I finally got to go down to Perry and work on my friends 1990 FLHTP with a California Friendship II hack. I am guessing they are factory mounts as he has all the original instructions and the mounts look to be what I can tell from the poor drawings original as well as the instructions are for a 5 speed rubber mounted motor Harley.
My Harley hack is so much easier to work on as I do not have to take anything off to make an adjustment but with this hack any adjustments you have to take something loose to adjust it. Next time I go down to work on it I am going to take the body off as according to the instructions the hack frame is sitting way to low as well as if you hit a bump the front of the body would hit.
Then main problem with setting lean out is on the front mount the ball join is hitting the mount making it where you cannot adjust the lean. Please see the poor drawing below. Any help will greatly be appreciated!
Thanks
Jeff
Hello Jeff, I hope you can breathe well again and are doing fine.
That interference lets me suspect that somebody pushed the sidecar too much to the front. Check the relation between the sidecar wheel and the back wheel-.
Just as a guess I would say the sidecar wheel should be max 10 to 12 (13) inch further forward than the back wheel. Our installers here in the forum should have the real numbers.
Enjoy every moment its a gift.
Sven
If I remember correctly the instructions said 8 inches ahead of the rear wheel. Another question is this from center of the axles?
Thanks
Jeff
8 inches sounds ok. that meens center of axis to center of axis in the longitudinal plane. When thes/c wheel is too much towards the front then it becomes nearly impossible to make a turn. If it is too much to the back the rig tips over very easily as with the MZ I had where that distance was something like 4'-5 inches. Together with a realy soft suspension it uged me to mount a skid pad below the front nose! 😮
Good luck
Sven 😉
Thanks Sven! A WHOLE lot more to setting up this sidecar then my Harley sidecar but I have no fear I will get it. He lives 35 miles from me and once I get it drivable I will bring it up to do more on it. I do not like going to others house as they never have all the tools I need and here I do. Here is a picture of his rig that I did list in another thread. Old police bike.
The mount is hooked up wrong. The heim joint should be centered in the clevis. As it is not, some thing is not right. The mounts from the bike should be square to the frame of the bike and the clevis should also be in line with the bike, For it to be like shown in the drawing some thing is not correct.
One thought with out having the whole story. The lower mounts are made in 45 degree and 70 degree. The part that slides into the sidecar frame is called a clamp, the part that slides into the clamp is called a boss. If you have mismatched bosses and clamps what you show in the drawing could happed. A 70 degree clamps is always used with a 70 degree boss and a 45 degree clamps is always used with a 45 degree boss. Never should they be mixed and matched.
BTW, we make bosses and clamps that will work with the California sidecar, we also make bosses where the part that the heim joint threads into is longer to clear the running board better and we make struts (the parts that go to the upper mounts) with a pronounced curve to them in order to give you more room on the front strut for your foot to work the brake pedal.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
Space for the foot! good point, reminds me to the Ural. You adjust your body to the bike, not other way round...At least that seems to be russian philosophy.
Sven
Jay I do not see how the mount is mounted wrong as the where the floor bard mounts has the slot in it so you can adjust the floor boards up and down. Now I am not saying the mount is original. I was surprised when I saw the mount was make out of 1/8 plate. I have no idea if it is stock or home made. If it was not so far down there I would go take a picture. Jay do you sell a front mount for this rig?
Thanks
Jeff
Our mount is totally different in that the lower mounts are tied together and tie to both sides of the frame. I have seen the ones made out of thin plate, Never heard of any problems with them not working.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
jaydmc - 10/17/2013 7:33 PM
Our mount is totally different in that the lower mounts are tied together and tie to both sides of the frame. I have seen the ones made out of thin plate, Never heard of any problems with them not working.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
Jay the rear one does attach to both sides of the frame but not the front one. I am going to try and get in touch with him and tell him to send me some pictures.
Thanks
Jeff.
Going down to Perry tomorrow to work on this pain more. First thing I am going to do is take the body off the sidecar.
Took a while but I think I have it just about ready to ride. Only hold up now is the steering dampener mount will not grip the front upper mount like it should so I am going to try and grind it down some. The ball joint is not longer hitting the mount it is close but not hitting.
Thanks
Jeff
Got it done to day and only problem is the whole motorcycle gets to shaking at about 70 but the front tire is badly cupped so he is going to get a tire and I am going to put it on. The front of the hack is MUCH higher off the ground and sits all most level. Now what I need to find out is how much air to run in the hack tire.
Thanks
Jeff
For the air pressure I recomend You to get a portable compressor And a second person for observing, Then load some regular load into the sidecar and make harsh turns on an empty parking lot. The tire should not bounce nor skid like a pencil eraser (too high pressure) nor try to flip off the rim.(too low pressure) then You should repeat with max load. That way you will get a good range for different riding conditions,
Because all tires have different design and side wall stiffness Your buddy should repeat the trial series the day when he changes his tire type.
For the same reason I like to change sometimes with another riding buddy our vehicles just for to ride behind my own vehicle for to watch if everything is tracking and behaving as it should. Amasingly sometimes people get upset when I tell them that their frame is misalligned or rims wobble. Myself I would appreaciate if somebody gives me a safety hint.
But Latinamerica is a different world.
Sven
On my Harley rig I run what the book says on all my tires and works well. Has to be a suggested starting pressure. I know some run a rear tire on the front but from my little experience it will not work on a Harley. No wonder his front tire is so cupped as it is a rear tire. 😮 One of the many things I like about my Harley hack is does not matter if you are running empty of packed to the max I never have to make any adjustments.
