South of Sunnyside

I was warned that Harleys require a great deal of hands-on maintenance. Actually, several people “informed” me that H-D actually stands for “Hundred-Dollars”—even little add-ons or repairs cost that much.

The bike is in great shape, but John pointed out a small gas leak before he sold it to me. He gave me a new seal to repair what looked to be the cause, and shortly after getting the bike home, I drained the tanks and in no time was good to go.

Or so I thought.

I fired ‘er up and let it run for a few minutes; no leaks, so I took it around the block.

Drip.

Drip.

Argh…

Realizing that the leak was actually coming from the inside of the tank (then dripping down to the petcock, so it appeared to be leaking there), I set out to remove the tanks and get a closer look.

The short story is that I got the tanks off, found the leak (from a crack around the rear mounting bolt), found many people afraid to weld on it (gas and flame…um…don’t mix?), but lucked out when a local radiator repair shop agreed to fix it. Now, all is well. I’ll post more as the work continues.

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