I've been getting asked a lot again about my tank mods, the Softtail in particular. I guess I'm not the only one who wants to decide when it's time to re-fuel. I did a mostly precise write-up on here back when I first did the job. Here's a re-cap of the high points:

Yup, you get to buy a new petc0ck for the Harley tank. The good news is is that it's the cheapest part anybody will ever buy from those folks. And yes, the vacuum hose hooks up just like our stock petc0ck does. Just make sure you tell them that you want one that's vacuum. Harleys over the years do both with and without. Don't for get to get a filter too as the stock Suzi is oval shaped and the Hawg valve is round. And it's just down right sensible how they do things in there, easy to change or clean.

You have to cut off the two pegs that the front of the tank slide onto to hold it in place.

You need to drill a hole through the triangle shaped brace in the frame up front to put the bolt for the front Harley tank mount. I used washers wrapped in electrical tape (choose your color to taste) as spacers to fill in the gaps on each side.

You need to re-route some of the wiring under the tank because the channel down the middle is narrower AND the back of the tank sits higher even though in my case it sits right on the frame. Don't be afraid to splice wires. I soldered them to avoid having the the connections get dirty.

You need to move the module the spark plug wire is attached to, the horn and the decompression solenoid that opens when you turn the key on to aid in starting. I used the horn mount, but with one bolt at a different angle and bolted the spark plug thingie to the horn mount with the same bolt that holds the horn in place. I moved the compression solenoid to the frame under the right front side of the tank and had to make a longer cable for it. I went to a lawnmower repair shop and they had the wire and sheathing of the correct size and even soldered the end pieces in place for me once I had gotten the correct length figured out. The other option is to just make the solenoid work with a hand operated do-dad that you mount on the handle bars somewhere.

Since the tank sits higher at it's back end you'll either be raising the front of your seat quite a bit or you'll do some modification to fit the front of the seat under the rear of the tank. Raising the front is a great riding comfort thing, but make sure you add in some support under the seat pan to hold your weight as it's made out of plastic and can sag over time. Also, raising the seat that much higher makes your stance feel quite a bit different when you're at a stop light.

You'll be doing a lot of experimenting as you go along. I had never had a bike before and I figured it out with advice from this site, a neighbor who's a shop teacher and a "what do I got to lose" attitude. Good luck.

http://bikepics.com/members/jazzcarter/00savage/

Jack

Darn, I came within a dollar to winning a softail tank on ebay. That really sucks. But I am still gonna try and get one so I can do that mod.

Jack_650 wrote on 03/15/08 at 11:32:08:


I have already asked our local Harley dealer about take off items, and they will not sell them because of safety. At least that is what a salesman said, I think I will talk to the actual parts guy, he seems to know what he is talking about.

If you had a step by step, picture-guided version of this, it would go great in the tech references section.

Know anybody with a road king we could roll?

Ah, I need a drooling smiley.

Now that I got a look at the top side, this is the one featured on the spainish site.  He showed how made the speedo work.

I went with the SoftTail tank 'cause that was what was available cheap. The Road King tank looks great, like it would make the seat placement have a lot more flexibility. If the channel down the middle is the same width you've still got to move the modules and such that are in the hole in the middle of the front triangle shaped frame brace because they're too wide the way they're in there to go between the tank sides.

As it is I gave up the chrome on the top 'cause it sits down closer to the motor than the stock tank. I guess  the extra three gallons had to go somewhere.

I forgot to mention that that pesky crossover tube you need to put on up front creates a bit of a logistic problem as it needs to go around the front of the frame to stay level. I wanted to be able to get the tank on and off quickly. So what I did was to put two plastic lawn mower fuel cut-off valves inline in the hose. That way when the tank has to come off I turn them both off, then remove one of the connections BETWEEN the two valves. You only dribble a few drops of gas that way.

I had thought about how the Harley two piece tanks might work but:

1. - None were available cheap
B. - What would I do with the slot down the middle on top.

Jack

That's what I always thought as well. I think it has something to do with a Fuel injected tank as an electric fuel pump inside it or something like that to keep the fuel line pressurized for the fuel injection system. I am probably wrong, but that is my guess.