1979 Harley Davidson 1000CC Sportster Shovelhead cam set-up

SOURCE: 2003 Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 Custom Tachometer kit

The only idea that i can come up with is that you dont have a good ground..or the guage was bad when you bought it..i hope this..Keith

SOURCE: Adjusting timing on Harley Davidson 1976 sportster

The advance timing should be 35° before Top Dead Center. This is how you find out which mark this is.

Get the rear wheel of the bike off the ground, remove the spark plugs, shift the bike into fourth gear, and remove the timing plug from the left engine case.
Now, take an ordinary PLASTIC DRINKING STRAW and insert it into the front spark plug hole. Do not use anything else or you stand a chance of it breaking and then you'll have to pull the head to get it out. The plastic straw will bend but not break.
Bump the rear wheel in the direction that it turns while riding down the road until the piston pushes the straw all the way up and just barely starts going back down. Look into the timing hole. You should see a timing mark. This is the Top Dead Center mark. Now, bump the rear wheel BACKWARDS until you see another mark. This should be the ADVANCED TIMING MARK. The piston should 7/16" down from top dead center.

On this model Sportster the timing is advanced by a mechanical advance mechanism. These units are notorious for wearing out and not contolling the timing very well. You must remove the breaker plate to inspect this mechanism. Mark the position of the plate before you remove it. If the pins and holes in the flyweights are worn, replace the unit. Replace it with a good needle bearing unit. Replace the points and reset the gap at 0.018 - 0.020".

SOURCE: clutch cable broke at handle lever on 1979 harley davidson sporst

To change the clutch cable on you '79 Sporty, you'll have to take the outer primary cover off. To do this, you'll have to drain the oil from the primary, take the left side foot peg off, and loosen the primary chain adjuster on the bottom side of the primary. Loosen the locknut and use an allen wrench or hex key to screw the adjuster bolt downward.

If you need to know anything else, drop me a line at [email protected]

Then, remove the large "plug" towards the rear of the cover. Inside, you'll see something that looks like a nut but with no threads in it held in by a small spring. This the the lock nut, remove it. Below it is what looks like another nut with a slotted adjuster bolt sticking out. Remover the bolts from around the primary cover and break it loose from the engine. While turning the adjuster screw at the rear of the cover inward, remove the cover.

The cable connects to the cluch release mechanism. By turning the "link" downwards, you can disconnect it from the mechanism. Notice which way the "link" in attached to the release mechanism. Take the "link" off the end of the clutch cable.

Break the lock nut loose at the threaded cable adjuster on the outside of the case and screw the adjuster all the way out of the primary cover. Disconnect the cable at the handlebar lever and your cable is out.

Reinstall the new cable in the reverse order. When replacing the outer primary cover, make sure you use a new gasket on the cover as well as on the foot peg boss. The "foot peg boss gasket" is very important. You'll see an aluminum boss with a threaded rod sticking out of it that holds your left foot peg on. There is a round gasket that goes over this threaded rod and seals against the boss. If you leave this off, your bike will leak oil around this threaded rod when your foot peg goes on. Make sure you specifically ask for the "foot peg boss gasket" when you buy the new primary gasket. It's just a round gasket a bit larger than a quarter.

As you put the primary cover back on, there is a spring on the primary chain adjuster. Part of the spring is in the primary cover and the other part is in the engine. You'll see how it goes in. There is a large stud in that area that the outer primary cover slides up on. Adjust the tension on the primary chain by removing the "plug" at the top of the primary cover. You want 3/4" to 7/8" up and down play in the chain with the engine cold.

On the adjuster, as you're installing the outer cover, turn the ajuster screw back into the clutch release mechanism by turning the screw backwards. Once you have the outer primary cover completely installed, you must adjust the release mechanism. Adjust the screw inwards until you feel a resistance, then back the screw off about a 1/4 to 1/2 turn, insert the "lock nut" and spring, and install the "plug". Then, using the cable adjuster on the outside of the cover, adjust the cable. Add oil.

SOURCE: 2000 Harley Davidson XLC Sportster 883 won't start

the heat from the bulb being continiuosly on may have melted a wire inside your headlight?

SOURCE: valve adjustment 1983 Harley Davidson XLH 1000 Sportster

To adjust the valves on your Ironhead Sportster, first collapse all the pushrod tubes, remove the spark plugs, and get the rear wheel off the ground. Put the transmission in fourth gear. Now, use the rear wheel to turn the engine.

To adjust the valves, bring the front cylinder to Top Dead Center. Use a common plastic drinking straw down in the spark plug hole to make sure the piston is at Top Center. Make sure both tappets for the front cylinder are all the way down. Now, loosen the lock nut slightly and turn the adjuster to make the tappet longer. You want to make it just long enough so that you can't turn it with your fingers. Gradually back down on the tappet until you can turn the pushrod with your fingers. Lock the locknut down when done. Now do the other tappet.

Once you've done the front cylinder, turn the engine using the rear wheel until the rear piston comes to Top Center. Always turn the engine in the normal direction of rotation. Adjust the two tappet the same way as you did the front cylinder tappets.

When finished, put the transmission in neutral, lower the rear wheel, put the plugs back in, and close up the pushrod tubes.

These tappets set to Zero Backlash, none. Therefore this must be done on a completely cold engine. When the engine starts up and as it warms up, the cylinders and head "grow" due to the heat expansion properties of the metal. As they grow, you pick up valve lash and the valves will clatter a bit. This is where the old saying came from, "You can tell it's a Harley from a mile away by the way the engine sounds. You can tell it's an Ironhead from a half mile away from the valve clatter". If you get the valves too tight, when the weather cools down in the winter, you could wind up with a valve standing open just enough to make the bike impossible to start due to low starting compression. It's better to have the valves a bit loose and have them clatter than have them too tight making the engine difficult to start.

Good Luck,
Steve