Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum. I live in France and I own a Harley Shovelhead FLH 80 from 1982. This vehicle has not been driven for 25 years.

I would like to restore it, because the storage conditions were bad over a period of time: the garage where it was stored suffered water damage. Water remained on the paving for a long time, trapped, and this caused a lot of humidity in this small space. The result is that there was a lot of oxidation that developed in certain places.

My goal would be to restore all these parts to the best possible appearance (I will not have the budget to replace all the chrome parts for the moment), to change everything necessary , to be at peace (from a mechanical point of view).

which means that I will need tools because in France we have millimeter wrenches. I will need to provide seals/parts for the various restoration points that you will indicate to me. For the moment my vehicle is not next to me I will go and get it in about ten days (250km from my home). I could then send you images that will replace many words.

For the moment I only have a few old images taken in a closed garage and in bad conditions.

I hope that you will be able to understand me, I appeal to your indulgence because I am not very confident with my American speaking.

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

Assuming it is not "stuck" and has compression:
I`d start by spraying penetrating oil in the cylinders, a new battery , clean the fuel tanks and carb, flush and fill the oil tank
Rotate the engine with plugs out while observing oil returning to the tank
See if it`ll start

Good luck

 

If it were mine, I'd start with getting it home, clean it up really well and make notes of the things you observe that are a concern. And I'd get a factory HD service manual for that specific year and model bike. You will need that for the instructions, diagrams and torque values for various fasteners. There are some free online sources of older HD factory manuals that have been converted to pdf file types. They are not as good a an actusl manual in your hands, they are otherwise accurate and usable.

Then work on getting it running, which will likely take a lot. Remove the spark plugs and put a little light weight oil in the cylinders and let it sit for a few days. If you have a bore scope, look inside the cylinders to check the condition including rust of scaring etc. Then see if the engine will turn freely. If it won't, then there could be some problems from sitting too long. If it has a kick start, try cranking it by hand to feel the resistance. If it moves with minor resistance but otherwise easily, then that's a good sign. If no kick start, raise the rear wheel and put the tansmission in 2nd or 3rd gear and try to turn the back wheel.

Once you can crank it over, you can check for spark by grounding a spark plug against the head (hold the sparkplug in place with pliers that have rubber coated handles) and crank the engine over while watching for spart at the electrode. If you have spark, then for now move to other items. But you will eventually need to check ignition inside the points cover.

Check the oil level in the tank, but don't add any of it is low.The older Harley's including the Shovelhead tend to have the oil from the oil tank drain into the engine case. It's not a huge problem, but when it does start for the first time, there will likely be a lot of oil that drains from the vent tube under the bike. When starting the engine for the first time, have a drain pan under the bike that will hold several quarts just in case.

Once you get the engine running, look for oil leaks minor or major, unusual noises or loud knocking / tapping noises etc.. If nothing major, I'd drain the engine oil and refill with an inexpensive oil of the correct viscoscity initially. Once the engine and oil can be circulated and warmed up to operating temperature, you can drain the inexpensive oil and fill with what you plan to use along with a new filter.

Check the tansmission oil level and appearance. If it's not discolored, and looks normal then I'd leav it alone until you can get the engine running.

The 25 year old battery will not be good, so you will need a replacement. The fuel system will need to be cleaned up / rebuilt, including the gas tanks, fuel lines, petcock and carburetor. Look closely at the inside of the gas tanks for rust. A little surface rust is not a big problem, but if the inside is scaly with deep rust that will need to be dealt with by removing the rust and sealing the tanks.

You will also need to rebuild the front and rear brakes as the old seals will not work well. And, the brake fluid is likely DOT 4, which absorbs moisture from the atmosphere (and possibly the water leak in the garage) which can cause corrosion and damage metal parts (master cylinder and calipers).

Tires after 7 years should be replaced even if the tire and tread are in good condition otherwise. There are lots of other things, like inspecting and repacking wheel bearings, checking the steering head bearings for smooth movement or slack and repacking the bearings as needed. Fork seals on a bike thet old may be leaking, or even some rust of the fork tubes that could damage the seals. Then cosmetic items once yuo evaluate the mechanical items.

Paul

 

The AMCA ( Antique Motorcycle Club of America ) has two chapters in France.

Could be a valuable source of parts, services and advice. I suggest you join.

 

Regarding the finish; a little elbow grease (Manual Labor) is required.
1 - Pressure wash all unpainted surfaces to remove surface oxidation
2 - Spray WD-40 onto all rusty looking metallic parts both natural and painted let soak over night
3 - Wash everything with Dish soap and water rubbing surfaces to remove more oxidation
4 - Use Hapich Semi-Chrome on a soft cotton cloth to rub out aluminum surfaces. A little goes a long way and your cloth will get very black over time. The more you rub the aluminum the more it will look like polished aluminum even tto the point it looks almost like chrome.
5 - Use a quality wax on tank and fender paint. I prefer Carnuba so it does not leave white on rubber surfaces

 

^^ All good advice...when I get one like that...First thing I do is Spray the exterior down Generously with WD-40...All of it...Paint and All....especially the oxidized aluminum...

 

I also keep the blackened polishing cloths to rub out chrome surfaces.
Winter storage in Indiana can sometime leave moisture on the polished aluminum surfaces so, I wet all aluminum down with WD-40 before and during storage (WD-40 = Water Displacing Formula 40)

 

Wow thanks for all these great feedbacks. I appreciate all the details you have provided me!

I was expecting you , to advise me to change the gaskets at the cylinder head (I think I read that somewhere that the current gaskets were necessary...).
Is it also a myth that the blue Loctite is necessary?

I got the service manual in pdf (quite a piece). I'll see if I can find in it, some sort of inventory of the tools needed.

Thanks again for all these exchanges!
​​​​​​

 

Yes, I used blue loctite on most fasteners. And I use a well calibrated torque wrench on critical fasteners or most anything in aluminum.

If you take things apart, use a thread chase (not a thread tap) before putting it back together. That will clean the threads so yuo can get accurate torque measurements, or at least know that the fastener is clamping the parts together properly.

Paul

 

Your bike from the outside doesn't look that bad. Tools are AF. what you need is 1/4" ,7/16" ,1/2", 9/16", 5/8" 3/4" and a 13/16" long socket for sparking plugs although you can get away with some metric tools such as 11mm, 13mm, but??.......i use an AF 1"1/8 ,half inch drive, socket for the rear axel nut. If you take the heads off you will need what's known as a dogbone 9/16" spanner....google image it you will see why its called a dogbone Plus the usual proper fitting phiips head, flat head screwdrivers. just basic tools really. If you have a decent torque wrench for tightening up the axel nuts even better as over tightening them will crush the tapered bearings. I also have an 82 FLH which was stored but under ideal conditions. Things i replaced were engine to primary seal, primary transmission bearing, transmission mainshaft seal,some, but not all oil hoses, fuel hoses, front fork seals, regulator/rectifier ,petcock, new S&S carb kit, replaced composite head gasket with cometic brand, multi layered steel gasket after it blew. front and rear final drive sprockets plus 530 standard chain While you have the motorcycle stripped down check for chaffed wiring, while cleaning out my oil tank the main wire from battery to starter was chaffed against the rear down tube. Yes yes blue loctite is a must , these bikes will rattle the fasteners free, specially if you exceed 65mph /100kph for any length of time !!! One thing i recommend doing before buying any parts is to check here on this forum what's the best brand to buy as there is a wealth of knowledge here, specially if you take the primary off. No question is a dumb question . good luck with your bike .................................................i f i've stuffed up with some measurements, happy to be corrected