I have a 1993 Sportster 1200 that my dad bought new in 93. It’s been through several builds ect. It has a carb and an electrical problem and got parked. Dad tried to mess with it. A couple of the circuit breakers are missing at this point. It’s been sitting uncovered under a car port since 2016.

I can’t decide if I want to fix it or if I want to sell it for parts / project bike. Dad suggests I buy a replacement wiring harness and rewire the whole thing. If I decide to keep it. It’s got some rust I have no intention of replacing chrome if I keep it. My intention would be to stop the rust progression and clean it up. The old beat up bike look is fine with me. If I keep it, it will be used to “rat” around town. My main ride is a 24 Fatboy.

Sooo. The gas was never drained there is probably a gallon or so of gas in it. The oil has not been changed. With a bike that has sat this long I know I’ll need to drain the gas replace fuel filter probably tear down the carb change oil and primary oil. It will need new tires. It has the original drive belt so I’d probably replace that also. I’m sure the tank has some rust so I’ll be dropping a few handfuls of bb in it and shaking the crap out of it. Then I’ll coat the tank. That is if it’s not too bad.

Besides that is there anything else I should do to it before attempting to get it running? The engine has less than 15k miles on it. I’d hate to rewire it then it turns out the engine is seized. Would it be worth it to hand crank the engine. Is there anything else thing I should do about oil. I’m sure the heads are bone dry. Im worried about the possibility of oil starvation occurring in the first few seconds of cranking it.

Im not looking to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on this bike. Honestly I don’t want to put more than 3k into it. I go a little higher but not much. If it’s gonna cost more than that I’ll probably sell it as a project bike.

The carb problem was it would start choking and “carb farting” at low RPM. If I keep it I’ll probably replace the POS plastic air intake and the carb.

Anyway what would you do and do you have any suggestions? Thanks. As a side note I can’t stand the handlebar set up on it so I’ll probably swap that to some type of T-bar or drag bar.

 

Just to get it running will be way less than 3k. The only thing I would add to your list is a battery. There’s a YouTube show called “ran when I parked it”. They have a ton of good info. I recently got an iron head running that had sat since 96 for about a grand. Good luck 👍

 

I'd sell it...with a nice new ride...can't see where I'd get much if any use out of it...

 

If you have the time, money and interest, go for it! Otherwise, turn it loose.

 

Get rid of it. Its don't its worth 3K in running condition.

 

If you keep it, start with the carb rebuild, tank cleaning, and battery. Change the oils. I'd also pull the spark plugs and put some oil in the cylinders before you ever crank it over, after sitting all those years theres no lube on the cylinder walls.

 

Wow. I'm surprised at the number of people who would give up on this bike on here. You would not need to rewire the whole bike unless your dad really hacked everything to pieces. If that is the case just make a bar hopper out of it and strip the speedo and all the extra crap. The wiring on this bike is pretty simple really. And the amount of wiring needed to have a rideable bike is actually very little. The carb is easily rebuilt for very little money. If you don't like working on bikes, sell it. If you're looking for a project, it shouldn't be too bad to get the bike running. Also, I doubt you'll find a full wiring harness for that bike and even if you did the bike would have to be almost entirely disassembled to install it.

 

Well after much deliberation and discussion with my dad and my wife we have decided to keep it. I’m gonna do some other mods to it. For instance I’m gonna swap it to drag bars. But first thing is to get it running.

 

The question is do you want you your days old bike?

I would worry about the inside of the tank. I would drain fluid. Probably pull carb and clean or just replace jets. Put them in ultra sonic cleaner maybe.

Pretty much when it comes to older bikes, it is not about money. If it was you would junk them like cars. But there is not a lot of harleys in the junk yard.

Not sure I would replace the harness. I think I would try to figure the problem. But I am not there.

Could be a fun prpject, that you will say this belonged to my dad in 1993. If that is not a fun project get rid of it. Doesn't sound like your dad cares.

 

Awesome! Im glad to hear it. Make sure to start a new thread to document the refresh. And make sure to include a bunch of pics for us.