Dublin,
Coming to this forumis probably the single smartest thing you could've done. There are guys in here that have decades of experience w/HDs. I wish that i would've know about this thing b4 i bought my '84 Fxrs.
The cases in 84/85 are some of the best evo cases the Co made in the early years of evo. The 4-speed tranny smells like it will end up give you some trouble. So I would do some more research into putting a 5 or even a 6 speed into the thing if i were you. Baker makes one of the best trannys available, and i think you can even get a 5 speed for the 4 speed case.
As far as the g/f goes get her on the back of it...then see what she has to say.
Good Luck,
LowGlyd.

 

I joined this forum specifically to answer your post.....greetings from the UK.

I have owned and ridden a 1985 FXEF for15 years. Would never sell it.

They are very rare Harleys, and very desireable. That price is a STEAL.

To be honest, even if you have slight doubts, snap it up. If you find the bike is not to your liking by the end of the summer, you will DEFINITELY see a return on your money when you come to sell it. There are people desperate to get their hands on such a mint four-speed Evo.

Your mechanic is not to be taken too seriously. Probably never ridden a four-speed.

First off, the bike is barely run-in! 1985 (and all very early) Evos had bulletproof cases. The build quality was awesome. In 1984/1985 if the new Evos were not excellent and didn't sell, Harley would have gone bankrupt. Fact.

The four-speed gearbox on that bike was in production in just a couple of forms from 1936-1986 (FXWG only). It is world-renowned as a robust tranny. Did you know that five-speedHarleys can be put off the road by a 20c gearbox spring that breaks, and can require a total teardown? I bet your mechanic never told ya that! No such problems on the four-speed.

A mainshaft (tranny flluid) weep is the only constant irritant with four-speed Harleys. There are band-aids and fixes available. It does require taking off the inner primary, but it's not rocket science. It is the one known fault.

DO NOT expect any help from your local dealership. A surprising number of parts are still to be had over the counter (I still am surprised yearly with that), but the workshop techs will almost certainly never have worked on a four-speed. You need to make friends with a shop that 'speaks Shovel' because in every respect apart from the motor, your bike is a Shovel. Even the bottom end was used on the last Shovels.

DON'T expect to cruise at 85mph all day in comfort. No rigid-mount FX was designed for that. But do you know that on a chain drive bike, it is a $50 swap of the rear-wheel chainsprocket to lower the rpms at speed. Can't do it for anything LIKE that price on a belt drive Harley!! Why spend three grand on a tranny?

I can do 400miles in a day on my bike no worries, and it has 18in apes, is converted to jockey shift and foot clutch, and has rock-hard low shocks for looks. It is all about ****desire***. My bike has 83,000 miles on it. Not bad on this small island! It had very few miles when I bought it (2nd owner) bone stock like your prospective ride.

'Parts are hard to find' is BS. There are three problem areas. Inner primary, seat and pipes.

In the very unlikely event you get a crack in the inner primary (unique as it was a one-year-only combo and this one had a chain)....find a *specialist* aluminium welder. If not, you can just pick up a chain-drive Shovel inner primary from anywhere and get a different sized SEALED primary support bearing. The bearing hole is the only issue. But all that is VERY UNLIKELY anyway.

Pipes? If you want to change them, www.khromewerks.com do good pipes for these models. ARIIs. Had them on mine 14yrs. Love the sound and performance.

Seats? the classic shovelhead frame was tweaked at the seatpost to fit the slightly taller Evo motor. Hence, no Shovel seats will fit. However you can get lucky on eBay (I got a plush H-D 1985 FX pillow seat, more comfy than the OEM seat, for $40 still in the orig box)
or Mustang seats alone do offer seats forthis model. And Mustang have a great rep.

Here is the really cool part. RUBs, newbies, old greybeards, Pan and Shovel riders and hardcore clubbers alike will step up to admire your motorcycle. They won't have seen one in a while. Your bike **WILL** stand out at the bar and rally!

There is nothing to be scared of. That is a keeper.

Final tip: add a kickstart. The 1985 FXEF is all set up for a kicker, but the f

 

I think that buying that bike ....for that price...would be the stupidist thing you ever did.

Can I have his name and number?..........just to tell him for you.

 

I had the same bike for six years. I put over 80,000 miles on it, and never touched the motor or tranny. Quite a few of those miles were on the highway. I only sold it because I could not afford to keep it and buy my '98 Road Glide. Kiwidave has great things to say about the '85 FXEF. BUY IT!!!!

 

Amen !

If you're still thinking about it, it's probably too late. Damn shame if you missed out on this one.

 

Thumbs Up!

I've run the 85 FX Wide Glide / 4 speed / belt for two decades:

Harley had a run of bad rings so when it got hot, the rings wouldn't seal when it
warmed up again. If you have heard it was done fine. If it wasn't done, at 20K
miles, yours wasn't affected.

Tranny. Mine leaked till I changed out the seal for the third time. Thirds the charm
I I know theirs oil in there... so it didn't all leak out.

I can give the 96"/6 speeds a run off the line if I can get it in 4th quickly. It's a peppy
glide.

Done 1300 mile ride in one day... wasn't exactly keeping it real at 55mph, but Budwisers
and Snickers kept me going till I made it home. Afterwhich I thought my back teeth were
going to fall out.

One run, my love shack Queen was sick of that leather covered brick, but did mentioned
it put those vibes in the right spot... which was later confirmed by several of my friend's gal
pals and wifes. The thing does vibrate.

Batteries?? Yeap it likes them. Get a good one (I have always run Interstates after all those
*****y kinds).

Nice bike. You won't regret it for that price... BTW, who is your friend that has it again?
Number?

Regards!
-P

 

Buy the bike!! Loose the mechanic you talked to because he does not realize thata 5 speed harley tranny is not an overdrive like in a car. Fifth gear is a 1 to 1 ratio just like that of a four speed. Get the kicker, its only $150 bucks at j and p cycles. I would love to have one on my 5 speed but it looks like they are more than three bills.

As for the girl freind, are you sure she was talking about the bike?

 

Buying an older Harley is about like adopting a pet from the rescue, you will love it but there will always be something that costs money and time to fix. The newer "metric smooth" Harley seems very dependable and most guys I know that own a newer Harley ride with their only concern being what new accessory to buy, with the older Harley you have to look more just for some of the essentials. If you are interested in being practical, buy something close to new, but then again, we really don't buy a Harley to be practical, do we? Heck, if you really wanted to be practical you would just stick with metric. However, there is something about an older Harley, and only an older Harley....there will be times, when everything is just right and you will know you made the right decision - just about that time it will puke oil all over you girl's leg.

 

I'm gonna echo all the sentiments above....At $4,000 you are stealing a low mile V-Twin.

With a caveat: Depending onyour particular area of the country.What the true value of thebike might be,could be way different than whatsomeone is willing to pay for it. I'd questimate that bike at 'around' $7000...But, and a big but....The market in your area may not have 'price support' for a 23 year old HD. It's only 'worth' what it sells for, when it sells. There are just too many newerHarleys on the market these days to support prices ofthe 'older' bikes.

Don't let what one mechanic has to say alter your opinion. Go get another if you'refeel it's necessary. I wouldn't bother with a dealership though. Most of the 'Harley Techs' don't have a clue how to work on an EVO (and you don't even wanna take a Shovel to them. Pan? Knuckle? Flathead....? Forget it.) Hell, I had a service manager tell me that they 'didn't like to work on bikes that were older than 1997'. I took that to mean that they employed a bunch of 'Techs' that didn't have a clue.

Since you've posted that you don't mind 'getting dirty' and working on you stuff, I wouldn't worry about the mechanicals on thatbike. It's very owner friendly. Buy it. Ride it.

 

I'm pretty late on this thread, as I found it in a search for anything '85 FXEF. I figure I'll add my 2-cents for anyone who may stumble across this thread from a future search....

KiwiDave2 tells it like it is on this model. I bought my '85 FXEF in Oct of 1993 with less than 17k miles on it and the original paint......it still has the original paint. I also currently have over 96k miles on it and should roll 100k by April of 2008 (I only use the bike as a commuter, these days - 6k to 9k miles a year).

My 4-speed tranny has never been opened. I'm starting to see some false neutrals, but that would be expected with the wear on the doglegs. It is leaking at the mainshaft, but I just top off my tranny fluid every 1000 miles and let the leak lube my chain. I also added a kicker to it because mine had a habit of eating voltage regulators. Hell, I'm still running the original clutch plates in my bike! Batteries do wear down fairly quick, and I think the longest mine kept a good battery is about18 months.

As for the engine, it's had two front base gaskets leak.....one that the previous owner repaired and one I got repaired. Other than this, the bottom end has never had any work done to it. I did have to replace the oil pump when an aftermarket push rod had a tip chip and the piece of metal trashed the pump, though.

The only problems that I've had in all the years and miles that I've owned it is a broken negative battery cable, one fried ignition coil, a few regulators, and other miscellaneous wear items such as beartings, a front brake caliper and master cylinder, worn clutch lever perch, throttle cable,flasher relay, a few headlights,and a rear brake light switch. Most of these would be worn items expected of a 23-year old bike with nearly 100,000 miles on it.

As for parts, few items really are hard to get. You may have difficulties finding a seat (I have a new OEM seat, the original, and a Mustang in my stash), and some other items that I know have been discontinued are the dash and dash panel which are easily replaced with many other options, and the rear wheel.....at least the 9-spoke mag. This is an oddball rear wheel as, with the offset, it was only used on the 1985 FXEF and FXSB. It is actually the same as later '86 and newer 9-spoke wheels, but you have to machine about 1/4" of material off the hub on the sprocket side to get the sprocket in the correct location. For exhaust, anything that fits an early Softail will fit the '85 FXEF, also. Just about everything else is easy to find a replacement......interesting tidbit, the '85 clutch actuator rod was redesigned from the '84 and earlier, as it became a 3-piece unit.....and there are two types of starter relays used on the '85 FXEF, depending on whether it is an early or late production bike (my relay is like one of those off of an old Ford truck).

Anyway, I can ramble all day about my bike and little tidbits that are different, interchangeable, or have been inproved on post-'85 revisions of the part, but I'll leave on one final note........I have no intentions of ever getting rid of my FXEF. I couldn't think of my life without it.



BTW - This bike has beento 44 US States, two Canadian Provinces, and Mexico......I find the bike pretty comfortable and have ridden it up to 14.5 hours of saddle time in a day.For better highway speeds/rpm, I dropped the rear sprocket from the stock 51-teeth to 48-teeth. It drops the rpm down considerably at 70 mph.