The Motorcycle Diaries (maintenance and repair)

 So way back on September 17, 2023 I posted about fixing the front base gasket of my 1992 Harley Davidson Fatboy.  

https://heresolong-voices.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-motorcycle-diaries-maintenance-and.html

I had a high dollar oil pump and a new cam cover, I painted the heads and cylinders.  It looked great and ran great.

For forty (40) miles, at which point oil came pouring out from under the front cylinder.  😒

I'm a damn good mechanic, if I do say so myself, so there had to be something going wrong. Maybe the cylinder base was warped.  Well, that got pushed aside for about two years (how does that happen?  Too much else going on).  A couple months ago I decided it was time. Pull the front cylinder back off and send it out for clean up.  Problem is that when I got it apart, it looked perfect.  Which means not the cylinder at all.  Stretched cylinder stud?  Shouldn't be as the studs are relatively new and a top brand.  What could it be? 

Well, here's a hint.

Picked up a used engine, allegedly from a 1991 FXR (easily checkable) and allegedly with 30k miles or so (less easily checked).  But I trust the guy I bought it from as he is the service writer at a nearby shop.  I walked into the shop, in fact, said hi, asked if he knew of anyone who had an Evo engine.  "Why yes, he did".  😁

Anyway, it's not a simple swap because I'm going to transfer over my oil pump, my cam cover, my cam and lifters (depending on visual inspection), my adjustable pushrods, my new pushrod covers, my roller rockers, and my Manley valve springs.  I'm debating on my heads but I think mine are stock, plus they have the same 170,000 miles on them as the engine.  I can't remember whether it was the Road King or the Fatboy heads I sent out, but I think it was the former.  Would be easier than swapping valve springs, though. 

Either way, a fair amount of work but I figure to have all the upgrades in the new engine prior to install.  It's only about an eight to ten hour job (maybe less) so maybe during Spring Break but I tend to get busy fast so we shall see.  Would be nice to have 5/7 bikes running all at once.  Summer plan, get 1989 Honda CBR running, get 1946 Harley WL flathead running, sell 1988 Honda CBR, have 6/6 bikes running.

Hey, a fella can dream, can't he?

Federal Express continues to be horrible

 At least in my experience.

I guess we start with the current story.  I get a package shipped from Arizona.  New old stock mufflers for the 2015 Road Glide I just picked up.  I hate the Vance & Hines 450 mufflers currently installed (yes, me, the biker, hating an exhaust cause it's too loud, but to be fair it also echoes and reverberates.  Short version, I hate it.).  So anyway, my Road King has a set of Python scalloped slip-ons (you don't have to replace the exhaust headers and mufflers as a unit).  A bit of research tells me that touring bike exhaust for Harleys didn't change between 1996 and 2016, so the Pythons would fit my Tour Glide.  Except that they don't make Pythons anymore.  Not sure who owned the name (Drag Specialties?) but they stopped making them.  I did, however, find a brand new set on ebay.  Not cheap.  Basically the cost of new, even though they've had them sitting on the shelf for who knows how many years, but the only set for sale in the whole United States so if I decide to get them, there they are.

Now to test the concept.  I pull the old Pythons off the Road King (side note: it looks really sad right now with no mufflers) and put them on the Road Glide, setting the horrible V&H aside.  It runs and sounds great.  Decision made.  I order the mufflers.  Fed Ex says "deliver Friday".  School ends on Friday, I head home, no mufflers.  Text message from Fed Ex "we were unable to deliver since no one was there to sign.  We'll try again tomorrow".  Gah!  I had no idea signature required and there's nothing I could have done about it anyway.  

Well, I'm working Saturday at my shop and then headed out of town for the evening,  so call Saturday.  Can I get them held at the depot and I'll pick them up Monday?  Nope.  Shipper instructions say "no delivery changes".  What?  Why is that even a thing?  "We can deliver them Sunday" says the Pakistani or Indian customer service rep?  When, I ask, cause I'm going to visit my parents Sunday afternoon around 2 pm.  "Between 8 am and 8 pm" says the rep.  What?  You want me to sit around my house for twelve straight hours waiting for a delivery?  "That's not what I said" counters the rep.  That literally what you just said, say I.

To make it worse I get up this morning and the text says "left town with package in truck at 8:30, will deliver before 10 pm".  10 pm?  You knock on my door at 10 pm and you better have a DAMN good reason cause I get up at 4 and go to bed at 9.

Federal Express is horrible!

That, however, is just the first story.  The last time I had cause to be upset with Fed Ex I was out in my shop (portable motorcycle shop in an enclosed trailer I bought and modified), with a friend, working on his bike.  The trailer is on the side street (I'm a corner lot), open end facing the alley, just by the garage.  As we work a Fed Ex truck pulls into my alley.  The driver sits in his truck for a couple minutes, backs out of the alley, and drives away.  Thirty seconds later I get a text saying "Attempted delivery, no one home".  With the two of us standing in the back of a big trailer, with the door open, next to the house, staring at him.  

Fed Ex customer service didn't really care.  I never got a call back with an apology, an explanation, anything.

So needless to say, they are, at least in my area, the worst delivery service available.

Finally, while I was typing this I get a knock on the door.  I almost fell down my steep 1909 wooden stairs in my slippers to get to the door in time.  Nice guy delivering my package.  I asked him how come they couldn't narrow down the time, knowing where he would be delivering and how many packages he had, and he didn't really have a good answer,  He was pleasant enough though.

Oh, story number three.  Did I mention that I have delivery instructions in my Fed Ex account asking them to put packages on  the covered and partially enclosed back porch, which they always ignore?  Turns out the drivers can't see the delivery instructions.  So my question, to those who run the company so horribly, is why allow customers to type that into their account, knowing full well that they won't be followed.

It's not, generally, the drivers (other than the guy who lied about trying to deliver my package) or the telephone answerers who are the problem, but rather the company.

My X account is suspended and I don't know why

 I'm not a bomb thrower.  I'm not a troll.  I mostly just "like" stuff.  I occasionally "repost" stuff.  Every once in a while I will reply to a comment with either a fact or a clarification.  I don't know if I have ever called anyone a name, but if I did it would be more along the lines of "retarded take" rather than "retard".

So imagine my surprise when my account was suspended.  I can still log in.  I can still look at the main feed.  But I can't look at my "Followed" feed, I can't like, I can't post.

I filled out the "Please unsuspend me" form.  Twice.  No response back whatsoever, not even an autoresponder saying "Thanks for filling out the form".

It's not the end of the world, I don't spend hours on X, but I do enjoy it for keeping up with political discussions and ongoing events.

This is, if you ask me, odd.

Counter-intuitive legal rulings?

 You are told that you have to build a garage.  You decide to also build a shed.  A court rules that the mandate to build a garage actually prohibits you from building a shed, even though you are still building the garage.

Does anyone else find that counter-intuitive?

Apparently this is the reasoning behind a variety of court wins for "teachers unions against choice" (Not a real organization, but it's what they do).

Multiple states have enacted school choice laws that allow parents to send their children to private schools and use tax credits or deductions to help pay the fees.  Predictably a variety of teachers' unions have sued to stop this, arguing that the duty to establish a public school system precludes the state's ability to have any other education programs available to parents.  Because why wouldn't they oppose the ability of parents to do what they thought was best for their children?

So back to the lawsuits.

Idaho State Supreme Court ruled that this is perfectly constitutional.  Good.

A Utah district judge and an Ohio district judge have both, however, ruled that this is a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the law.  In Tennessee this argument has also been used, but with no rulings yet.

Is it just me or is this a retarded take that should be laughed out of court?  I'm not a lawyer, just a well educated guy, but this stuff makes me wonder about our legal system.

Oh, and as a related and relevant aside, this is why I still read CATO because they do still occasionally put out good stuff, but only if it's unrelated to Trump or immigration.

https://www.cato.org/blog/victory-choice-idaho-parental-choice-tax-credit-upheld

Worth a repost

 

Say his name!

CATO just can't help themselves.  They hate Trump.  They hate most everything he does and they blog about it constantly.  That's fine, they have that right.  Now, however, they've found something they like.  The US has pulled out of the World Health Organization (WHO).  The US was its largest funder and CATO thinks that leaving is a good thing (Editorial comment: I agree with them).

As a quick experiment I did the following on the article page.  CTRL-F Trump.

They just can't give him credit, even when he does something they like.  It's pathological.

https://www.cato.org/blog/guess-whos-gone

Garbage Service

That's garbage, a quality modifier, not garbage, a type of service modifier.

I have internet through Comcast.  Xfinity.  Perfectly happy with it.  However, the Seahawks are in the playoffs and although I don't usually watch sports, I thought I might.  Best way to watch the games seems to be to add a TV plan to my internet service through Xfinity (Comcast).  After messing around on the internet for a while and having to switch browsers just to get the Xfinity site to work, I'm told that I can't add TV without changing my internet, because I'm on an old plan.  

But they'll change my plan to TV AND internet for just $160 a month.  That's exactly what it would cost to just sell me the damn TV package on top of my current internet.  Except that they are making me change my "plan" and therefore there are no guarantees that my price won't go up later when I cancel the TV, which I eventually will since I don't watch that much.

What a load of crap.  Verizon and Comcast have done this to me so many times, and checking around over the years, so does everyone else.  

Just add the damn TV and take my money.

Now I'm ranting on the internet while I wait for the Online Chat customer service rep to tell me my options.  The rep's name is Tushar.  Any thoughts on where Tushar might be based?  Not Tushar's fault.  Tushar might be a very nice person who is limited by what Comcast tells him or her what can be done.  It's bullshit, though.  I just want to watch a bit of TV in exchange for money.

Anyway, all done ranting and all done trying to add TV.  I left them 0/10 ratings and a long comment, for what it's worth.  I'm sure they don't care about one negative feedback, but maybe if they get enough they'll start to.