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Hello

6K views 34 replies 18 participants last post by  Sad1gone612 
I'm thinking of selling or trading this bike for something with electric start. I owned many kick start bikes back in the day but I was much younger then. I wouldn't recommend getting a bike from the AMF era, 1969-1981. AMF made fine bowling equipment but they weren't so great when it came to building motorcycles. They did save HD from going bankrupt though.
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IDK, had a '80 FXE80 that I had rebuilt, balanced everything possible in that motor... It was a fast SOB! Just had to constantly adjust the timing and a forever fight with intake leaks... That I could thank the PO for, he converted it to points (the timing would slip on a near daily basis) and put some weird intake manifold on it. I called it the O ring intake! IIRC there were 6, O rings on that dumb intake. They always would leak.

Still miss the sound of a carbed HD! It could idle so slow you could almost hear the valves open and close...
Cam, intake and exhaust made a rocket! Oh the simple days... (I plugged that damn chain oiler) It works weather or not the bike does...
 
Yeah, intake leaks and ignition system, two problem areas. I'll never understand why HD eliminated the distributor and put the points and advance unit in such an inaccessible location down in the side cover. Probably a bunch of executives in suits at AMF made that decision because it was cheaper. LOL I replaced the stock intake manifold O-rings with rubber bands and made a solid support to keep the carburetor from bouncing around and causing leaks.
I had not wrenched on one that was built before the cone motor. So i can't say the points were in a bad locale or not. But It did a damn good job of helping me teach my 5 yr old son (at the time) what electricity is!

I had him holding the timing light for me while i was messing with the timing. He kept on creeping in closer and closer with that chrome timing light... I warned him 2X. Then let him learn. When that arc shot between the bike and that timing light, he did 3 azz over head rolls across the garage. Jumped to his feet and hollered "WHAT WAS THAT!"
I was laughing so hard the tears were streaming! :ROFLMAO::LOL::D He saw no humor in it a toll...

When i finally caught my breath. I explained that was electricity. That was 2000 volts at nearly zero amps. So it just bit you! Those sockets in the house are 120 volts with 20 amps pushing them... Volts bite, amps KILL.
Momma ask him to plug in her vacuum, his eyes got big and took off for his room... No way in hell to get him to plug in anything for months!...
 
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