Kacper Wardynski bio photo

Kacper Wardynski

If it ain't broke, fix it 'till it is.

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Gnarly Davidson "Adventures"

This page is slowly being chopped up into bite-sized blog posts:

A deep dive into financial ruin and borderline insanity

Notable Modifications

  • Zipper’s Performance 1200cc big bore kit
  • DANMOTO Highwayman 2-1 exhaust (with questionably installed heat wrap)
  • Biltwell Banana Solo Seat

Pain and Pleasure

Gittin ‘Er Home

In my most recent string of vehicular-inspired poor financial decisions, I bought a 1994 Harley-Davidson Sportster, basically sight unseen from a dude out in Abbotsford. After work one day in February of 2021, I rented a U-Haul motorcycle trailer, hitched it to the back of my good friend Matt’s Ranger, and we braved Lower Mainland rush hour traffic to go pick it up.
I’m not very good at taking pictures and record keeping, so the only pictures I have from that day are these two - when we got the bike back to my apartment and stuffed it in my small parkade space behind my car:

The bike had a bit of a bed-wetting problem when I got it - fuel would just dump from the carburetor overflow hose if the petcock wasn’t shut. I didn’t think to close it when we were transporting the bike back home so the U-Haul trailer had a nice puddle of gasoline in it, and so did the parkade when I finally got home after returning the trailer. And so began the long (and expensive) uphill battle of getting this thing road-ready for the summer…

Carburetor Instigator

Ok so step one in addressing the bed-wetting issue is pulling apart the carb and inspecting the float level - if it’s set too high the bowl will overfill, and therefore need to be drained through the overflow hose. I was hoping it would be a simple adjustment, but I quickly came to learn that when it comes to this bike it’s usually worst case scenario.

I pulled the carb, ran to Canadian Tire for some carb cleaner, made a quick stop at Trev Deely for a carb rebuild kit then headed to the shop at my work to pull it apart and inspect it. Here is where I quickly came to realize that a poorly adjusted float is going to be the least of my worries…

The float pin (the little round metal dot right above the screw in the middle of the above picture) is meant to be removed ONE WAY ONLY in these CV carbs, there’s warnings all over the service manuals and big bold arrows cast into the body of the carburetor to show you which way it goes. Whoever was previously messing with this carb had obviously ignored these warnings and either tried to tap it out or install it the wrong way - the evidence of which can be seen in the form of the hairline crack on the right-most float post. The moment one of these posts breaks - the carburetor becomes a piece of scrap metal.
I tried to remove the pin as delicately as I possibly could, but the damage had already been done and the post snapped on me almost immediately…

After a string of colorful words and retrieving the tools I threw across the shop I hit the internet to see if I could buy a suitable replacement part. My initial search turned up only expensive upgrades, cheap knock-offs on Amazon with poor reviews, and parts from the US on eBay that would take weeks to ship, so I did everything a shit hobby mechanic would do - I went back to Canadian Tire and bought some JB Weld. Spoiler alert - it didn’t work.

I tried about 3 times to re-assemble the post using JB weld - each attempt was less successful than the last. The tip of the float pin post would fall right off when it came time to re-assemble the float mechanism and tap the pin through the post holes. I took a few days off working on it and started calling around local shops seeing if anybody happened to have an extra CV carb lying about. The first 4 shops I called all pointed me in the direction of “Madman’s Customs” in Coquitlam, I left the owner a voicemail and he got back to me the next day with good news, he had an entire carburetor sitting in his shop he was willing to sell me for essentially pennies. I picked it up the next day, tore down both of the carburetors, gave them both a good clean and began re-assembling 1 franken-carb from the best components of the two. While I was at it I also replaced the cheap (and cracked) fuel inlet elbow with a nice brass one from Fortnine.

While cleaning the jets, I noticed the carb was running 40 pilot and 170 main jet sizes - which I’m pretty sure is the jetting for a stock 883 motor and definitely not big enough for a 1200 especially at sea level. Luckily the replacement carb I bough had a 45 pilot 180 main so I swapped those in, set the float level, slammed the whole thing back together and put it back on the bike. I opened the petcock and let it sit for 10 minutes - thankfully there was no fuel leaking from the fuel elbow and nothing coming out of the overflow hose! I cranked it over and it idled like a peach. I think all in this carburetor fiasco took me almost two weeks… AN omen of things to come.

No Room for Mistakes When You’re Working on Brakes

Now on to the brakes - the guy I bought it from said the pads were done less than a year ago but the brake fluid in both reservoirs was indistinguishable from molasses and it felt like the rear brake was dragging so I figured there’s no harm in bleeding the brakes, rebuilding the calipers, and putting in new fluid for the season. At this point I also decided to get some stainless-steel braided brake lines for the front - but the ones I ordered had the wrong size banjo bolts and that idea was quickly abandoned.
I only have 1 picture from this entire process and it’s just from bleeding the front brake into an old Cazadores tequila bottle. Enjoy:

This part of the service was relatively painless - the hardest part was removing the rear master cylinder but everything else was peanuts. Having the factory service manual (and not the Hayne’s version) was a huge help. So was YouTube.

Kick Stand and Deliver

The kickstand on this bike would not sit still when kicked up, it rattled against the frame and would basically drag during left turns. I decided to alleviate this security concern with a new cotter pin assembly, kickstand spring, and washers which I just got from the dealership. I leaned the bike against my parkade wall and removed the old kickstand to find a variety of issues with it:

  • There was no hair-pin in the cotter pin. The whole thing was held onto the bike just by friction and sheer luck.
  • The spring was no longer a spring, I could stretch it to limit with my hands.
  • There were no washers between the kickstand and the frame.

Needless to say this was ALL WRONG so I installed the new parts using the “dime trick” which takes all the muscle work out of installing kickstand springs. Basically you stretch the spring using a bench vise and a screwdriver, then you put 6-8 dimes into the spring to keep it from compressing all the way back. Once you’ve hooked the spring into the frame and the kickstand, you just pull the dimes out with pliers. Voila.
Again I have no pictures of any of this so you’ll just have to take my word for it and use your imagination.

Fishin’ in the Transmission

So here I am - brakes are done, bike idles well (so I’m assuming it’ll run well), it’s registered and plated, and riding season is officially underway. Last thing that’s left to do is a quick oil change for peace of mind and we’ll be on the road. I head to my local Harley dealer for a couple pints of oil and a new filter. While I’m there the parts guy suggests that while I’m in the vicinity I might as well just do the primary oil as well so I buy the primary fluid, new gaskets and head home for what I expect to be a 30 minute job before I go for a ride in the afternoon.
Oil change goes smoothly - nice. The good luck runs out the moment I start to drain the primary fluid:

There’s a portion of some spring stuck to the drain plug - and only God himself knows where the other half of it is, and what sort of havoc it’s wreaked on my transmission. I print off the transmission chapter from my service manual, order a locking tool so I can actually remove the sprockets, and head to Canadian Tire to get a breaker bar and the appropriate sockets needed to remove the clutch basket and engine sprocket nuts. The locking tool arrives the next day and so begins the investigation:

Judging from the parts diagram below, I’m either missing spring #8 (shifter pawl spring) or the tiny spring visible just above #1 (Shift shaft assembly).

It’s definitely not the pawl spring as that’s there are in one piece - however there’s an alarming amount of debris in this primary case. At this point I’m expecting my gears to be completely shredded.

Since the pawl spring is intact, next place to look is the shift detente spring - bingo, it’s missing. You can see just to the left of the sprocket where it should be:

I make a call to my local dealer and they can get me a new spring in about a week, along with all the clips/pins which should be replaced whenever you pull the transmission. I decide to take advantage of this lead time and try to remove the sprockets so I can pull the transmission and inspect if for any damage that could have been caused by the spring and get a jump on any necessary repairs. Again this was one of those instances where the bike would decide to fight me every step of the way. I get the primary cover off, wedge the locking tool between the engine sprocket, and the moment I apply the smallest amount of force on the nut, the locking tool shatters:

The service manual recomments a “genuine Harley-Davidson” part which can be used to lock the engine and clutch sprockets together, allowing you to actually loosen/tighten their respective nuts, and it even goes so far as to provide a part number - but none of the dealers from Vancouver to Regina carry it. There’s also a plethora of forum posts and YouTube videos of people using wacky techniques in order to lock the two sprockets together so they can remove the primary assembly, ranging from using an old leather belt to force tension in the system to using a 4” brass door hinge as a lock. Luckily my work has a fully equipped machine shop and one of my good buddies there is always down to use the lathe, so I dive into the depths of the internet to try and find the schematics for the Harley-Davidson locking part. We find a rough description of it and get to sketching out a cad file. We get the thing machined out - unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the process, and the only picture I have of the actual tool is in the background of this extremely blurry picture and a screenshot of the stepfile:

A bit of elbow grease later (actually I had to jump on the breaker bar to get the engine sprocket nut to budge) and the sprocket nuts are loose. Retainer pins come out, bolts holding the transmission are removed and the whole assembly is finally out.

A quick inspection of the transmission assembly reveals that there is luckily no damage to the gears - and the majority of the chunks in the assembly are just congealed oil and crud which break apart when pinched. I ran a magnet over the assembly and inside the primary and transmission case and collected very little particulate thankfully. At this point I’m still waiting for my new spring to arrive so back to the shop I go with the primary assembly and transmission to give everything a proper cleaning before everything goes back together.

I don’t have any pictures of the re-assembly, but what I will say here is if you don’t have a service manual, get one - it makes re-assembly foolproof. You have to put the transmission back in gear and there’s a very specific clearance you have to set for the shift detente plate with step by step instructions how to do it. Honestly the hardest part of the re-assembly was getting the clutch and engine sprockets back on together, getting the teeth lined up for both at the same time then having them stay in place while I tightened the nuts was a pain in the ass. I found that leaning my bike to the right against a wall made it a lot easier. Removing and installing the clutch basket snap ring requires surgeon-steady hands - make sure you have proper snap-ring pliers to do this. Again, follow the FSM and you’ll be fine.
Once the transmission was back together, I put my tools away, cleaned myself up, grabbed my helmet and was FINALLY able to take the bike around the block a few times - felt great to finally get this thing out and moving under its own power!

A Quantum of Solace

This joy didn’t last very long unfortunately… I was able to ride the bike to work twice before the real problems started. On the second ride to work, it started backfiring on me at low RPM’s when cruising, then I could barely get it to find an idle when firing it up for my ride home. I sat in the parking fiddling with the idle and mixture screws for a good half hour until I was able to get it to stay alive, but the bike ran progressively rougher the closer I got to home. The next morning I couldn’t even get it out of the parkade - each time I tried to get moving it would backfire BAD, big blue flames out the exhaust and it sounded like a shotgun.
I parked the bike and spent a few days putting together a list of what could be wrong so I could start going through it. By this point riding season is well underway and the clock is ticking to get this headache back on the road.

Plugs and Wires

Let’s get to the easy stuff first - it’s backfiring blue so that tells me the engine is running rich, so I could be getting too much fuel or I could be missing a spark. I check all my grounds and everything seems fine, so next step is to pull the plugs. They look like they’ve seen better days so off to the dealership I go again. New plugs are gapped and installed, new wires get seated, I hold my breath, and - no dice. Bike starts farting just like before.
Back to the drawing board

I Pity the Fuel

Time to check the fuel system - I remove the carburetor again, disassemble it and give it a thorough cleaning just in case something’s been clogged up. Next I grab a micrometer and double check that I set my float correctly. At this point I figure I might as well check everything upstream of the carburetor as well, the problem likely isn’t there since I’m certain I’m running rich but some extra cleaning wouldn’t hurt.
I drain the fuel tank and I’m absolutely not surprised to see the fuel full of little metal flakes and rust chips, this is obviously bad but it’s not the source of my backfire. Regardless I press on. Gas tank gets removed, I pull the petcock out and find a vile sight - the fuel filter is basically all clogged up with rust flakes. Lord help me.

A quick peek into the gas tank reveals a similar story - the inside is looking pretty rusty:

I’m going to give anyone who’s considering doing rust removal on the inside of their tank at home a word of warning - don’t. It’s difficult, incredibly dangerous, and for the cost of materials you can take your tank to a rad shop and they’ll do it PROFESSIONALLY and also line the inside. Unfortunately future me didn’t come stop past me from attempting this so I hit the forums, concocted a plan, made a shopping list, and began what I can easily classify as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever attempted.

Shopping List:

  1. 20L cleaning strength vinegar
  2. 5L pool cleaner (muriatic acid - HCl)
  3. 3ft length of chain
  4. 2x20L plastic buckets
  5. 5L dish soap
  6. Baking soda
  7. 2x rubber stoppers
  8. Marvel Mystery Oil

Procedure:

  1. Plug the petcock hole with the rubber bung
  2. Insert length of chain into the gas tank, fill with vinegar
  3. Let sit for approx. 4 hours, shaking vigorously every 10-15 minutes (the length of chain acts as an abrasive to help strip the rust, using a length of chain means you only have one thing to remove from the tank afterwards instead of a bunch of BB’s or screws like some people will suggest) - this is arguably the only rational decision made during this whole process…
  4. Drain the vinegar from the tank, quickly follow up with a rinse of warm water and dish soap to neutralize the acid.
  5. Dilute the muriatic acid, re-plug the tank and fill the to the top - the vinegar + agitation will remove most of the rust, but what’s left will need to be etched out with a strong acid; be careful here as this acts FAST and makes a lot of fumes, use eyewear and gloves at the very least. Take care not to spill any on your tank as it will remove your paint
  6. Let sit for 1-2 minutes, drain
  7. Follow up with a warm water rinse + dish soap and/or baking soda to neutralize the acid - rinse well to make sure it’s all gone and neutralized
  8. Dry the tank, and do it fast so it doesn’t flash rust on you - I used a heat gun here and it worked relatively well, just be careful not to bake your paint
  9. Add a few drops of Mystery Oil to the tank, swish around and make sure you’ve coated the entire inside to prevent flash rusting if you are unable to immediately fill to the brim with gasoline

I will say that this worked AMAZING to remove the rust, but I was unable to prevent the inside of the tank from flash rusting - I repeated this exercise twice and both times the rust would be back in a matter of minutes and orders of magnitude worse than before:

Now as to why this was a stupid idea - I working with HCl. I did this all in the shop at my work, had the bay doors open, fans going, goggles on, shoulder-length rubber gloves and an apron on, but there was still about 40L of questionably neutralized acid to dispose of afterwards. I started off by adding a bunch of baking soda to the waste liquid to try and neutralize the acid as best I could, but no chemistry was done here so who knows what the final pH of the solution was. Next I figured I could pour it down the sink slowly while running the tap, this worked without immediately apparent issues for the first ~30L, but the sump pump quickly stopped working and the sink began to back up. Being the brilliant plumber that I am, I put a bucket below the p-trap under the sink and began to open it up - the bucket was definitely not big enough and very shortly a LOT of dirtly liquid of questionable pH started spilling on the floor. I panicked, sprinkled the remainder of the baking soda on it, found a mop, and started attempting to clean it up.
It took me about 2 hours of mopping to get everything cleaned up, and since the sink wasn’t draining I was pouring the recovered liquid into the toilet… If I learned anything from Breaking Bad is that acid and porcelain don’t mix but thankfully there were no issues there. Once the floor was cleaned up and dry, I started un-clogging the p-trap. I found batteries, screws, q-tips, you name it. Once the p-trap was cleared out, I re-assembled the sink, kicked the sump pump and turned on the taps for a test run. Thankfully it woke back up and I was able to pour the rest of the liquid down the drain.
I don’t think I’ve properly conveyed the panic I experienced during this whole ordeal - it was a Sunday afternoon, I was alone in the shop and I had no idea what sort of damage I was possibly causing to the plumbing and the shop floor, let alone myself (I was wearing old sneakers with holes in the bottom, my feet were drenched during this whole ordeal), but luckily no real harm was done. My boss pulled the security footage and posted it in one of the public Slack channels at work on Monday and everybody had a good laugh.
So at this point I had spent a ton of money on supplies, an entire Sunday cleaning up an HCl spill, and only succeeded in making the tank rustier, so I accepted defeat and called a local radiator shop. I dropped the tank off on Tuesday after work, and had it back in my hands the following Thursday at lunch. All the rust was removed, the interior was coated, and all in all that service cost less than what I had spent on supplies trying to do it myself. Lesson learned - sometimes it’s better to leave it to the professionals.
I got the tank back on, mounted the carburetor, hooked up the fuel lines and throttle cables, then sent up a little prayer. Deep down I knew this wasn’t going to solve my backfire, but a boy can dream. I fired the bike back up and was immediately brought back down to reality - the backfire was still there…

I’m Exhausted

Perhaps the backfire is a vaccuum or exhaust leak, so I get a spray bottle, fill it with soapy water, spray down the bike and fire it up. I let it idle for a few minutes while listening for any hissing and looking for any bubbling, there might be a bit coming from the front cylinder’s exhaust so off we go to the dealership to get some new gaskets. At this point I’m skeptical this is going to solve my problems but I’m approaching the end of my patience and mechanical aptitude.
Exhaust comes off easy, and the front gasket is basically non-existant at this point - not surprising since most of the modifications on this bike are of questionable execution. New gaskets go in and so begins the 2 hour wrestling match with the pipes to get everything lined up and torqued in. Not surprisingly the backfire is still there, just not as bad. I figure I’ll mess with the mixture and idle screws a bit since I’ve got my tools with me and I make some progress but not nearly enough to claim my issue is resolved. At this point I’m over wrenching in the corner of the parkade, I just want to ride - so I make the call to the dealer and schedule a service appointment…

Bad Head

Bike gets dropped off at the dealership for some service - at this point I’m hoping for the best, but as with all things related to this bike, I’m expecting the worst. My fears are very soon confirmed when the service tech calls to inform me that cylinder 2 has basically zero compression due to a dropped exhaust valve… Luckily it did not make contact with the piston so off the heads to go get a new set of valves seated. 3 weeks and almost $2,000 later I finally get the bike back and it’s running like a dream, just in time for the last few weeks of summer.

I’m Going Through Changes

Over the 3 weeks while the bike was in the shop, I ended up taking a new job in Calgary and would be moving back home in December so some schemes need to be hatched. Since I wouldn’t be able to (easily) get the bike to a shop for an out of province inspection during the winter (and I especially don’t want to leave an un-registered and un-insured motorcycle just sitting in a downtown parkade), I figure it would be best to leave the bike in mom’s garage, which is conveniently located at the halfway point between Vancouver and Calgary. Luckily, 2 weeks before our move her partner had to make a trip out to Vancouver and he kindly agreed to help load up my bike into his truck and take it back with him.
The long winter months pass and it’s time to get the bike out to Calgary. Again I get hit with a stroke of luck - the mover who helped us with the initial trip from Vancouver to Calgary would be going through interior B.C. and out to Calgary with some extra space in his trailer so he loads up my bike and brings it over the night before my inspection is scheduled.
The next morning, a coworker shows up at my place bright and early with his trailer, we load up the bike and get it out to the shop. They run through the checklist and find (unsurprisingly) that the bike needs new tires in order to pass inspection. New rubber gets ordered, and I figure while they’re at it and have the wheels off, now would be a great time to replace the very squeaky rear wheel bearing and replace the brake pads which have about 1 season left in them.
Paperwork is done, bike is in running order, insurance and registration get purchased and now it’s time to start Sportster Summer, at least that’s what I thought…

Dirty Deeds - Done Dirt Cheap

It’s a beautiful Wednesday morning, the sun is just peeking over the horizon and lovely birdsong fills the air - a perfect opportunity to ride to work. I pack my bags, grab my gear and head down to the parkade only to notice my motorcyle is not where I left it… It’s been stolen.
I call the police to report my bike stolen, call my insurance company to start a claim, and call work telling them I’m going to be late since I now have this nightmare to deal with. I spend the next !!THREE!! weeks battling back and forth with my absolutely useless condo management company (Catalyst Condo Management for anyone interested, Dustin and Raelyn specifically you want a master class in ignoring emails, voicemails, and deflecting questions) to try and get some security footage of the theft so I can hand it over to the police. They finally manage to show a bit of urgency and get me some footage which shows a guy that looks suspiciously like me enter the parkade at 4 am, hotwire my bike, and ride it out at 4:50. I pass the footage along to the police and cross my fingers hoping that they’re able to, at the very least, find the guy who stole it - but at this point I’m fully convinced the bike had been torn apart the morning it was stolen and being sold for parts in another province.
A few weeks go by and my phone rings with a restricted number, I pick it up and the voice on the other line introduces himself as a member of the RCMP out in Drumheller - he says the found my bike. It was recovered during a raid on a meth compound just outside the city limits and the guy they arrested was in the process of attempting to re-VIN the bike. The officer said as far as he can tell the bike runs, however they had taken off the fairing and exhaust wrap, re-painted the tank and fenders, changed out the air filter cover, and removed the front turn signals and mirrors from the bike. They need another week or two to process the evidence and they would release the bike to me. Honestly at point if the bike is complete (complete enough to ride) and runs I’ll be thanking my lucky start and taking this as a win.

MORE TO COME