Fallenangel,

Unless you are a wrench, or plan on becoming one, I would stay away from the Shovelhead. They can tend to be pretty high maintainance, and the price I think is out of line. I sold a 1997 Lowrider in very good shape with 47,000 miles for 9,000.

As far as the FXR frame goes, it is one of the best that HD made as far as I'm concerned, and as someone told you, it was discontinued because it cost more to make than the Dyna that replaced it.

If you have your heart set on an FXR, you can probably find one with an EVO engine for 10,000 or under if you are willing to do some shopping, and the EVO is a much more reliable engine than the Shovel.

Just an opinion.

Regards,

Bill

 

So sorry to have kept you all in suspense today but my employers have restricted all internet sites that are not directly related to the law. How the hell am I supposed to dick off at work without the internet I wll never know.

The bike is officially ours. The deposit was taken at 10:25 a.m. this morning. Chuck and our mechanic friend are driving up to Montgomery County tommorow night to pick up our new baby. I am beside myself. This is the least painful labor I have every gone through. (Ironically, Chuck is bitching and moaning like a woman about to give birth. How he will get through work tommorow I just don't know)

If the children thought they fell behind in line when we got our puppies, wait until they see how far at the end of the line they are now that we have a bike!


Thanks to all for your prompt, witty, and knowledgeable advice. John and Trip I have deemed you my motorcycle gurus. I bow to your wealth of information and soon you will wish you never helped me. I plan to learn to ride this bike AND to work on it as well.

Thanks again everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Pics with you and the bike,[sm=ttiwwp.gif]


John TN

 

Veronika, glad we could be of service to you, but for technical advise 'n' stuff you would do well to heed Bill's advise. At least you are planing on becoming a wrench. Pococj has a bunch of technical know how. Do not be shy about posting you questions, problems, and concerns somebody here will have an answer or will be able to point you in the correct direction.

You work in a law office?!

 

Yes I work in a law office. I work in the commercial vehicle litigation department. Meaning, we represent tractor trailer companies after they have been in an accident.

Kind of a conflict of interest at times.

The minute I get thatbike home I will post some pics of it here at home. Maybe even with me on it.



IS IT TOMMOROW YET????????????????

 

I don't think anybody has mentioned the Basic Motorcycle Rider's Course yet and you would be doing yourself a favor by getting enrolled as soon as possible.

 

Save your money and move beyond the shovelhead. For 10.5K there are a ton of EVO's out there.
Unless you like "wrenching" move on to the EVO. I own a FXS-80 Low Rider which is a shovelhead build the latter part of 1979 when HD (AMS) switched to the 1340cc engine. I've never had any major problems, although I did spend a lot of time working on it. Cheers!

 

I bought my shovel, and I love it. I have only been home an hour and I have already been to visit her at the garage three times. We are changing out all the hoses, flushing out the tanks and what-not. My man is a machinist so he is taking the carb in to work and having it "professionally" cleaned. I hope to have her up and running by Tuesday. Apparently somewhere along the way we also got a freaking flat.

We are both already enrolled in the safety course. It takes almost a month to get into the course i Pennsylvania.

 

Good luck with it Angel, hope you get it running good and really enjoy it. Have fun in the riding schools.


John TN

 

Congrats on your first year FXR FallenAngel The FXR series ran from 1982 till 2000.
the 2000 FXR IV was the last Harley to have the Evo Big Twin engine.
The new TC 88 engine will not fit in the FXR frame(Buell designed by the way when Eric was still at Harley) so that was the end for the FXRs.
The Evo motor will however fit in your '82 FXR frame though.
They made both Dynas and FXRs at the same time through most of the '90's.
I had an early 1984 FXRS SuperglideII ( also know as the Low Glide) it was one of the very first Evo powered bikes.
It was almost identicle to your '82 in every way save the engine.
Same dry clutch,rubbermount 5 speed trans and chain drive.It ran 100,000 miles before I had the top end done and never let me down.I rode into the shop to have it freshened up.Best bike I ever owned![8D]
You have the best handling Shovelhead powered stock Harley ever produced and a great all around bike.
The Shovelhead is not as maintaintence free as the Evo nor as reliable or as powerfull but that being said lots can be done to improve it on all fronts including making in oil tight.A few things you'll need to keep an eye on are as follows.
The exhaust headers on all shovelheads are forever coming loose.
There is a 3 bolt flange kit that requires removing the heads and some welding but it is the best fix I know of.
Be carfull tightening your stock flange bolts ,they like to strip out the threads in the head.
The coil mount likes to come loose on FXRs as it's mounted on the engine and gets shaken up all the time.
Late Shovels & early Evos both had a crankcase breather hose that goes into back of the aircleaner.
You'll want to remove that hose from your breather box and run it down under the bike with a small paper element filter on the end to keep dirt out of it.This will vent the crankcase to the atmosphere and any oil mist to the ground rather than into your aircleaner and carb.Left hooked up they were notorious for sucking up large quantities of oil and depositing it all over your engine,your right leg and your passenger if you're riding two up.The primary chain oiler has a habit of gumming up the clutch plates after a while.
You will need to get a factory service manual .It's not to hard to pull the clutch plates out to clean them.
Spray them down with brake cleaner and let them dry out.Then you want to spray "NON PETROLEUM BASED" silicone lube on them.
This will help repell oil and dissipate heat.It actually tells to do this in my '84 service manual.
Let dry again and reinstall and adjust chain and put the cover back on.
Check the drive chain sprocket on the rear wheel for wear.If it's sharp on the ends it's worn out and needs to be replaced along with a new chain as a set.I would highly recomend getting an o-ring chain if you get a new one.You may have noticed that the front drive(trans) sprocket is behind the clutch so replacing it isn't an option unless you have to.That will require a couple of special tools and carefully following the manual.To replace the chain simply hook the new one to the old one and pull it through.
Shovelheads need clean fresh oil and premium fuell.The valves are the weakest point of a Shovelhead engine and good gas and fresh oil help it run cooler.If it gets really hot stop and cool it down a bit now and again, these old air cooled iron engines cant be flogged all day like modern engines.Use that wonderfull torque band and dont over rev the beast and you can get a lot of miles out of it.
If the plug wires look old I'd replace them along with the plugs right off the get go.Plugs and wires are the most common cause for hard starting and engine missing when running on these engines.The rear brake caliper was a poor design and may need attention,keep an eye on that.Not much else I can think of right now except to say enjoy you're new classic ride.
I had my FXRS for 10 years and well over 100,000 miles and loved every one of 'em.
Y2K[sm=burnout.gif]