Progress Thread The Northwoods Notch

Pretty much.. they don’t give that paint away!

Today I tackled the cobra brake booster. This was the worst job I’ve done to the car to date. Man it fought me! Very very tight fit. My tall valve covers did not help. I had to ream the holes in the fire wall and cut the studs on the booster down. I had to dent my strut tower more than I’d like to admit. And once the booster was in, I couldn’t get the MC on . So then I had to cut down the studs for the MC and dent the stut tower again because the MC was hitting it. It wasn’t a fun job at all, but man does my car stop easier now. I think I need to readjust my booster pushrod. It was loose from the factory ...“preadjusted”. I have about an inch of travel in the pedal before the brakes do anything. I used a zip tie and a sharpie to adjust it because I didn’t have a caliper. Looks like I’ll need to pic one up.

OH! I almost forgot. I also deleted my cruise control while I was at it, seeing I don’t have a factory wheel so it’s not useable anyway. Less clutter under the hood! Also, I don’t like vacuum lines that aren’t necessary.

Dang, I just measured and readjusted per Maximum Motorsports directions and I actually had to make the pushrod SHORTER. I figured this would hurt pedal feel.. but I trusted them, and haven’t test drive yet. I’ll do it by your method if I need to.. thanks!

Update time. I've been driving the car almost everyday. I've determined that while the brakes are lightyears better than they were, I'm still not happy with the pedal travel. I'll need to readjust it when I have a minute. Today I adjusted my headlights. I installed those headlights years ago and they were always misadjusted but I lived with it. Well, it's much better now lol. While the car has been running better than it ever has, I've been starting to notice a hanging idle between shifts. I think its always done it to a degree but it seems to have gotten worse. I decided to smoke test the car tonight and found two leaks. A hose clamp fixed the one on the tube from the intake to the vacuum tree. The second one will be harder and more expensive to fix. It seems I have a leak at the throttle shaft in the throttlebody. It's leaking by the TPS sensors. I've gotta do some research on that. In other news... I have run channel molding (left side), lock actuators, and more interior paint on the way.

Well boys.. I'm a little fed up. This fuel gauge is kicking my ass. I replaced my sending unit. And that didn't fix my gauge. I then found the tech write up regarding the diagnosing the fuel gauge by jrichker. I used resistors to determine I had to put a capacitor in the antislosh module and I had to move the needle because it was evidently off.. probably from when someone installed the white gauge overlay. It's pretty close now.. I think about 1/16th off. This is a picture with 84 ohm resistor pack in.


Also, while out on a (unsucessful) test drive my speedo stopped working. What a kick to the nuts. And the icing on the cake.. at one point my check engine light flashed on and the car started to cut out. The engine light promptly went away and the car started running normal again. I got home, fixed the fuel gauge (maybe) and got the car on jack stands. I found the driven gear pretty chewed up. I had replaced it when I got the car a few years ago, but It still didn't work. Last fall I lubed the cable and go it working. It's been working great since i got the car on the road this spring. Whats the service life of these driven gears?

I checked for KOEO codes and had none. I couldn't do KOER because it was too late. Hopefully the check engine light and break up was just a fluke. I was going to do run channel weatherstrip, door lock actuators and paint my drivers door panel tomorrow, but I'm not sure I'm going to now. I'm feeling a little burnt out.

Have I mentioned I hate these oem gauges?

Tonight was a good night. Sometimes its just the simple things that make a car so much better. Brakes, windows and locks.

I broke down and bought a tool for adjusting the brake booster pushrod. I got it off eBay for 30$ and man does it work slick. I adjusted the pushrod so there was .015 between it and the master cylinder. WOW. Did that make a difference. The brakes feel SOOO much better. The push rod length was WAY off before. Even though I followed MM's instuctions using a caliper. It stops much better now. Here's a pic of the tool.


Next, I installed a new passenger window motor. I had bought it when I got the car because I noticed it was slow. But it just hasn't died. It's the original FOMOCO unit. Not much to report with that.

After that, I decided to tackle the door lock actuators. I got this idea from @Gravydog. It was very easy and appears to work great. Getting there was a PITA though. I couldn't get them to work. I had power and the swtiches functioned properly. I found a thread on here that was extremely helpful. After a while with the multi meter I determined that the signal wires from the drivers switch to the passenger switch were the issue. I had no continuity on either. I looked under the dash and it became quite evident why. Someone had cut the wires. Well, they cut them, added a splice, and then cut the spice. There wasn't a lot of room to work under there! I used a pre-existing (T-splice) female spade connector, installed by someone in the past, and soldered the rest. This IS NOT my best work, but the wires were short and the work conditions were terrible. It'll work though.


Next, I'm going to tackle the run channel weather strip then start painting the interior. My speedo driven gear will be in friday.. hopefully that fixes the issue.

Thanks @Potomus Pete ! Born and raised here. Love it too.

@Gravydog That would be my '01 FXDXT T-Sport. Unfortunately, I bought it stripped.. someone removed the original fairing and bags, lowered it, and added 17 inch apes. I added the fairing, bags, lowers, bars, exhaust, rear shocks, lights, stereo etc, etc... my other money pit. I've had it almost 4 years now. Rode from Florida to Maine last year. Fairly stout 95" 100hp/105tq.

Very nice. I’ve always wanted a roadster! My last bike was a 94 Sportster that I swapped a complete buell thunderbolt motor into.