hi,

my 1972 shovel has done original 10000 miles.

after owing 40 odd bikes during the past 30 years or so,
and never before a harley, im slowly discovering all the
charactertics that make this bike what it is.

i ve had it for just under one year and there are a couple of things which im having to get used to,
like the dead mans throttle that was explained to me in a different posting.

but im enjoying it..........have to be mad not to.

the one thing i find very annoying however and i dont know whether this is a mechanical fault due to
a worn clutch or merely a shovel characteristic which may be overcome by resolving it in another way.

ever since i've had the bike i have found it always difficult to gear change.

cold start is typically clutch in and into gear then a hop, skip and stall will always follow.
this will happen couple of times only after a cold
start and then it will eventually go into gear and i'll drive of.

whilst im driving its ok.

stopped at red lights and in neutral, then into first gear it will crunch big time.
alternately if i stop on red lights in gear with clutch in, it will just creep.

i'm not too sure whether a clutch is due on these at only 10000 miles.
i'm also not sure whether an adjustment will fix this
as someone told me not to bother as this is a typical shovel characteristic
and putting in a barnett clutch will solve all these problems.

has anyone out there, had this fortune?

cheers
marc

 

I have just rebuilt my 73 FLH and am in the process of getting all of the bugs out..When my bike is cold I too am having clutch trouble..I did replace the old clutch which was not all that bad with the Kevlar plates and when the bike is cold you need to be heading in the proper direction,because the plates are stuck to the steel discs..They do release and get better once under way..How ever once warm sometimes down shifting it just grabs to much ..I need to inspect all of this again and also make sure that my sprockets are aligned as to me it feels like something is not quite aligned..I did isolate the primary,and am running Harley formula +..

 

Clutch should not creep on you... get out your manual and readjust. Pretty simple procedure actually.

 

A 72 with 10,000 original miles...that thing has done a lot of sitting up,which is most of your problem. An adjustment may or may not solve your problem, but diss-assembly and replacement of any worn parts will have it working fairly cheaply. That clutch is high maintenance compared to any modern clutch...especially adjustment-wise. If you want to spend the bucks, several company's make replacement clutches that are more care-free...if you don't have a heart attack when you see how much they cost. I run a Rivera pro clutch...bolt it in adjust it once and ride...modern diaphragm, makes the bike more fun.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RIVERA-PRO-C...-/220902390191

 

yeah i think it would be very much a case of it doin' a lot of sitting down over the years. it would make sense that things would most certainly decay and that could be part of the problem.....
not knowing these classics one bit, i thought that maybe it might be a typical characteristic thing, with shovels.

anyhow, looks like a good lookin' is on the way.

 

Nice looking ride..Let us know when you get it straightened out..

 

It is a good clutch no doubt.

 

2 of my 3 shoveld had slutch issues when I got them just for sitting for a while...
as soon as I cleaned everything, put it back and set it right, no problems at all.

 

yeah thanks v twins.

when you say you cleaned everything, what did you do?

did you have to pull the clutch cluster apart and clean the clutch assembly, plates, etc?

 

just the fiber and steel plates
cleaned the hub and studs without disassembly, on the bike and it did the trick
the only thing I added was the solid aluminum pressure plate instead of the welded steel one