About three years ago now I bought a used 1997 XLH sportster from a local Harley dealership with 33k miles on it (supposedly). I wondered at the time why they sold it so cheap but I've since figured out that it had apparently been in an accident at some point and the last owner didn't do much maintenance. It's a thirteen plus year old bike I guess I should have expected some major repairs in light of the apparent lack of good maintenance the bike had once we started taking stuff apart for various reasons.

The bike was sold to me as a XL Hugger and if I'm not mistaken the title may say hugger on it too. My friend is in the process of rebuilding and upgrading and we're finding out that many parts that are for a 1997 Hugger or even a generic sportster of that year are not for this machine. We're finding out that we need parts for a big twin engine in many cases.

A good for instance is the breather bolts on the outside of the engine, a sporty has significantly smaller ones than a big twin yet this bike takes big twin breather bolts. We've also seen transmission assembly instructions significantly different from the tech book (i.e. some things are installed backwards from instructions in the book). He had to tear the bike nearly down to nothing to change some bearings that had gone bad and were making a horrid noise (drive bearing?).

We've found that the tech book for the 1997 sporty doesn't have good accurate info for this bike engine and tranny all along the way. We did have the parts department at a harley dealership tell us that the Vin number for this bike was not a Hugger vin number. We've been told that this bike is a XL Highway (not by a harley tech). I've tried googling XL highway and don't find anything. I was wondering if someone might have upgraded something in the past but it appears to be a stock sporty engine to everyone that's taken a look.

Is there such a thing as a Sportster Highway? It's a great old bike other than being carburated (I love my fuel injected new Iron I can't stand waiting for it to warm up before it stops stalling on me). Can I get some comments? Might this be some sort of mutant bike or a unusual run of different specs? Don't want to sell it at this point but it would be nice to know what it really is so we can get the correct tech manuals.

Thank you everyone

 

Should be a VIN on the engine right? If so do the frame VIN and egine VIN match up? PO might have shoved another engine in the frame.

 

This. You should be able to verify the type of bike by the frame VIN, and a matching engine code would be on the right hand crankcase.

 

Good thought I didn't know if they're supposed to match but how could you put a significantly different engine in there without it being obvious? Oh well what do I know right? So it sounds like you're saying you've never heard of an XL highway either.

 

+1 to what Virge and Scuba said......Or post a picture of the bike and I KNOW we could tell you. Oh, and NO, there's no such thing as an XL Highway. The H designation has changed a few times, but never stood for highway. Mine's a 2000 XLH model, but it's not a Hugger. There were "Hugger" models for that year. In 2000, XLH stood for just your standard sportster, and XL883H or XL1200H stood for Hugger, I believe.

 

Try this VIN decoder site http://www.motoverse.com/tools/vinDecoder.asp

 

He says they match but he's going to go look again. Thx.

 

Thanks!

It comes back 1997 XL883 no H. North America origin. I know it's been lowered at least a little, thus the confusion with the Hugger I'm sure.

 

Pictures of....engine and tranny? He just did all the 1200 upgrades, not sure if that changes any of the outward appearances or not.

 

H stood for high performance or high compression at one time in the sportster family. wikipedia rules all!

• XL900 the original mid compression version
• XLH900 same as the standard XL but with the "H" denoting the high compression engine
• XLC900 off-road version of the XL, The XLC has magneto ignition and kickstart only (as well as several other changes to eliminate weight). the 'C' is thought to stand for California - some say 'Competition'
• XLCH900 off-road version of the XLH - or the XLC with the high compression engine! - the "CH" denoting "competition/high-compression". after a year lights, speedo and full road legal spec arrived.
• XLX-61 an entry level "Ironhead" era Sportster, available with sparse trim, in black only.
• XLS1000
• XLT1000 "Tourer" '77 special model (1099 units) featured a Superglide tank, screen, bigger seat and panniers
• XLCR1000 "Cafe Racer" is the Cafe Racer model, available in 1977 & 1978, and quite collectible today[3]
• XR1000, Highly desirable, with two high rise flat track style exhausts on the left and two staggered K&N type filters poking out on the right. Featured a 1,000cc engine and a combination of XLX Sportster and modified XR-750 parts.[4]
• XLH883 -
• XLH1100
• XLH1200
• XLH883 "Deluxe", twin seat, tachometer, buckhorn bars, and spoke wheels (vs single seat, speedometer only, low bars and cast wheels for the XLH883 standard model)
• XLH883 "Hugger", with reduced single seat height and reduced suspension, the precursor to the "XL low" models
• XL53C "Custom 53" (EU) XL883C "Custom" (US) '98 - '03 (53 cubic inches is approx 883cc), Forward-controls, duelseat, solid rear wheel and drag bars mounted on a riser. This became the XL883C "Custom" worldwide with the '04 rubbermount version
• XL883 "Sportster 883" single seat standard model, mid-controls, 13 spoke mags or wires
• XL883C "Custom" has wider, flatter "custom" tank, forward-controls, duelseat and 21" wire and 16" solid disc wheels
• XL1200C "Custom" Frame mount models had a chunkier duelseat and normal tank, rubber mounts get smoother seat and flatter wider "custom" tank, all have 21" wire and 16" slotted disc wheels and forward-controls
• XL883L "Low"; Single seat, very low shocks, mid-controls, 13 spoke mags or wires
• XL1200L "Low"; Dualseat, mid shox, mid-controls, wider flatter "Custom" tank, 13 spoke mags or wires
• XL1200S "Sport" – this Sportster has adjustable suspension with piggyback shox, dual disc front brakes, hotter cams and 13 spoke mags, later models get dual plug cylinder heads with single fire ignition
• XL883R "Roadster" Frame mount models have a 2-1 exhaust, 13 spoke mags, black engine and are available in orange with 'R' grapics, rubber mounts get 2-2 exhaust, slightly different dualseat, wire wheel option and more 'R' colors, all have triple discs and rev-counter. In 2010 the XL883R officially gets the "Roadster" suffix
• XL1200R "Roadster" Black engine with highlighted fins, triple discs, rev-counter, orange paint available but no 'R' graphics and '08 models get the wider flatter "custom" tank which distance it further from the 883R
• XL50 1200 "50th Anniversary" 2007 limited production of 2,000 models
• XL1200N "Nightster" first of the Dark Customs, combined LED tail/brake/indicator lights, 13'5" shox, and tapered silencers (EU) and side mounted LED lit licence plate, 11" shox, and baloney cut silencers (US), mid-controls and wire wheels
• XL883N "Iron 883", blacked out 883 similar to the Nightster with more black and 13 spoke mags, mid-cotrols.
• XR1200 More sports orientated "Euro" style bike, upside down forks, reworked sportster engine, new chassis, four-pot double discs, 120/70-18 and 180/55-17 split 3 spoke mags, rear-controls - has its own race series
• XL1200X "Forty-Eight", in the "Dark" Nightster style but has the classic '48 style small peanut tank, wire wheels, forward-controls, a whole new 130mm front tire, and super small single seat
• XR1200X Blacked out XR1200 with piggyback shox
• XL883L "SuperLow", new for 2011 has black split 5-spoke mags with polished rims and 120/70-18 and 150/60-17 tires, wider flatter "Custom" tank, mid-controls
• XL1200C "1200 Custom" As of 2011 has a 130/90B16 front tyre, wide front end, 5-spoke mags (UK gets wires), new shape eyebrow, wider flatter "Custom" tank and introduces "H-D1"...where you can either buy the standard bike or create one from thousands of parts, bars, paint, wheels etc. and H-D make it for you.