After the trip to Born Free Texas 2023, I decided to do to my Harley Davidson Shovelhead a tear down, rebuild assembly and see how it will do on a test ride; namely my 1979 FXS 80 Lowrider.
I was riding my 82 FXE to school back in 83, sitting at a railroad crossing, waiting for the train. There was a loud BLAMMO from my front pipe, but it kept idling okay. I saw some smoke, looked down and my right pant leg was on fire. I slapped it out, and rode on to school, although the bike was running weak and I looked stupid with charred jeans. Made it home, pulled the front head and there was a chunk of valve sitting on top of the piston. I was an art nerd, in no way mechanically inclined, but Harley technology was accessible to anyone with a set of wrenches, so I pulled the heads, cylinders, and pistons, and took'em to my HD dealer. Put it all back together on my grandpa's porch. My dad got the pistons into the cylinders with his fingers, and I had my wife hold the jug/piston in place while I fitted the wrist pins. At one point we got stuck, and I laid a screwdriver across the solenoid and it shoved the piston into the jug. We put 80,000 miles on that bike in four years. How a machine works, and how it can be worked by its owner is a measure of performance that has been lost over the decades. Modern bikes make no sense, and are immune to troubleshooting thanks to integrated computer systems. My daily rides are 2 Shovelheads, 2 ironheads, a 67 Triumph T100, and a 75 Honda CB550. You couldn't give me a modern bike.
Glad to see it back on the road but yes i know the feeling of when something works right after a rebuild that you did. It's a very exciting feeling that you did it. Congrats!!! Hope yall have a Merry Christmas yourselves!!!!!
Great job, I “somewhat” know what is like jumping off into the deep end when it comes to not knowing anything about what I’m attempting to do. Bought an early twin cam and jumped right in to the cam chest tensioners. In the end, it fired up just fine and I learned a lot. But did farm out the injection to carb swap on it, my hands are way to big to do a lot of the intricate areas that and what wires to delete and not delete. Keep doing what you do, enjoy the warmer weather. Christmas Eve day we had 60 degrees, Christmas it was 32 and snow flurries.
As a motorcycle mechanic I have been both suprised and disappointed by the uses of jb weld I have seen. “Fixed” cases, intakes. Even frames. I also just repaired one where the guy used jb weld as an intake. I’m guessing he coated the whole old ass busted rubber boot with jb weld. Idk I throwed it away to fast to fully examine it. The same guy jb weld the head to the cylinder. It did have bolts so I assume it leaked and he did that. Or perhaps used it as a gasket sealer. I’m not really sure. But it absolutely amazes me at the faith some people have in that shit.
Man, your guardian angel was watching over you on that Texas trip with that warped spring and valve! That would have been a LONG push home! I bet it feels really good knowing exactly what's going on inside your motor, since you know the engine builder so well :) Merry Christmas, Mr. and Missus Saddle Tramp!
Hell that Front Head Exaust can bi fixed and be good For another 54 years . Good Gong donot forget to use Red lock tight . And Red lock tight . Knuckle , Pan ,Shovel . All pretty much the same .
Merry Christmas Cory & Mrs. Tramp! 🎉 Sorry about the Shovelhead tribulations. 😢 There are 2-bolt exhaust flanges available for Shovelheads! You didn't cut the pushrods! 😂 Nice move.....
Merry Christmas!! Shovelheads and Panheads are very similar, and I just had a '49 Pan rebuilt. The builder gave me an instruction sheet with break-in procedures, and it's the same as what you said in the video. Great Job!! What a great feeling it must have been to Kickstart an engine you just built yourself 😄😄😄🙏🙏🙏
Hey Corey. It’s When I’m 64, aka Wishbone, aka dannpd1955. It’s a long story. Hope you are well, I had four joint replacement surgeries in 2023 both knees and my right shoulder twice so I’ve been laying low. I’m happy to see you and missus are doing well. Merry cChristmas to y’all. To God be the glory.
Your trial by fire approach is why we watch you my friend. If it was easy that would be kind of boring but id go on a limb saying that Kevin Baxter watches your DIY projects. Keep wrenching.
Built my '76 Shovelhed and an '85 Evo, from frame up (except the Evo long block, no torque plates at home...). It's great knowing you touched every single part of the bike, know what was used, and how it was put together. Keep the shiny side up!
Merry Christmas man from all the way there and back Invercargill New Zealand where its 1 30 in the afternoon christmas eve summer time thanks for being you
MERRY CHRISTMAS there Iron Head Tere. If you have time, I've got a question for you. How many miles of good riding roads are there in New Zealand? Oyeah and what is the weather like during the month of July like there? Happy New years to you too.🎉
@@IronheadTere Just what I was thinking. I've traveled the Philippines some, they have no winter so they say, only two seasons there, Hot and Wet. LOL Maybe I'll be traveling over your way come July.
Liked this video glad to see you decide to rebuild the engine your self I believe it may have give you a sense of owner ship and pride in in your bike. This video makes me want my scooter back on the road it’s going to take a lot of work been setting for several years health issues.I have new lung’s now and on the mend.This post has been inspiration.
Even on the road you can do a top end. In '99 was in Sturgis and my top end blew a head gasket on my shovel limped it back to the campsite tore the heads off took them to the machine shop in the morning told the guys I was on the road and they turned the the heads around in four hours, valve seat grind, new seals, new valves and springs. Had the bike running that night. One of the guys I was running with was a pilot for United Airlines and he was amazed that I could take an engine apart in the grass and put it back together running that night. I told him you command a commercial jet don't you have to do things to keep your plane flying. What he told me was amazing to me he said he works on everything with his computer and that he has no real mechanical ability. Great video. You are doing just fine. I will say when I saw you putting the front cylinder on I saw immediately that the oil return was on the valve train side of the motor. You will never forget that now. Harley found out that when you stroke a motor you can take some weight out of the flywheels. Makes the bike rev faster. You just have to get the balance right. Later my friend.
Hey Tramp, did you contemplate sending it out to Draganmans in Colorado?? He's got all the proper tools and machines and it's not an arm and a leg type of thing.. plus he bead blasts the entire thing and you put together the top end..
@@SaddleTrampTV he's got a channel on RU-vid, dragonman machine shop and you will find it.. he has recent videos telling how to ship it, cost and what's all covered.. I believe it's like $500 for everything you pay shipping
Break-in should be have varied RPM. Some easy higher RPM runs where you shift later, but not hammering it like you're trying to beat a Harley V-Rod. Red line of a Shovelhead is listed somewhere around 6100 or 6200 RPM (sorry, don't have the owner's manual in front of me). I find my '78 FLH "early" (1200cc) seems to say 5500 RPM is enough. And yes, putting an engine back together and riding around without it coming apart between your legs is a good feeling.
@@SaddleTrampTV Oh that’s cool one of your fans sent it to you good fan and good taste in art work I . I have that as the screen saver on my cell. David Mann knew just about ever biker / Harley riders when we are out riding we ain’t just riding our Harley’s deep down some where in us we are out riding the range with Frank and Jesse James know what I mean !!!!!!!!
That old footage is pretty cool to see of you working in the old shop.. now you're in a nice new building with many more bikes.. Merry Christmas to you and the Mrs's..
You're doing good 😂😅. I love working on motors. I just bought another Shovel. This time it's a 1600 twin spark -78. It's interesting how stupid some people are when working engines. This one is going into pieces this winter and I will weld the rear head and also put Helicoil inserts for exhausts and sparks. One thing I thought about with your engine was the oil holes in bottom end of the cylinders. This time you rebuilt an engine, so it's probably OK. Sometimes that hole is too high in the cylinder, so it's getting oil above the rings on the piston. It's one of the things worth checking.
no harm in higher top rev's briefly when running in. use wooden blocks under piston when fitting barrel. i'd of whipped the cyl's off to paint but hey ho/ no oil leaks after shake down ride, now that is something i've never managed. Good to see our man getting fully engaged. Peace to all this Christmas.
For break-in, 300 miles of easy riding being careful not to get the engine to hot. And varying rpms. No smoke out the pipes or oil leaks means the rebuild is good. Should be good to go after that.
You should be putting a rag in the lower in when your disassembling & assembling those cylinders. Hopefully you retorqued those bolts after those 1st few rides
Love the video Man. Years ago I was told by an Old School Biker that it's okay to Rever up some during the Break in, just don't Over Rever is the trick. No oil leaks is the best thing after the first run. I've got one question, how did you fix the Exhaust Port? Me I would've welded it, mainly that's because I am a welder. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TOO.
I saw an all bald sticker on your garage door; I have a new set of wheel bearing for my 08 heritage to put on , I took one of the seals off and the bearings only had a fine film of grease on a few of the balls I bought the bike cheap not running and when I pulled the bearings out well they fell out of the hub 28,000miles on it I suggest u check all your bearings befor using them , we wouldn’t do that to a Timpkin bearing just a suggestion
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Good job on the shovelhead, sounds good. A really good channel for shovelhead info is "It's My Time, Let's Go". His name is Ralph and he really knows what he's doing.
Hey man, what's with the blue beautiful shuffle head in the background. Really looks nice. It's got to be yours cause I know you don't work on anybody else's bike. You know Liability and such😊😂
Never sandblast cases! You could wash those 10 times and it's still possible for grit to come out of that aluminum and right into the oil once the engine gets hot.
clearly it started because you said hmmm right before it turned over! you paint like michelangelo, invent like DaVinci, and Cast magic spells like Houdini! he strikes again!!!! 80 year old guy is retired lol 🎉🎉🎉🎉
good thing that bent valve never seized up and took out a piston. now you are an engine builder who'll never put the rear cylinder on the front (again). but in all fairness, good job. did you have your piston and flywheel assembly balanced?
Points manufactured today are JUNK. They shouldn't even be sold. Your new set is going to wear fast too. Old points and condensers is where it's at, if you can find them.
it would have been a good idea to took the bottom to someone who has the equipment a knows what they are doing and had rod bearings replaced and your crank trued up .
There is a RU-vid channel that is a world of information on the shovelhead, and up to EVOs, you should check out. Pacific Mike, he has a complete series on tearing down and rebuilding a shovelhead. You should check him out. I realize this is late, but he still has some great information.
Hard enough to do it for the first time much less try to film.. Good job... ever hear of vapor blasting.? Started doing on all my motors.. Paint cylinders prior to assembly is easier and you can bake them making paint last .... Overall nice job...
You’re doing the rebuild the right way. Take it all down. When you go 30 over on the cylinders, you got another rebuild left on them 50 over is the limit. Break her in right, change all the hoses and wash out the oil bag with kerosene. You don’t want that muck all up in your new engine. Good luck.
Great Sunday morning to everyone and wishing everyone a blessed Christmas. Remember everyone the real reason for Christmas. Jesus Christ is the way ✝️🙏
