm,.....it took 7 hours to get home. When I got home I was so sick of the dam thing I parked it.
It sat under a cover until last month, when I decided to get it running so I could sell it and buy another "4 wheeled project".
Needless to say,....when the cover came off last month, what was underneath was a little "rough". The gas tank had rusted, and the whole tank was full of 4 year old flammable sludge. The paint was oxidized, the chrome was horrible, and the plexi was as fogged up as my shower door gets at 6AM.
I was gonna take it easy, and fix it at my leisure, as I had no burning reason to sell it.
That is until the Cobra became a reality.
The wife mandated that the Ranger had to go, as I could not afford two payments, and the 4k or so that the bike would bring would offset the upside down balance of the Ranger, and the proceeds from the sale of the ass killer would bring it down to reality that would ensure a quick sale.
So that brings me to today.
For the past two weekends I've been working on the piece of crap, trying to get the trashed tank clean and sealed, stripped, primed and repainted ( sitting under a cover for 4 years works wonders on the finish) . Ive been worrying about the "what ifs",....all revolving around the fact that I cut the tank open in order to get the rusty crap outta the tank. What if the tank leaks,...what if the pump has died, what if the regulator is jammed w/ sludge, what if......blah-blah-blah.
Well the tank is solid,...sealed w/ the same red kote I sealed the last car with. The pump works, the regulator isn't jammed...fuel pressure output is a solid 49 psi.
Will it start?.........Hell no. I ck spark,....it's got it. I ck fuel,...it's got it,...What it doesn't have is an injector the opens and lets that fuel into the cylinder........That was at 11 am this morning,..after thrashing all weekend to get it to the point of being ready to turn the key.
Now it's all back apart....I had to remove the tank,..cut the airbox apart so I could get the injectors out,..test the injectors for flow and operation, and start to put the thing back together,......with no better feeling about the whole wasted day,..because I didn't find out what was wrong with it.
So at 6:00 PM I trudge outta the garage,...broken,... smelling like gas,..hands and nails stained black w/ stupid black silicone, my back and knees screaming at me,....beat. All because I gotta get it outta here to make room for the supercharged yellow jacket soon to be in my driveway.
Now I remember why.......some days,......you wonder why you just didn't buy a KIA Optima.
