Just looking for a little advice here.
Tomorrow I am bringing home a 2005 1200 custom. It is for an elderly family friend that bought it new because he always wanted a Harley. The bike has only been ridden about 50-100 miles, all in the first year. He has since had a stroke and will probably never ride again, but he won't sell it.
He called me tonight and asked if I could get the bike running and tuned up for him. He also wants drag pipes put on it, though I have no idea why. But if that's what he wants it's fine with me.
I am used to working on my bikes, but not very familiar with sporty's and don't have a manual for them.
I have not seen this bike in years but here is my thoughts, let me know what I am missing.


Drain the gas
clean the gas filter.
clean the carb/jets (I'm assuming 05 sporty's where carb'd)
change oil
change tranny fluid
new battery
new plugs (needed??)
guessing tires may have dry rot but see no reason to replace them if he won't really ride it anyway.
If the tires aren't in to bad of shape I will probably add some seafoam to it and take it out and run a tank of gas through it, then add some seafoam to the new tank before returning it.


any thoughts?
thanks

 

Yes your list looks good (carbed it is), and yes, new spark plugs are a must.

 

I've heard that before, only to find out someone talks them out of it with no consideration of you.

close to Dayton and looking for the old man !!!

 

check the brake fluid as well , it breaks down and will prob need to be changed

 

that's nuts, bike sat for 9 years and was never started?


would it be good to fog the motor before starting? I guess just spray some liquid wrench though the spark plug holes before starting. IS there a way you can turn the motor with a wrench to try & lube it a bit?


should be interesting.

 

Oil films out of the weather can last a really long time; engines have sat for decades and still turned over fine. But it might not be a bad idea to pull the plugs, put a little squirt of engine oil in the cylinders and use the starter to spin it a few seconds with the plugs still out. Liquid Wrench would be an awfully thin oil to lube cylinders. A dry cylinder will let you know with squealing or scraping sounds; about the only way it would get that way would be to massively flood the engine, and I've seen/heard that done. Then you squirt in a lot of oil...

I'd say the OP has it covered pretty well. I wouldn't go very fast on a 9 year old skinny 21" tire with a tube in it, like that 05 1200C has. If you do get new tires, get a new front tube, too. The rear tire should be tubeless on a cast wheel. If you do end up putting drag pipes on it, you'll need to drill out the plug covering the carb mixture screw, and the easiest way to get it running somewhat decent is to go up a size on the low speed jet and tweak the mixture screw. Unless someone's doing a lot of wide open throttle, the high speed jet won't be noticeable, and your low end and mid range grunt with drag pipes will be less, even with the re-jetting, it'll just make more noise.

 

thanks for the advice.
Brought the bike home today. I didn't realize it had been sitting in a barn uncovered for the last 9 years.
I have never fogged a motor before, how do you do that? I did pour a little 20w50 in the cylinders
aired up the tires
drained the varnish/gas out of the tank
gave it a bath
had a few beers so I just cleaned a little on it for the rest of the night.
hooked it up to the charger to see what the millage was... 116 miles

 

Wow...what a shame to let it waste away for so long. Hope your tlc trick works.

 

That is bananas... I thought mine was bad being a 2011 with 250 miles. The list is good OP as well as what the others have added. The only other comment/concern I would have (assuming this thing gets back to riding condition) would possibly be a new belt. I'm not sure how it would be holding up, but assuming it hasn't moved in 9 years, I'd change it out as well if it were me. That is just a shame to look at. Best of luck with it!

 

that is nuts, I think the rust means the chrome is ruined. amazing how my 06 with 18,000 miles & stored outside can look new while that one with 116 miles looks like that.


fogging the motor is just spraying some lubricant though the spark plug holes, people do it before storage to prevent the cylinders from rusting, the idea is to coat all the surface, supposedly they make stuff to do it,


do us a favor and take video of the bike first start-up, should be interesting for sure. I wonder if it will even run with out the carb being rebuilt.