Quality control and it was mostly some poor machine tolerance on the engine case's. They just leaked and about all Harley before leaked, it was just people were affluent enough at that time to start getting the slick finished garaged floors.

I never give a damn, just threw a piece of cardboard under it and did not change the oil as often since I was adding oil all the time. It shook, it leaked and it coughed every now and then but I loved the ol shovels.

Now we will have the EPA days, or EPA bike's problems from 07 on that are just as bad as the AMF days. They are leaned out so bad and have EPA cams, plus in 2010 they stuck Catalytic Converters on an already Hot Air Cooled engine. My buddy just had to have the head gaskets put on his low milage 07, it will burn your right leg off to ride.

I would not give the old AMF shovel for the EPA heater's they are making now!

 

Answer these question, what vehicle, 2 or 4 wheel, can you buy nowadays that will still be on the road 30 or 40 years later and can be maintained and repaired by a 9th grader who took a basic shop class? Was something made 30 or 40 years ago and is still operating made well?

All the stuff I have read throughout this thread includes a ring issue, brakes, electrical stuff, I think some sort of cracked case.....now think about this.....if it was a shoddily made AMF part it has LOOOOONG ago been replaced or upgraded. You also have to consider the fact that, like a small block chevy or 1911 pistol, there is a huge aftermarket and cult following involved, as well as decades of tweaking, innovating, and de-bugging already done. So my 30 yr old bike still sports electronic ignition, belt primary, better lights, upgraded brake components, better carb, etc. Including the original purchase price, a few thousand miles on the road, and stripping it down to the frame and rebuilding it, I have less than half of what the cheapest new harley you could buy invested in it. If I was the worrying type Id spend the effort on worrying who owned it before me than if AMF made it.

I have also heard that the evo motor is less friendly to rebuilding over and over, perhaps a mechanic can answer that though, I rode a 64 xlch for 5 yrs as my only trans, and then the shov.....

 

I often think (not necessarily based upon empirical evidence) that the biggest thing to do with the downhill quality slide ala AMF was moving the bike assembly to York, PA. I see a couple scenarios -

First one is you've worked for HD for 25-30 years and they tell you that you can keep your job if you sell your house that's nearly paid for, pull your kids out of school, have the ol' lady quit her job, and pack it all up for a move to semi-podunk PA (at least it would seem that way after living in Milwaukee). Bet you wouldn't be too happy!

Second one is you're in York and get a job on a new-fangled assembly line putting them Harley Davidson muttersickles together. You've been trained, but really have little to no experience on an assembly line, and you only know a Harley is one of those bikes ridden by cops, ol' geezers who smoke stinky cigars, or hippie-biker-trash, like in that Easy Rider movie.

Yep, quality would suffer.

Next, for fladawg - Your Roadster was still a Sportster. It was in a Sportster frame, not in a Big Twin frame. It also wasn't the first Sporty to have that Super Glide looking tank. Back in '77 HD made a Sporty called the XLT with the Super Glide tank. (I don't know if it was actually an SG tank, or just similar looking.) It had a bigger seat, could be fitted with what looked like geezer-glide saddlebags, and had a windshield, too. They made about 1100 XLT bikes in '77, and 6 in '78. They supposedly made 2 XLS Roadsters in '78, and then over 5000 in '79, and just under 3000 the year you bought yours.

 

It's York, PA, not Yorktown.

 

LOL, I knew that! CRS rears its oogly head again!

Changed it and moved Yorktown back to VA!