Good looking old shovel. It brings back good memories. Here's my old '73 in '73 when I was stationed in Germany. That's me on the left.
I had problems with the rear head not seating to the cylinder properly. When I rode to England once, I blew a rear head gasket over the oil passage. I pulled the rear plug and rode on into London where Fred Whar milled the head and fixed the problem. I also had problems with the rear brake caliper. A valve spring from car engine fixed that.

 

http://www.shovelhead.us/specs/oil/oil.htm

 

Thank you guys for all of the good info and stories..I have been busy with the kerosene again today,and was able to locate some tranny bolts so out she came..Years of oil,mud and grease..but it is getting better..

 

Check that swing arm pivot bolt while your that deep better than half I check are bad meaning the bearing area is worn & grooved a bit and it doesn't take much to make her handle bad it will feel & act like a loose axle or rear wheel bearings going . Also take a good look at the weld where the downtube meets the motor mount boss I occasionally find a crack there on shovel frames .

 

Beat me to the draw!

 

Since I have the tranny out,I thought it would probably be wise to replace the oil seal on the output shaft.. What else should I look at while I am at this point..Bike has 23,000 miles on it..Before I got in to it drove it 150 miles everything seemed to shift fine..Twisted you mentioned you were running a 6 plate Kevlar clutch set up did you mean 5? got a part #?

 

Stock is 5 , I went to a 6 plate high performance setup on mine I'm pushing 90+ horsepower plus bargain priced I couldn't pass it up . No real gain for non hot rod bikes . While you have the tranny out drain it and check the mount studs I've had a few of the earlier 4 speeds seep oil around the the threads on the studs . Not a big issues but it always annoyed me to find that spot of tranny oil when the bike didn't leak anywhere else . Put the sprocket on hand tight and see if you can get any side to side play or movement on the on the maindrive gear on the mainshaft it so now's the time to replace the bushing . Also I'd pop the little tin cover housing off and look at the springs for the shifter return at least dab a little grease in on things .

 

I had a little time to work on the bike today so I pulled the fuel tanks and with 23,000 miles kind of decided to redo the top end..Figured it would be stupid not to since the bike is at this point..

 

Go with the metal wafer gaskets not the old paper ones you'll be much happier in the long run , may need a valve job at that mileage just depends on how the previous owner run her .

 

Glad I decided to get in to this a little deeper..