My wife and I just bought a 1987FXLR that had been in storage for a year.About the only thing that is OEM is the frame!The motor is a 93ci S&S with a SuperE carb/with Thunderjet.It has a beautiful custom paint job,1200$ worth of wheels,dual coil ignition,Kerker 2 into 1 exhaust...the list goes on.Well,weve had some troubles with it to say the least.Is all this custom stuff inherent trouble or does this bike have a prayer of being reliable after we get all the bugs out of it.Need advice bad!

 

What's the symptoms of the problems? Have you changed all the fluids, plugs, cleaned the carb, cleaned the gas tank? Oh and please post a pic, I love those old FXR's.

 

If this bike has been in storage for a year my first concern would be bad gas and what the inside of the tank looks like. Then I would change out the other fluids.

 

Well,......At least the frame shouldn't give ya any trouble!

 

My dumbass doesnt know how to post pictures but if you tell me how Id love to.I havent changed the fluids cause it came from a dealership and I would have thought they would have done that? There is some crap in the bottom of the tank so yes I should drain it and replace the filter.The big problem has been the drive belt broke and the snapring on the clutch pressure plate came off causing the clutch to go out,Its a beautiful bike but we are scared to take it anywhere right now.

 

If it were mine, I'd find a very good Independent Motorcycle Shop that specializes in Harley Davidson's and have them go through it. The owner of the shop I go through has been working on Harley's for decades and he's got a superb eye for spotting all the mismatched and misapplied stuff on a motorcycle.

One time, he had a bike on the stand, that I thought that looked good, but he then proceeded to point out all the crazy stuff that had been done to it. Well worth somebody knowledgeable going over it and that's not always necessarily the dealer.

 

Ah...but my wife is not so dumb!!!

 

S&S should be fairly reliable , but if anything does fail at least you should be able to get replacement components fairly easily because S$S is a very stable company that has been around for years. They also have excellent customer support.

 

Thats what scares me Regis.One of the techs at our dealership (not the one we bought it at) told me it has be cobbled together.The dealrship we did buy it at says they will trade it even up for an 06 Sportster Custom with alot of goodies on it like Vance&Hines dragpipes with the download upgrade.Ill be honest Im VERY tempted.

 

Can't hurt to find a shop, call them up and explain it, like you did here and see what they'd charge to 'just look at it'. My shop would do it for a reasonable fee and then you'd know. It'd be an independent perspective on what the dealership (technician and sales) are trying to do (get you on one of their new bikes). Who knows, it just might be fixable or it might just be a huge project. But you won't know until you make the arrangements.

You'll likely get a list of what has been done to it and what it will cost to repair it. My local Independent is highly trustworthy and he'll give me the honest scoop and explain and show everything that is involved carefully.