It's new, and I need some help
 

I have got a new harley, I went to the harley shop and they don't seem trust worthy. Not to mention I love to tinker any way. And I really don't know where to start. I have worked on engines for a while, but never on a motorcycle. I am putting this out here for a little help on: How do I change my oil, and should I use Harley oil? I have seen some contriversery over it. What should I look for as far as bolt tightening? What is going to rattle itself right off of the bike? I have Short shots on order and I know that the carb has to be rejetted, should I have a dyno test done on it, or can I do the job myself. And shoud I get a new air cleaner to go with the carb?

First off, Welcome to the forum. I too just found my way onto a HD earlier this year. After riding sport bikes & standards for 25 years, I finally forked over the $$$$ to get my 03 FXDWG. As far as changing the oil on these, I found it much easier to use an evacuation style pump (you can get them at most good parts stores or the tool trucks IE Snap-On, MAC, Matco, etc...) to drain the oil out, and you pretty much want to use the HD oil at least till the warranty runs out. Looking for lose nuts & bolts is gonna be something you're gonna want to do while you are cleaning the bike. If you're gonna do any work on the bike yourself, get a service manual, follow the recomended maintainence schedule, keep track of mileage & dates you did any work, save all reciepts. I can't stress this point enough, when tightening any fastners, USE A TORQUE WRENCH!!!! Follow the pattern in the manual and tighten everything to spec.
As far as the carb jetting goes, You can get it dialed in on a dyno if you have the $$$$, but I doubt you will find any noticable HP from a stock motor going that route. If you've never been inside a carb before, or have any backround in drivability or engine performance, you might want to have someone else jet the carb and make the adjustments for you. An air cleaner that flows more air should be installed to compement the less restrictive exhaust system you're going to install.
Post some pics of your new scooter if you have some. Keep the shiny side up bro and welcome to the HD experience, it's a lot of fun.

:D :D :D

You should change the air cleaner if you are going to change the pipes. Arlen Ness Big Sucker is just as good and cheaper than Scream'n Eagle. Short Shots will drop your bottom end They are big and not equal length. Buts its what you like. You can call Samson and get the recomended jets for the pipes.

I bought a HD manual for my bike, and it answers all of these questions, and more. They are about $50, but IMO they are totally worth it.

As far as your pipes, anytime you change pipes, you should look into re-jetting. I did the screamin eagle carb kit with the K&N filter when my Samsons were put on. That way you can use the stock air cleaner. The Arlen Ness Big Sucker is cheaper to do, but it depends on the look you are after. My buddy put that on his Softail Custom, and I don't care for the looks of it. Although it does work quite well. You can definately hear the carb sucking the air in with that hog.

I think we all like to tinker with our bikes, but do it smart, get the manuals and take your time.

What did you get by the way??

Hello Youngrider, First of all, Welcome to the board. So many questions and so little time. Just like motor maintenance. So sit back and enjoy.

>How do I change my oil, and should I use Harley oil?
Spend a little on a Maintenance manual. HD sells a realy good manual that goes into as much detail as anyone would want. Oil is not just any Oil. HD just recentlly started selling a good synth oil but I've been using rev-tech and will switch to a good synthetic oile soon. HD new models are arriving with new synthetic oil in them, yes even the break-in is in synthetic oil.

>What should I look for as far as bolt tightening?
Use blue lock tight and always torque to specs as listed in the Maintenance manual. Over tightening a steel bolt in aluminum threads cause galling and failure. Also the red lock tight is very hard to remove. I recommend blue.

>What is going to rattle itself right off of the bike?
Everything will rattle off the bike. Just use torque specs and blue loktite. Even using loktite the metal featige will eventually cause some parts to fail and fall off. I lost a tail light on one ride and when I looked the bolts were still there but the frame for the taillight just broke off. Just make some quick checks before and after each ride.

>I have Short shots on order and I know that the carb has to be rejetted, should I have a dyno test done on it, or can I do the job myself?
a. Short shots are good pipes, love the sound to. Do you have a New HD with a carb? If it is carbed then re-jeting is good after a change in flow via pipes and air cleaner. If you have fuel injected then a remap of the injection is nessary. If you change the pipes, change the air cleaner to a more free flowing type. It means more flow and less restriction so a change in fuel flow is required. Watch the type of pipes you put on. Too much free flow will lower your performance. There are examples all over the internet just one example is http://www.nightrider.com. They have curves and such posted for everyone.
b. Dyno Tune and dyno run are two different things. A dyno run is just like you stated a TEST and not a tune and produces a graph of how the torque and applied horsepower at which RPM is produced, they may run it two or three times for a single printout. Dyno-Tune involves lots of money and time. Avoid this and follow someone examples. HD Dyna-glide has the Dyno Tune already done by HD on the first bike in that production line and saves you the cost.
c. Change the pipes, change the type of air cleaner. Increasing flow will increase available power output. As in item a above, if you go too far without changing other things your output may not be what you desire.

Lastlly an hour of maintenance should produce Days and Days of riding pleasure. If not something is not right. So weight of doing maintenance yourself verses cost and ridding pleasure is something only you can measure. I do 90 percent of the maintenance myself. But I'm old and not so money endowed. I do though have lots of time. So I do maintenance.

GOOD LUCK and have a beer on me.
Rapido