F'n Harley Davidson!!

When we last left our zero...er....hero, his bike was sans exhaust and seat;

In all honesty, that's not a bad look...lean, mean, and low.  However, the problems I would encounter with flames shooting out of the front and back of the engine would quickly outweigh any semblance of coolness.  So, moving on...

The first step toward installing the new pipes was to remove the old bracket which held the rear engine header on the old system.  Ha, and this is where today's post title comes from.  How the F am I supposed to get to that second bolt?  The one on the right side was hard enough, but I did manage to get it.  The one on the left (with the #1 above it) is blocked by the solenoid post (#2).  But once I removed that, I was still blocked by the solenoid end cap (#3).

It sure looks like a straight shot to the bolt, doesn't it?  But it sure as hell ain't.

So, I went to Sears today and picked up a set of allen head sockets, and a swivel, so hopefully they will allow me to get that bolt out.  (I know, I know; the right tool for the job.)

But since this was all taking place last night, and I didn't have the new tools yet, I had to move along to the power commander.

The battery compartment.  Harley finally got something right.  The battery weighs a frikkin' TON.  Thank god they put that strap in there, it makes it so nice and easy to lift the battery out.

Ta da! An empty battery compartment.

With the battery removed, I was able to check that the power commander would fit off to the side and that the terminals would all line up where I needed them to.  After plugging everything in to make sure, I found that I would indeed be able to fit it off to the side.  Excellent.  Disconnecting it and setting it off to the side again to make sure it wouldn't get damaged, I proceeded to put the battery back in and reconnect all the wires...

...and then realized that I needed the battery out in order to fit the terminals through the space between the battery compartment and the frame.  So, off came the wires and out came the battery again.  (Maybe I should change the title of this post to "F'n Magraw!!"?

Voila!  An installed power commander!  It comes with velcro which they tell you to use to tack it to the top of your existing ECM, but let's be honest - there ain't no way it's able to go there since one of the terminals is off to the side.

ANYWAY - it's tacked to the side of the battery box and that's just fine.  (Be sure to pop in the little rubber plugs they give you to close up the laptop & diagnostic connection ports!!)

A view from the right rear so you can see how much the terminal sticks out from the side.  I was pretty nervous fitting the side cover on, thinking there was no way it would clear that terminal, but sure enough; no problem at all.  The solo seat went back on without any issue as well.  Yay, one more thing done!

So that's where things stand now.

Some good news; I got the call from Cook's a little while ago that the rest of my parts are in so I will be bolting a little early from work to go pick those up and then get back to work on the bike.

The sky is of course clouding up quite nicely, thank you Mother Nature.  If I have to, I'll roll things into the garage and keep going, but I'm hoping the rain will hold off.  It's so much easier working in the driveway!  Whatever I can't finish tonight, I'll pick up again tomorrow morning.  My goal is to have this bitch back together and running by mid-day tomorrow.

Wish me luck!