I'm lookin to buy an 97 fxdwg with a jims 120 with around 14000. After the horror stories I have heard about them I'm a little hesitant to buy. What do you guys think buy for 8800 or move on. It runs great sounds clean and very fast.

 

Blue book is $7375, thats in my part of the country,Kelly generally undervalues HD's in my opiniuon anyway.and I think that is dealer value, not private sale which should be a little lower. I think book value varies on where you live as kelly asked for zip code. You usually don't get money put into a bike on mods back at sale time, at least not all of it even taking depreciation into the equation.
With that said, If you can talk him down to a good price, if the 120 turns out to be a lemon, they can be set right by a competent builder and make some really good power. Hillside posted on here somewhere about thier reworked Jims motor, I think it was a 131, but they turned that thing into a screamer. I'm would be curious as to how many of the 14000 miles are on the Jims powerplant. You would probably pay an equivalent price for a stocker of the same year/mileage. If your not a competent wrench, you might want someone who is to check it out. Compression test and things like that to determine the best you can the condition of the motor.
If you were to buy a used stocker and build it , you would be looking at purchase price, lets say $8000 plus thousands more for the build or a complete motor swap, so it might be a good deal if that Jims 120 is one of the good ones,there have been a good number of people who have had issues with those, but not all. You might ask if it is a HD Jims 120 or a right from Jims motor, I think there is a quality difference in that. I don't think it's a bad deal in that price range if all is good with the motor as you suggest, you might be able to talk him down a little by showing him some of the many posts about issues with the Jims stuff.

Good luck

 

Haven't dealt with Jims motors yet but here's been my experience with big bore engines . Take a 113" S&S break it in like a baby do all the maintenance and don't beat hell out of it your looking at 25,000 miles before a rebuild . Average rider will not break in a motor by the numbers they are impatient wanting to feel that power , rapping it and running hell out of it . That motor just went into the 15,000 to 18,000 mile before rebuild range , real hotrod guys get 5,000 or less out of one . It's basic physics and the way the parts are in a Vtwin , a 4" wide piston with a about 1 1/4" or less of sidewall & skirt moving 4" or more at high speed is going to wobble out period just a matter of when . Bigger the motor less miles you get , can't fight the math .

 

Got to disagree. I built a 120" from a stocker and put 50k miles on it, then pulled it down to check wear before I sold it as I did not want to sell anyone a problem. Measured everything and just put it back together as there was not a single problem found. Search this site for a thread that details the teardown with pics of the internals. That was two years ago and it is still running as far as I know. It depends on the builder, the quality of the parts and yes, the way it is ridden. If not continually abused a big inch engine will last a long time. I know of others with similar experiences. Yes, I also know of some that did only last 15 k miles, but they were abused all to hell.

 

You may very well be right all my experience has been shovels and aftermarket Evo based engines up to 124" till 2004 I haven't dicked with any of the newer engines or twin cam designs at all . Prior to my going back to the trades professionally and getting away from shop bike work in 04 113" were stable the 120" and bigger still touchy & problematic . The Indian dealer I was at did service & warranty work for a lot of the box choppers & kit bikes that were the big thing in the early 2000 days like Big dog , Independence , Texas chopper , American Iron Horse , Panzer and a number of others most went bang around 15,000 to 19,000 if they got that far . Saw one Big Dog with 31,000 on it but the owner was a shops dream by the book extra careful type guy . Most of the problems came from owners who didn't treat it right during break in . Spend 1/2 hr going over break in and why it had to done easy by the book several times , 6 blocks away you'd hear them light it up , they would be back in 3 weeks blowing smoke with piston slap raising hell . Replaced a lot of upper ends under 10k .

I hear the twin cam is a bunch more forgiving and takes the inches better , need to dig into one and see why for myself . For the MoCo to be doing the big ones from the factory now something changed I need to learn more about that for sure .

 

both are correct -- get very compentent motor builder to check it out -- rebuilding a motor can prove to be very costly (don't ask me how I know). If you detect any hint of a problem walk away.

the unknowns are the mitigating factors here--break in--previous riding -- abuse -- maintenance