I have a Sporty that was converted from an 883 to 1200 but I'd like to change the gearing to something more comparable to the 1200's ratio. Can I accomplish this by changing the drive sprocket? If so, how many teeth should the sprocket have and will the same drive belt work??

Thanks,
Gilmour68

 

Yes, changing the front Pulley will do the trick for you. I have a ’99 XL883 and I changed out the front pulley on that one myself. 883s come from Harley with a 27 Tooth Pulley installed and the 1200s have a 29 Tooth Pulley installed, but I found an after market company that sells an aluminum 30 Tooth Pulley that I put on and I have put almost 40,000 miles on it so far with no problems at all. It drops the RPMs down and I get much better gas mileage too! If you want to get closer to the 1200 set up though, then definitely go with the Harley 29 Tooth Pulley. Harley sells a kit that includes the Pulley, a new nut, a new nut lock and 2 bolts to hold the nut lock on the nut, a new oil seal and a spacer for about around $150.00 or so, maybe a little less. I just ordered one last week and it should be here this week. If you order just the Pulley by itself the cost is about $40.00 more than the kit. Go figure? As for the drive belt, if it is in good shape then you do not need to buy another belt and the clearance on the belt guard will be just fine as well. There is a difference in the transmission gear ratios and your flywheel is a little lighter and so you should be a little quicker off the line than a stock 1200. That is why I never understood why anyone would buy a 1200 when it is much cheaper to buy an 883 and punch it out to a 1200 and save yourself a couple thousand dollars. In any case, Good Luck with your project and Ride safe!

 

Thanks for the info. So what's involved with changing out the pulley? If there's a gasket, do I have to drain the tranny oil? I think I'll go with the 30T pulley since I'm not necessarily trying to ape the 1200 setup, I just want to run at lower RPMs. Who did you order the aftermarket kit from?

 

went with the 29 T Myself stilll has great torque and will do 100 all day long...

 

How was the change over? Was it difficult? Would there be a big difference between a 29 and 30T?

 

is a very simple change to the 29T IMAGINE WOULD BE SO AS WELL FOR THE 30
is just a sprocket change out matched right up with no adjustments needed..

 

No. There is no gasket to remove. There is no oil to drain. It is very easy to do. If the picture of that nice Black Sportster on your reply is your bike, then all you have to do is remove the three bolts that hold the Pulley cover on (Should be Allen/Hex head bolts) and there should be enough room between the Pulley cover and the rear exhaust pipe to remove it. Once the Pulley cover has been removed you will see that there are 2 Allen head (HEX) bolts that hold a locking plate on over the nut that holds the Pulley on the Transmission shaft. Remove the 2 Allen head bolts then remove the locking plate. Now, the nut that holds the Pulley on has Left handed threads. The threads go in the opposite direction of normal threads. So, instead of Right is tight (Clockwise) and Left is loose (Counter Clockwise), for this one nut you do the opposite. You go left or Counter Clockwise to loosen this one nut. Put the transmission in 1st gear to help keep the transmission shaft from turning. I used an electric impact wrench to take the nut off. It made it very easy to take it off and put it back on. Once the nut is off then you can loosen the axle and then loosen the axle adjusters up so that there is a lot of slack in the drive belt and then you can take off the stock Pulley. Now, you asked about the Aluminum 30Tooth Pulley that I installed. Well, it was an aftermarket pulley and I would have recommended it, BUT… it just broke after about 40,000 miles. When I called to talk to a tech about it, twice, I never made it to a person. I was put on hold forever it seemed. So, I went looking for other aftermarket Pulley manufactures and I found that Andrews makes aluminum Pulleys so I called a distributor of Andrews Pulleys. Nice people answered the phone and they said that an all aluminum Pulley for a SPORTSTER will not work unless there is a steel or composite insert as the width of the Pulley is not enough to prevent the splines on the Transmission shaft from ripping through the Teeth on the Pulley. This is just what happened to my Pulley. It just so happens that Harley makes a steel 30 Tooth Pulley for a Sportster that you can order in a kit that contains a new 30 Tooth Pulley, a new spacer, a new oil seal, a new nut, a new locking plate and 2 new Allen/Hex Head bolts and all of this costs less that what I paid for the Aluminum 30 Tooth Pulley. Now back to the installation. After removing the stock Pulley, you can remove the old spacer and the old Oil seal from around the Transmission shaft. Oil will not come out. Insert the new spacer and the new Oil seal on the Transmission shaft and now you can fit the new steel 30 Tooth Pulley on the Transmission shaft and tighten down the nut with Left handed threads by going Clockwise. There are instructions as to how much to torque the nut down to. Please follow those torque settings and instructions that come with the kit or in your Harley Service Manuel. Place the nut locking plate over the properly torqued down Transmission Pulley nut and tighten down the 2 Allen/Hex Head bolts. You can fit the drive belt over the Pulley and make sure that the Teeth on the drive belt fit into the Teeth on the Transmission Pulley and on the Teeth on the rear wheel Pulley. Tighten up the axle adjusters to take out enough slack in the drive belt to make the deflection in the belt conform to the Harley recommended range. Tighten the axle and replace the Transmission Pulley cover and tighten the 3 bolts that hold the cover on. You are done with the install. There is one issue that needs to be addressed. The electrical Speedometer reading for the MPH on the 883 and 1200 Sportsters are calibrated from a sensor unit in the Transmission and this change in the size of the Pulley WILL change the readings. There are units that you can buy that can be used to re-calibrate the signal to help make the Speedometer more accurate. I bought a unit from Dakota Digital for about $100.00 that I ordered from the J&P catalog. I just followed a buddy of mine on the highway and told him to give me a signal when he was doing about 60 MHP and I just kept increasing the signal from the Dakota Digital unit until my Speedometer was at 60 MPH too. The unit from Dakota Digital just plugs right into the line from the Transmission sensor unit to the Speedometer and I fit my unit under my seat. No fuss, no muss, no problem. I just this past weekend installed another Dakota Digital unit on a ’07 883 Sportster and here I ran into a different issue. The ends of the Dakota Digital unit only fit ’06 and older Sportsters, but there are instructions for installation on ’07 Sportsters and all I had to do was splice 3 wires from the Dakota Digital unit onto the 3 output wires for the Speed Sensor and everything works like it should. Fairly simple stuff! Anyway, I hope that some of this has been helpful to you. Good luck with your project and ride safe.

 

XLCR4GM,

Thanks for the info. I didn't think the change would be major surgery, but I didn't consider the calibration issue either. Well I had called a dealer yesterday to get the price for a 29T sprocket. I then called an indy to compare prices.

The indy couldn't find a sprocket in his V Twin catalog and stopped by the dealer for a price (same as the one I received - about $65). When he called me today he told me the price and also said I would need a longer belt (by one tooth) for $175.

I didn't see any mention in the service manual about different belt lengths for different models. He then commented that a change to 29T wouldn't make a big difference. He said the original 883 was a 28T, I remember seeing that it was a 27.

I think there's plenty of adjustment in the belt to compensate for a larger sprocket and I imagine there's a noticeable difference between a 27T and a 29T or 30T. I told the indy I would check around and get back to him.

What exactly did you buy to recalibrate the unit and how did your speedo differ after the change? I would guess the MPH would be lower than actual speed.

I think at this point that I'm going to look for a 30T, and a compensator for the speedo/odo.

 

PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO THE INDY DEALER! #1. You do NOT need another, longer Drive belt. Your stock one will do just fine. There are longer belts that you can buy, but you do not need to buy them. The counter guys at the local Harley Dealer said the same thing to me about buying another belt. I just told them that I would put on the new Pulley 1st and see how it fit and that was about some 30,000 miles ago. I have done this same Pulley swap to 2 different Sportsters and they both have come out just fine with no problems with the belt. #2. The 883 Sportsters come with a 27 Tooth Transmission Pulley, not 28. #3. I think that I read that 1 Tooth reduction is equal to about 100 RPMs or so. That means on a stock 883 at about 75 MPH with a stock 27 Tooth Transmission Pulley with the stock 61 Tooth rear Pulley the RPMs are about around 3,650 or so. If you go up to a 29 Tooth Transmission Pulley, at 75 MPH your RPMs would be about around 3,400 or so. Going up 1 more tooth to a 30 Tooth Transmission Pulley would put you at about around 3,300 or so RPMs. To go even lower you could try a 55 Tooth rear Pulley, but the problem here ends up being Horsepower. With a 55 Tooth rear Pulley and a 30 Tooth Transmission Pulley the 883 will not have enough Horsepower to pull a big grade or take on strong headwinds without downshifting to 4th gear.

I bought a unit from Dakota Digital for about $100.00. You can have the dealer order it for you or you can get it from J&P yourself. You are correct about the Speedometer displayed speed. I was blowing by the Freeway traffic and my Speedo said I was just doing 60 MPH. HA! I had to be doing about 80 MPH. On my 883 with the 30 Tooth Transmission Pulley that I bought from the Harley Dealer and the stock 61 Tooth rear Pulley, at about 80 MPH or so I am doing about 4,000 PRMs or so and cruising at 65 MPH now has less buzz in the Handlebars and the bike altogether. I have included below a link to an article that includes some information from HOT XL a magazine that is no longer being printed. It covers all that you may wish to know about Sportster vibration and possible cures. Good luck my friend and ride safe.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/sportster_vibration.htm P.S. In the article it mentions a Fisher Dampener and there is also a product by Balance Masters that is the competition to it.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to think the indy isn't especially knowledgeable about the Sportys. Maybe he primarily works on BTs, who knows. But it seems like I know a LOT more about my bike than he does.

Anyway, I'm going to look for a 30T sprocket and change it myself. Any suggestions on where to look? I was on J&P for a while last night and didn't really find a sprocket that'll fit.

BTW, I think I'm going to use the indy in the future mostly as a tire changer and for state inspection!!