I recently purchased my first ironhead!
I've been doing as much reading as possible. A common opinion is that the ironhead is a bit fussy and requires some periodic adjustments.
Just wondering the common problems and symptoms. I usually take my bikes to my mechanic but I am somewhat handy with fixing things myself. It would be nice to be able to travel with a small tool kit and repair small issues myself instead of breaking down far from home and having to be towed to a garage for something I could have fixed myself.

 

As a general rule you should rarely take an IronHead to a mechanic and never to a Harley dealership. That would cost you a lot of $s [$50 to $100 per hour]; in addition it is a rare mechanic who can seriously work on one of these bikes. We get many stories on these forums about work poorly done by mechnaics. Best to do it yourself. Spend the $s on good tools.

You should immediately buy both the factory service manual part number 99484-85 and the factory parts catalog 99451-85A. These are you most important tools. Any HD dealer, indie mechanic, eBay, J&P Cycles, etc are all good sources.

Most IronHeads, regardless of how good they look, has been thru several owners who have messed up wiring and whatever else. This is your biggest problem - sorting out what is right, what is wrong, and what has just plain been messed up.

Other than that: regular oil checks and changes, regular pushrod adjustments, regular chain maintenance, etc etc etc. These are not bikes that you can just ride - there is always something waiting to be done.

Here is my maintenance chart. It says every 2500 miles but some of this needs to be done more often than that, some less often ...

http://cid-e2880b68d32bbca8.office.l.../IronMaint.doc

 

Thanks!
My bike is a 1982 roadster with 16000 original miles put on it by it's original lady owner. The only work that has been done so far was an instal of an s&s carb. And yesterday I replaced the petcock, fork seals and timing cover gasket.

She had the carb installed by the dealer. My mechanic who did the rest of the work is a friend who used to work at a Harley dealer and works out of his garage in his back yard.

I was given the original manuals with the bike. Bonus!
I'll give your chart a good look! Thanks again

 

Sounds like a much better than usual find for an IronHead. Post some pics please!

 

Will do! The only pics I have so far can be seen in my profile section. They were taken by the person I bought the bike from. I will take some good pics asap and post them here.

 

Hey, that's a nice looking bike, I like that style tank.