This bike I didn't really 'save' as much as 'get going,' but I guess they are pretty much the same...kinda, I guess...but this little saga started when my friend John dropped by the house one morning with this 2002 Harley Davidson Road King on a trailer. I knew that he knew I worked on motorcycles and ostensibly told me he had one that he needed some work done to it and brought it by, so we wrestled it off the trailer. 

This photo was taken very soon after I got the shock of my life. (Yes, I look pretty crappy here, but I was wearing my garage clothes; you can see the bemused look of disbelief on my face...).

"So, what do you want me to do with it," I asked.

" I dunno - it's yours."  

I hadn't heard him right.

"What do you mean, this is your bike..." I said, somewhat puzzled.

"No, it's not; it's yours." 

"What...? What are you talking about..." 

"Dude, I'm GIVING you this bike!" he said, finally ramming home the idea to my spoon-edged mind that he was GIVING me a Harley Davidson! I was flabbergasted! I'd always admired Harleys - I thought they were cool, but way too expensive for me, and frankly, all the new ones tended to look the same to me - unlike the older ones that did have a certain panache to them...but never in my dreams did I think I would have one! 

I didn't know what to say...! I was dumbfounded! What?? GIVING me a Harley??

"It doesn't run, and the widow of the guy who had it just wanted it out of the house; I don't work on motorcycles, so I'm giving it to you!" 

HOLY SHIT!! It finally sunk home that he was giving me a frickin' 2002 Harley Davidson Road King! 

Do you remember that scene in 'Independence Day' where Will Smith's character is asked if he can actually fly that alien ship, and he looks at it with his hand over his mouth and goes "Hoooo....!" Yeah, it was like that...

"THANKS JOHN!! Love Ya! Mean It...!"

It didn't run, of course, but John said that if there was anyone that could figure it out it would be me, so here it was. (Thanks for the vote of confidence, dude!)

We tried starting it, and it cranked just fine but wouldn't fire, so I put it on my To-Do list. It came with a cover, thankfully, and some extra small parts, nothing much, but at the time I didn't have any room in the garage, so I covered it up and it sat outside for some time. And every time John would come over, he'd give me shit about keeping it outside, and rightfully so - this thing was totally stock right down to the tank bolts! It was beautiful, but I just didn't have room! The time it spent outside didn't hurt it though, and while it was out there, I set about trying to find out why it wouldn't start.

An Alarming Situation

I didn't know much about Harleys; I knew they were big, heavy and expensive and that was about the end of it. This one (...don't they all...? ) came with an electronic key fob that, as I found out one still, dead-calm afternoon, activated the alarm system! Hey, I didn't know...! I must've activated it somehow (before I figured out how the damn fob-thing worked!) and when I tried to move the bike it went off! And that sucker was LOUD! Like, Car Alarm loud! I damn near jumped out of my skin when it went off!

You know how far a car alarm sound travels on a calm day...? Well, it's a LOT! And it's LOUD!! I had no idea how to shut the damn thing off but thankfully it went off by itself about forty-five seconds into it, Thank God! I figured out it was some combination of pressing that stupid fob, so, yes, I was able to disable it - but Damn! I never did that again!

I don't have too many photos of what I did to get it going again, so here's the TLDR (Too Long/Didn't Read) version...I discovered that it would fire on starting fluid, but not the Start button; dug into it a lot more with a little help from the very expensive Repair and Electrical manuals and even got an owner's manual for it too, when I had the money - very pricy! (I mean, Jesus Christ - $150 for the repair manual alone?? Jeez...!) 

I thought it was the fuel pump, so dove into the unknown and took it out from its home in the gas tank, a rather pain-in-the-ass job because you have to stick something in the tank to get the pump assembly to fold down so you can remove the pump and all its associated parts...

I replaced all the innards with a new fuel pump and associated parts, put it all back together again and still nothing! It would crank as the day is long but still nothing! I replaced the fuel injectors and the in-tank fuel line - nothing! I replaced the fuel tap connector thingy on the tank that goes to the injectors - nothing! 

Eventually I tracked all the problems down to a bad fuel pump (the new FPF one I put in was crap right out of the box!) and a bad fuel tap - apparently the O-rings in those go bad. There are all kinds of 'O-ring operations' you can do to fix it, but in the end I just said 'fuck it!' and replaced it.

Got on the bike, hit the starter and she roared to life! I was thrilled, but MAN...! It has Rinehard pipes on it - good thing I live in the country, 'cause those suckers are LOUD!! And when you roll on the throttle, the whole ass-end of the bike settles! That is some Power, Baby!