Topic: My new HD 1984 Wide Glide

[Old Moe Toe]

A bloke pushed this off a truck onto my driveway today. A 1984 HD Wide Glide. Last registered in Minnesota in 1988. 
A guy from Australia bought it 30 odd years ago and shipped it over here. He never rode it. It just sat in his garage.
Can't wait to get this old chaff cutter going.
Missing a battery cover and strap, broken indicator lense, broken bit is even there to glue back on.. Otherwise seems pretty original. Been sitting a long time however looks like it has been sprayed with WD 40 or CRC or whale oil and under the grime looks quite good.
Happy days.

[754]

Looks good, last year of shovelhead I think.
Does it have the S&S  carb, or just the cover ? Some call them Sweat and Swear. Looks like choke is on in the one pic, so it's likely stock carb..Keihin

[Old Moe Toe]

Good question 754. Not 100% sure yet, I'm inside drinking beer and its raining.. I did notice the choke button would not bottom out. Looked at the choke cable on the carby and thought "I can fix that in a jiffy". Reckon it probably is S&S. And yes it is last year of civilian shovelheads, think the cops got em a bit longer.
I don't think the previous owner knew about bikes. Sounds like he bought it to piss his missus off or to show her who was boss or something like that.
Sad really, now he has had a stroke and got dementia and resides in one of those places you wait to die.
Oh boy!, bet he regrets never riding this bike while he had the chance.
It's really quite complete, only missing a few minor things and has 16000  original miles.

[Terry in Australia]

Wow that's a nice old shovel Moe! What did you pay for a thing like that? When I was posted to a SF Army unit in the 90's, an SAS Major who'd retired and transferred to the Reserves used to ride his Sturgis that he'd bought new when he retired, to my unit, and I'd give him a car to drive while he was in town. In return, he'd give me the keys to the Harley to mind for him. He'd be pretty old now too I suppose, he was a Vietnam veteran, I should look him up and see if he's still got his Sturgis, even then he wasn't riding it much, and it was a great bike.

[754]

The S&S carb has a sort of rough finish, the choke will be a brass strip sort of t shape when you pull it up.. pull up a bit , turn 1/4turn and choke is on from what I remember... I was an S &S dealer for a few years.
 S&S is all metal on the throttle,  I think Keihin had a black plastic piece on one sidel

[Old Moe Toe]

Terry, I reckon I got it for a song. I guess it depends on what it takes to get it running before I know.
Took the wheels off yesterday so I can get new rubber and noticed the front rim had a big flat spot in it. Luckily had a spare 21 inch rim I took off my softail a few years ago so laced that one up today.

Frank, gee you are right onto it. It does look like a standard carby. I think I saw HD stamped on it. Knowing that I'm not too sure about the S&S air cleaner. It sits out a long way to the right hand side of the bike and impinges on reaching the brake pedal.

[754]

Keihin carb, looks like it has a spacer, I think you had to file a notch in the aircleaner cover  at the top, to run without the spacer.

[Old Moe Toe]

Do the S&S work that much better than the Keihin ones?.

[Terry in Australia]

The wonderful thing about Harleys is that they only have one carb, so not expensive to replace. I just bought this Mikuni 38mm carb for my 1973 Sporty Moe, (about $300 USD with postage and GST) I put a HSR42 on my 1994 XLH1200 Evo Sporty, but these old Mikuni round slide carbs are very popular with the ironhead Sporty guys, and a better setup than the S&S Super E. You'll probably need to buy a new manifold too, I just bought one for $28 USD, plus $18 postage.

Make sure you buy a genuine Mikuni though, once again the fcuking Chinese have infiltrated Ebay with cheap knockoffs, I bought mine from Sudco in the US, and they only sell the real deal.

Mikuni 38mm for Harley by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[754]

Do the S&S work that much better than the Keihin ones?.

Do you mean aircleaner or carbs ? Stock aircleaner was a ham can, pretty ugly piece.
 The Keihin can be bore out , think it was 3 mm we would take out..  pretty easy to do but you have to pull throttle shaft and jet holder. I did a few can give a bit more info.

[Old Moe Toe]

More talking about the carbs Frank.
A lot of the Hds of the day had the S&S carbs as an upgrade. Seemed like everyone did it back then. Wondering if there are better modern options for the big bore motors these days.

[BPellerine]

some put the cv carbs on that came on the evos.bill

[Terry in Australia]

The Mikuni HSR42 or HSR45 is the "Go to" carb for Evo's, but about twice the price of the 38 mm Mikuni round slide I posted. Of course there's lots of other period options, SU's, Dellorto's, Webers, you name it, someone tried it.

[seanbarney41]

Terry, lots of guys will run the stock Keihin cv from an evo on these earlier shovels and ironheads with excellent results, and those Keihin cv's are nearly free for the taking from Evo guys who "upgraded" to an S&S.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I thought the stock CV on my 1200 was a piece of sh1t Sean, the HSR42, along with the Bassani 2 into 1 exhaust really improved the bike, even though the stock carb was rejetted by the PO, along with Screaming Eagle mufflers. You're right though, nobody wants them, so they're cheap. I gave mine to Jona in Israel for his 883.

[BPellerine]

I guess the aftermarket carbs are good,but are they 700.00 good on a stock motor,have a cv on my bike and it runs really well,pulls hard and one touch starting,even after winter storage,if you are making changes that need more tuning options then maybe you need the aftermarket carbs.bill

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, mine might have been a dud from Day 1 Bill, it ran so lean that if it wasn't for the accelerator pump, I don't think it would have gone at all. The K&N filter probably didn't help either, it would have added to the lean condition.

Back then I also bought the Hammer 1250 kit and Andrews cams, but the bike ran so well with just the carb and pipe, I didn't feel like I needed to tear it down, with only 5000 miles on the odo.

I just bought a 2015 top end with the "Buell" heads, so have now bought the Hammer 1275 kit and 560 cams, which will give it around 110 BHP at the back wheel, which will make it worth tearing down. Let me know if you want to buy my unused 1250 kit and N4 cams.

[754]

If you have a Weber or Dellorto two throat around, I should have a manifold.

[BPellerine]

hard to say what was wrong with your carb,I have an aftermarket cleaner and pipes on mine and the carb was never rejetted,plugs are a real nice tan color.you have the full recipe from hammer to make your bike fast.for me buying anything in the US is way too expensive with the exchange and shipping plus duty to canada,a 39us purchase ended up being 90can! by the time all was said and done.bill

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah mate, I'd hate to think how much that XLH1200 upgrade cost me, but I love riding it now with maybe 60 BHP, so it'll be wicked with almost double that!

[2ceebees]

Nice ol' Shovel man.  I dig em.

[kerryb]

That was my dream bike as a kid, but when I finally rented one to be sure, it was too long for me to reach the pegs!  So I ended up with this and vowed to keep looking for the classic shovelhead that would be mine.

[Old Moe Toe]

That was my dream bike as a kid, but when I finally rented one to be sure, it was too long for me to reach the pegs!  So I ended up with this and vowed to keep looking for the classic shovelhead that would be mine.

Yeah it was my dream bike in 84 too!, but I could not afford one then. Instead I bought an 850 Moto Guzzi (second hand) for AU $2400. compared to $8,000 for the wide glide. The Guzzi was a fantastic bike, very reliable and easy maintenence, put 200,000klms on it and only sold it about 18months ago for $11,000. This shovel cost less than that. Funny how things work out sometimes.
I also have a softail similar to yours Kerry and just love it.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, it really is amazing, I sold my latest CB750K2 build for $7500 a couple of weeks ago, that's the most I've ever sold a bike for, with the exception of a Laverda 750SF that I bought for $5500 in 2009, decided I didn't like it, so put it on Ebay, and sold it to a well heeled Laverda guy in Perth for $11500 a couple of weeks later. I can still remember when I rarely paid more than a dollar per cc, for a CB750.

I saw an Evo Electra Glide for sale on FB last night for $6K, and couldn't remember a time when I could sell a Honda 750, take that money and buy a Harley, with change. The world has gone mad...........  

[kerryb]

I like to point out that my softail "custom" is showroom stock!  The only change I made to it was moving the front directionals off the h-bars to the bottom triple tree.  (Bike pictured above is not mine, just same model & color)

I'll never sell my harley, 1. I just love it.   2. I could never justify the monetary beating I would take!

[Terry in Australia]

I like to point out that my softail "custom" is showroom stock!  The only change I made to it was moving the front directionals off the h-bars to the bottom triple tree.  (Bike pictured above is not mine, just same model & color)

I'll never sell my harley, 1. I just love it.   2. I could never justify the monetary beating I would take!

Yep, I know the feeling mate, I bought my 2007 Triumph Rocket III from my brother in 2009, with only 36 Kilometers (20 miles) on the odo. I've got the original receipt, he paid $32,500.00 (around $20K USD) for it, so it was a bargain when he sold it to me for $15,000.00 2 years later, still in "Brand New" condition. I've had it 10 years now and have only done 13000 Kilometers (8000 miles) on it, (even though it's had a major "Engine out" rebuild in 2011 after the output shaft bearing collapsed, due to a manufacturing error) and it's still got the original tyres on it. (I don't ride it like many R3 owners, apparently)

I've spent another 5 or 6 thousand bucks on it for useful performance/touring mods, so it's getting close to having cost my brother (RIP) and me $40,000.00, but nowadays you can pick one up here for under $10,000.00. No matter, I never bought it as an investment, I bought it to help my brother out when he needed money in a hurry, and while I would probably never have bought an R3 otherwise, it is a wicked bike with 140 RWHP and 147 foot pounds of torque, in such a massive package. I must take it for a ride.    

[Old Moe Toe]

Back to this spacer thing that sits between the standard carby and the aircleaner.
Look at how far it sticks out!. It really gets in the way.
I reckon the air cleaner unit will just fit without the spacer and if I do have to file a bit off it to help it do so I don't mind.
Just wondering why it (spacer) was used in the first place, could it have been for some performance gain?.

[754]

You can pull it out. Might be a titch harder to  lift and turn the enchrichner..
 Sorry, was thinking S&S carb body..

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, if it's on the aircleaner side it won't be a performance thing mate, if it was between the carb and the manifold, it may well have been to give it more torque, reduce the risk of "Reversion" etc. My new Mikuni round slide carb along with a special manifold and insulator has just arrived for my 1973 Sporty, it's a pity it's not a runner yet, I'm really keen to take it for a ride.

[Old Moe Toe]

Yeah, if it's on the aircleaner side it won't be a performance thing mate,

Thanks Terry then I will ditch it.