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The latest in my on-going saga of the Barn Find Harley Sportster 1200 rebuild. What did I screw up this time?




Like motorcycles or anything on two wheels? Please check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMaLdyriBKNsUtpgNh1-g6w
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Go back to chapter one of this saga and see if that offer I made you looks better in hindsight? PM me if there is anything I can do to help you, advice-wise. Working on bikes is how I am spending my retirement.

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24hr campfire consensus is you shoulda put 1 oz of seafoam into each cylinder also with the marvel mystery oil.








Seafoam can fix anything from athlete's foot to cracked o-rings on solid fuel rocket boosters and everything in between.


LOL!!!

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shoulda bought a stihl


have you paid your dues, can you moan the blues, can you bend them guitar strings
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Do yourself a favor and buy one of these Clymer Manuals. I had an old iron head Sportster many years ago and used the Clymer manual to put a new top end on the motor. The top ends are pretty easy to work on. I got to where I could take the top end off of it in less than a couple of hours,...no special tools required. I doubt if the new type motors are any more complicated from the cases up. Putting a top end in a Harley is about like rebuilding an air compressor pump.

The Clymer manuals spell everything out in detail and use a lot of photos.

https://www.themotorbookstore.com/h...JyJ6i5wIVDpSzCh2ACAriEAQYBCABEgLjCfD_BwE

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Originally Posted by Bristoe
Do yourself a favor and buy one of these Clymer Manuals. I had an old iron head Sportster many years ago and used the Clymer manual to put a new top end on the motor. The top ends are pretty easy to work on. I got to where I could take the top end off of it in less than a couple of hours,...no special tools required. I doubt if the new type motors are any more complicated from the cases up. Putting a top end in a Harley is about like rebuilding an air compressor pump.

The Clymer manuals spell everything out in detail and use a lot of photos.

https://www.themotorbookstore.com/h...JyJ6i5wIVDpSzCh2ACAriEAQYBCABEgLjCfD_BwE


Got a Clymer manual off eBay last week! smile


Like motorcycles or anything on two wheels? Please check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMaLdyriBKNsUtpgNh1-g6w
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Originally Posted by cuznguido
Go back to chapter one of this saga and see if that offer I made you looks better in hindsight? PM me if there is anything I can do to help you, advice-wise. Working on bikes is how I am spending my retirement.


I think the Sporty's value is climbing every time I touch it. smile


Like motorcycles or anything on two wheels? Please check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMaLdyriBKNsUtpgNh1-g6w
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My internet is too slow and my patience to thin to watch youtube, but if you have stuck pistons and plugs, remove the intake manifold and pour each head port full of penetrant, of which auto trans fluid is very good, and let it sit. Try to bump it back and forth periodically until it moves. If you can get the exhaust pipes off the heads without breaking something, remove them and fill the heads there too. It will eventually free up. You can sometimes speed the process by applying hair dryer heat to the heads and cylinders after you get them full of penetrant.

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Originally Posted by cuznguido
My internet is too slow and my patience to thin to watch youtube, but if you have stuck pistons and plugs, remove the intake manifold and pour each head port full of penetrant, of which auto trans fluid is very good, and let it sit. Try to bump it back and forth periodically until it moves. If you can get the exhaust pipes off the heads without breaking something, remove them and fill the heads there too. It will eventually free up. You can sometimes speed the process by applying hair dryer heat to the heads and cylinders after you get them full of penetrant.

It's better to heat it first then add the oil.
The cooling will help pull it in.


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Yea....I wish we could just get a condensed explanation of what happened.....in printed words. I don't want to make time to watch the video, either.


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Stuck pistons are very common on bikes, especially after long storage. When I worked in a motorcycle shop we'd see at least a dozen every spring. If you don't store them with a bit of oil spread around the cylinders when you park it, the rings will rust to the cylinder walls. I see new pistons and a rebore in the future, although it's possible that the damage isn't too bad. Squirt Kroil penetrating oil in the sparkplug holes and let it sit overnight before trying to turn it again. If Kroil won't loosen it, it won't loosen.

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Once it's running and all tricked out, it's still going to be a Sportster. There are a bunch of other crotch rockets that will outperform it, and real Harley riders want a full grown Hog. Back in the dark ages, the 61 cubic inch bike was the granddaddy of the Sportster, and those weren't terribly popular, either.
Jerry


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Had a buddy that traded a land cruiser for a sportster. Think you got a better deal. Tho he was much shorten than me. I couldn't ride the thing comfortably. Even with the forward pegs..

Careful not to leave to much at in the cylinders if you use it as penetrant...it burns, but slowly


-OMotS



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Originally Posted by Hotrod_Lincoln
Once it's running and all tricked out, it's still going to be a Sportster. There are a bunch of other crotch rockets that will outperform it, and real Harley riders want a full grown Hog. Back in the dark ages, the 61 cubic inch bike was the granddaddy of the Sportster, and those weren't terribly popular, either.
Jerry



eh, don't dog a sportster. Its a classic look


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Originally Posted by Hotrod_Lincoln
Once it's running and all tricked out, it's still going to be a Sportster. There are a bunch of other crotch rockets that will outperform it, and real Harley riders want a full grown Hog. Back in the dark ages, the 61 cubic inch bike was the granddaddy of the Sportster, and those weren't terribly popular, either.
Jerry


A good performance shop (avoid the dealer SE junk ) can put a sporty in the tens easily and even the nines with a few $$$$$


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Originally Posted by Hotrod_Lincoln
Once it's running and all tricked out, it's still going to be a Sportster. There are a bunch of other crotch rockets that will outperform it, and real Harley riders want a full grown Hog. Back in the dark ages, the 61 cubic inch bike was the granddaddy of the Sportster, and those weren't terribly popular, either.
Jerry



I know a guy who’s been riding Sportsters forty years as his primary mode of transportation, been living in the wind all that time, committed to the lifestyle good and bad, and he turns wrenches for a Harley dealership, always has. What does he need to do to be a real Harley rider?


"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
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Originally Posted by Birdwatcher
Originally Posted by Hotrod_Lincoln
Once it's running and all tricked out, it's still going to be a Sportster. There are a bunch of other crotch rockets that will outperform it, and real Harley riders want a full grown Hog. Back in the dark ages, the 61 cubic inch bike was the granddaddy of the Sportster, and those weren't terribly popular, either.
Jerry



I know a guy who’s been riding Sportsters forty years as his primary mode of transportation, been living in the wind all that time, committed to the lifestyle good and bad, and he turns wrenches for a Harley dealership, always has. What does he need to do to be a real Harley rider?


It’s the Wave man, he has to know how to do the Harley Wave. All others are just posers.

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Knees in the breeze. Doesn't matter what ya ride.


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Originally Posted by tndrbstr
It’s the Wave man, he has to know how to do the Harley Wave. All others are just posers.


grin

Once in East Texas a long time ago I knew a biker chick, a blond who had an actual shovelhead Lowrider an older admirer had given to her. One time she let me ride it, her following on my Kawasaki at the time.

We pass a group of big ol’ Harley riders coming the other way and me and them are all waving at each other like long lost brothers.

Nobody waved at her 🙂


"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
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Originally Posted by 284LUVR
Knees in the breeze. Doesn't matter what ya ride.





^^^^


Slaves get what they need. Free men get what they want.

Rehabilitation is way overrated.

Orwell wasn't wrong.

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