The Bullet Board

Hello. First time poster so hopefully I'm on the correct board/sub-topic.

I'm attempting to clean up the hack-job prior-owner's "customizations" off my bike. She's an '03 Bullet 500. I have most things corrected but one of the last items is to replace the center stand. The prior guy had cut it to pieces trying to make the bike 'lean different' and did a horrible job. Even the side stand is hacked to *^$&#@ so I'm removing it and going factory center-stand only.

I finally have the correct center stand (purchased from this site) and have it in place, all lubed up, washers and cotter pins in... but I'm a little confused about the spring and the routing of it. I -think- I know how it should run but I want to make sure first. I'm also a bit confuzzled about which spring to use since they both seem a bit short and are requiring __A__LOT__ of tension to try and attach.

Here's a shot of the spring mounting locations I see. #1 is the pin on the center stand itself, so obviously one end goes there. #2 is what looks like it should be the other end mounting point - it's a solid pin hanging off the frame itself with a notch in the pin just like on the center stand itself...which is where the spring would slot into the pin so it does not slip off. #3 is a possibility though - it's a bracket mounted to the back of the engine. I am only considering this point as a possibility because it is slightly closer to the stand and wouldn't require as long of a spring stretch.



The biggest reasons I am reluctant to just stick with mount points #1 & #2 are how the spring routes down through the frame and how it would bend around the engine when the stand is down. Other concern is just how much tension is going to have to be applied to get this spring to stretch far enough to attach...and it would stretch even further when the stand is deployed.



Does anyone perhaps have a photo of how the factory stand springs route? or know specifically how long the spring should be if it's not one of the two I was provided when I purchased the center stand. I'm also curious to make sure it's just the single spring on the RHS that actuates the center stand. Any insights or photos are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
-Chris

Did some more investigating and the original stand that got hacked up has it's only spring mount point on the LHS. The new stand I received has a similarly oriented mount point, so my initial hunch about the spring being on the RHS seem incorrect. Also, there is just no way these springs would have to bend round engine casing or mount bolts, etc...and there is no way they would have to stretch up to approx a foot...so RHS seems disqualified at this point.

Come to find out there is a stud sticking out from the frame immediately next to where the stand mount-pin goes in - it would've bit me on the nose if it weren't inanimate. . Added the shorter of the two springs and it seems correct, but it does not have enough tension itself to hold the stand in the up/retracted position...so I'm back to scratching my head about how the RHS spring routes/attaches.