Hello people,
Irecently inherited a somewhat beat up but well running 74 Shovelhead from my father and have a few questions I was hoping you might be able to help me out with. First and foremost, is there any way to tell what exact model it is. I am trying to buy a manual for it but I don't know if its an FLH, XH, FLX etc. I'm pretty sure its a 1200. Secondly, if anyone out there has any ideas of the best way to go about fixing it up or knows of any common problems, tricks etc. that would come in handy, I sure would appreciate it. I rode it last summer pretty hard and it held up pretty well. I am in the middle of taking the heads off to get some work done to them and I decided to stop until I found themanual. Is it possible to pull the heads off without taking the whole motor out? From what I've seen, I can't figure itout. I was actually considering just taking the whole thing out and having some bottom end work done to it as well, but I don't think it needs it. Right now to get it running again, I just need to get the heads off. Lastly, where is the best place to find parts for these? I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
Zoli

 

The head will come off without pulling the motor out. Just take the tanks off, pull the carb and intake,theheads will come off after ya pull the bolts. They need to come up about 1/8" to clear the lip on the jugs and you may have to roll the motor over if the piston is to high. I pulled the heads, rockers and jugs without touching the bottom end.

As far a problems, well you might have alot and ya might not have any. And if you got it from your father it should mean a whole lot to you. Best thing is to just take your time with it. Talk to some ol timers and do some searching on the internet about shovelheads. If you have a picture of the bike it would help some of us figure out what ya got.
Just some thoughts.
Joker

 

Sweet, Thanks. I'll try and get a picture of it.

 

Here's a link for the vin reference.

http://www.truettandosborn.com/VIN%20page.htm

 

Hey FX,

Excellent resource. Thanx fer posting