I couldn't wait any longer - the bike was so close to running that I decided to keep working until I had her going. Unfortunately, I was so intent on getting her running that I forgot to take many pics. The first thing I did was make a new wiring harness. I did take a few pics as I was removing the old one, so in the future I will remember where everything went. It was a rat's nest.
With the OEM wiring harness removed I began soldering up a new harness from scratch. This is what I used to guide me - I found it on the internet. It took a couple of hours to cut all the wires to proper length, solder the connectors, and then double check their installation to make sure nothing was crossed. When I installed the battery to test everything I found that I didn't have a tail light. After a bit of troubleshooting, I realized I somehow lost the ground to the tail light, so I simply ran a new ground wire from the tail light housing to the frame and all was good.
With the bike wired I now needed to clean and install the gas tanks. I threw a handfull of nuts into each tank, added a bit of gasoline, inserted ear plugs, and sloshed the mess around to my favorite AC/DC songs. Rinse and repeat until the gas flowed clear. It didn't take too long before both tanks were installed. I then scoured my parts boxes for my old S&S throttle and cables. I installed those, as well as the clutch lever and cable. I then had to fabricate a few new brackets as the smaller Superglide battery tray I was installing didn't fit quite right. After a bit of cutting and grinding, however, in went the new battery and she was ready to start.
It turned out the battery was pretty dead, so I pulled out the jumper cables and hooked them to the Ford Ranger, and after a few turns of the starter she fired to life. I then realized my petcock was leaking badly, so I drained the gas from both tanks, removed the petcock, and headed to the hardware store to buy a rubber faucet washer. I installed the faucet washer and a liberal dose of teflon tape, and the petcock was now gas-tight. I once again hooked up the jumper cables and she was again rumbling in the driveway.
I put about 50 miles on her tonight, and she's a real blast to ride. The front end handles a bit differently than the original one, but I still need to do a little tweeking to get it dialed in. I also need to figure out a front brake. A stop light caught me off guard and I skidded to a stop in the nick of time. Riding without a front brake is definately not something you want to do in the city.
Here she is after her inaugural ride:
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