20 Most Recent 1979 Harley Davidson XLH 1000 Sportster - Page 8 Questions & Answers

Any good 20/50 motor oil that is wet clutch safe is fine. I like the Valvoline Motorcycle Motor Oil. Just make sure it is wet clutch safe. Like no friction modifiers. You can also use the Mobile 1 synthetic that is safe for wet clutch. Or you can use the Amsoil Synthetic that is safe for wet clutches. Amsoil gives you a longer mileage run on their oil then conventional synthetic. I’m happy to help further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/al_e83b1941f9c0f302

the shifter pawl spring needs to be checked.

follow wire from light and match under seat.

Take the plugs out of the heads, put them back in the wires, and lay the plugs on the heads so that they have a good ground. Turn the ignition on and then turn it back off. When you turn the ignition switch off, you should see a spark. If you do, then something is wrong with the ignition unit. If you do not see a spark, you have a bad coil or a wiring problem. You can also do this test by "hot wiring" the coil. Any tine you put 12 volts to the coil then stop it, you should get a spark.

Good luck
Steve

Go to Harley and buy them over the counter. Or source some after market replacements from dyno jet , screaming eagle or similar.

Double check your wiring---On a dual fire coil, the Orange and Black wires will connect together to the negative side of the coil... using a single fire coil, the Orange wire will be used for the front cylinder negative terminal and the Black for the rear cylinder negative terminal ...hope this helps.

Does it have electronic ignition or points? If it is a points system, If your points ore okay, set the point gap at .018. Also, make sure your kill switch is off. Some people have had a wire come loose from the kill switch. If your problem is between the battery and the coil, You'll have to trace the wiring back from there and see what you see. The kill switch is a likely culprit.

Valves are keeping compression decently, bad cams or clearance could still be an issue.

It sounds like your sensor in the timer cavity on the right side of the engine is bad. Disconnect the blue wire from the coil. Take a spark plug out of the engine, put it back in the spark plug wire, and lay it on the head. Turn the switch on and momentarily touch the blue wire to the coil. When you take the wire off of the coil, you should see a spark at the plug. The purpose of the sensor in the timer cavity is to stop the flow of current in the coil and initiate a spark.

Good Luck
STeve

aftermarkets dont always work that well-or go back and chec installation-may want to tell the seller about it--get a clymer manual for engine rebuild and maintenance--library sec629 has cycle books too

You should never have steel against steel. It should be fiber plate then steel each time.

Wheelbase = 58.5"

You might want to check your advance mechanism, and make sure it is resetting all the way. The springs wear out sometimes. Or the weights no longer want to come back because of corrosion, or oblong holes, or worn pivot pins. Having too much advance will fire the plug before the piston gets close enough to the top, so the flywheel inertia can push it over and the gas can then expand. You also have to really give it a major effort kick to get the flywheel turning fast enough. It is a balance between kick back, and bottoming out and have the start arm start to travel towards the front of the bike. This is called "Sportster Knee". If the Rachet slips and you bottom out, it nearly breaks your knee. I don't know what the Start timing is supposed to be, since they have changed it over the span of years in my manual, and it does not cover your year. I would imagine it would need to be close to, but not past, TDC. maybe a few degrees advanced, say 4 or 5 degrees. The more towards TDC, the easier it will start while kicking. On the other hand, you will be moving the Max Advance as well as you adjust this. you will lose upper end performance if you go too far. Good Luck! Turbocouch

connect a pair of jumper cabells to the gen connect the pos to the gen side of the gen and the negative to the feald side and hook them to a hot car batt momentarley do not do wial running . should stop probleam good luck

Two things to check: 1. there is a 4 pin black starter relay maybe 1" cube, usually under the seat, that goes bad. since they are impossible to get from Harley, go to JPcycles.com and get a new one. I have to replace mine every year or so. 2. Disconnect the battery. Open the Starter's attached solenoid cover. There is a copper bar that gets pitted. If it hasn't been done before, flip it over. Otherwise try to clean it up. Replacing would be a good idea if you could find one. Otherwise buy copper stock from Mcmaster-Carr and make one. It ain't easy owning an old school Sportster... It's an adventure! Turbocouch 76 XLCH 1000 and 81 XLH 1000

If the oil pump is somewhat worn, and the oil is really thinned out with gas, yes there is a possibility it will not pump. I had a 1976 XLCH, that I had to do the top end on. I checked the oil pump and replaced the gear set. I believe there may be a wear plate on either side of the gear set as well. If you drain everything from the tank, and take the oil pump apart, clean and check for wear, replace those parts mentioned, make sure the housing is not worn or damaged, put it back together and time the oil pump, it should take car of your problem. Fill the oil tank with Lucas 20-50w or 50w Lucas Synthetic. Oil this thick will eventually mix in the primary chain chamber and cause the clutch to slip. I just used to change oil more often. Oil is cheaper than a new engine or clutch. One thing: to own a 1976 XLCH means you need to like to work on bikes. Personally I live for it. I now have a 1981 XLH that I brought back to life.

Listen I have the wiring diagram for the 1975 . I can not post it on this site. But what I can do is send it to you through your email address . So send it to [email protected] and put 1975 in
the subject line . So I know that it is you.

I would check the clutch first. In some of the sportster clutch packs there is a plate internally that has rivets in it. If the rivets break loose you'll get some of the same problems and it will creep up on you . It won't happen all at once. I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/robert_5bac37c3cb991fdb

try 0.10 mm i think .003 is to small and you would burn valves

it could be there is a screen filter in the tank that might need cleaned its part of the petcock (shut off valve) in order to clean it you need to drain the fuel tank and remove it from the bottom of the tank use caution removing it so you can reuse the gasket and that you don't break it off they stick up into the tank a couple of inches (you might have to remove the tank from the bike to get it out) time to get dirty and have fun