A few days ago I took the second exhaust pipe and gas tank off. Today I took off the carburetor. Like most Harleys, my bike has just one. The screws for the cover and carburetor required an allen wrench (yet another kind of wrench).
I took off the cover which left the carburetor exposed. Then unbolted the component off.
(If you're wondering why the towels are there--important to plug the pukas to the engine so no debris gets inside, which could cause problems in the engine)
What the bike looks like with the carburetor, intake manifold, and top motor mount off.
Sometimes grunting is necessary for extra torque--like when I rotated the wheel so the engine would turn. Turning the engine causes the push rods to move up and down (this could only be done after putting the bike into gear, which was accomplished by turning the wheel and adjusting the shifter). Needed to manually turn the engine for the right positioning of the push rods so I could loosen them.
Cutting edge technology: a wooden clothes pin to hold the push rod tube up while I loosened the top and bottom nuts, after they were turned to the right position. Then I started on the engine. Took off the front rocker box (which sits on the head, which sits on the cylinder).
Parts from top clockwise: gas tank, top motor mount (black brackets), second exhaust pipe, carburetor (round unit), ignition coil and spark plugs (yellow tubes which are the spark plug wires), front push rods and their tubes, above that the rocker box, and the skinny tubes to the left are the rocker box oil lines.
Close up of the engine, sans the front rocker box, push rods, and everything in the previous photo
Mini wrenches
Ginormous wrenches
Where she's at today