1969 flh Starboard tank hitting upper sidecar mount

[ryan]

My tank is hitting the engine side of the upper sidecar mount leaving about 3/16" gap between the lower tank mounting tab and the frame mounting hole. I ground the lower corner of the engine side of the mount to get it closer, but was left with a 3/16" gap.
The upper sidecar cannot go up any further , so I ended up putting a small spacer on the lower tank mount. My tank has the factory welds, which is the part hitting the sidecar mount.
My question, Is this typical because I cannot really see a way around it without more modifications. I cannot even believe I ground the sidecar mount.
Thanks,
Ryan

ps: No, I was not in the Navy, I was in the Army. Lol

[Buster]

THe rear of my upper mount lacks just a hair contacting the front tank tab, but does not touch. Tried to attach photo, maybe it will go through.

[ryan]

Thanks for the photo. It looks like the weld on my be a little fat on my tank, but other than that I have no idea. Now I loosened up the upper mount knowing it would not go up any further, but I tried anyway with no luck. Now the upper sidecar bar will not seat into the mount and now there is no clearance in the spring as it is now bottomed out. Try to fix one problem and create another.
On another note, I started my bike for the first time in ten years and it started right up, stayed running and throttled beautifully. It is kind of rough to get into reverse though. It just does not seam very easy to find the gears either. I hope it is just a linkage issue.
I did back it into the garage, shut it off, and a Bald Eagle did a low fly by turned his head and looked right at me and then flew straight up into the sky, that was so great to sed and made me feel really good.
On another note, reverse sure is geared very high and felt very weird backing up on a motorcycle, it is going to take time for me to acclimate to that. Lol
I will keep knocking down the maladies one at a time. Lol
Thanks again!