The Trouble I've Seen (with my 1985 Ironhead)
Vložit
- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- Here I show you what has been going on with the Ironhead and what I've done so far to try to fix it.
List of all repairs so far with no results:
Rewire Headlamp
Rewire Rear Fender lights
New rear Turn-signal housings
New Coil
New Ignition Switch
All 6 New Breakers
New Battery
Cleaned inside of Fuel Tank
Next up...cleaning/rebuilding Carborator... Stay tuned!
It's the ignition module or the cam plate with the pickup on it ! When they get old they kill the motor untill finally they won't even start ! Put a dyna 2000 ignition & coil switch it on single fire & you will love it !
I was given an 85 ironhead when I was 14 years old, never had any interest in it until I was 21. So it sat for 7 years probably longer...put a new battery on it, rebuilt the carb, put a new tank liner in, and it runs perfect.
If the carb rebuild doesn't fix it,and I don't think it will,replace the ignition module. Faulty ones will just quit when they get hot,then start working again for awhile when they cool off. It's not as common with HD,but it does happen.Happened to my '84 Ironhead. Early Honda modules were notorious for it. The pick up coil(not to be confused with the ignition coil)can cause the same symptom,but I'd start with the module. Good luck
Fuel tank breather could cause this, if a vacuum is building in the tank then it’ll starve the motor of fuel once a sufficient amount of vac has built up and cause it to cut out.
what i was thinking too.
I feel your pain. I got my '79 Ironhead as a project and the tank was as bad as yours, so that was fixed before it hit the road. Once on the road, however, I had the starter clutch, regulator and starter motor fail independently and within the first six months. Someone once told me if you have an Ironhead you're never short of content.
I fought a 74 iron head for 6 years went to 3 different good shops finally found old grey beard in an old one bay garage in Vernal UT. He charged me 600 2 prime kicks and it starts next kick every time. He taught me more in 3 hours then every magazine I've read for 6 years. It's all basic stuff and not one thing but a combination of things. Another expert is Tutor machine nice guy has great videos. A shop installed a Mikuni carb which is good but he rejetted with smaller they tend to over fuel and build carbon on valves. Told me put a cap of marvel mystery oil in every tank. He took out electronic ign and went back to points. I opted to leave my straight pipes on but it would run better with some back pressure. I have newer bike but still take it out once a month. It's black and chrome and very fast and loud.I take it to Sturgis every other year, it will be there
I had a similar problem with my pan chop. Turned out to be the gas cap. It wasn't venting properly so it slowly starved for gas.
That's what I was going to say.....I've got a 78 Ironhead that does the same thing
Look at your primary coil. It generates the signal for your coil above your front cylinder head to fire the plugs. I've seen it many times in electronic ignition. It's inside the small cove that is located on your cam cover on right side of engine case. Very easy to replace and pretty cheap
Had a similar problem 84 ironhead drove me nuts. Ended up being the ignition module.
regretfully old Harleys require wrenching ,if not sooner then later.You always have to keep up with them.Ironheads will turn you into a mechanic if you stick with them.They are simple and fun machines.
I feel your pain. I have an 85. I am chasing a clatter in the top end. Brand new pistons and rings, new bore. Had a valve stick open, what a racket and no power. It fixed itself a mile down the road. Now I am going to readjust the pushrods and see what happens. If nothing improves I am pulling the rocker boxes
You have an egg shape in your rocker arm from a push rod that wasn't adjusted right. I had that when I bought a 72 sporty. It's why the guy sold it. A sportster can have the push rods adjusted once a month if you ride a lot.
- fuel
- spark
- air
Always the first thing to check for. My immediate thoughts were,
1) A electrical component is warming up or
2) Fuel not getting ro carb, when bioe sits it seeps down filling up the float bowl. Bike runs for 15 minutes +/- and uses up tye fuel in bowl.
Have you tried relocating the fuel line. It could be a vapor lock in the fuel line from being much to close to the heat of the engine.
AH welcome to the life of an Ironhead owner!
No it may sound stupid but I've built two custom Sportsters first thing you want to check if that happens and it dies take your gas cap off and try to start it you'll be surprised if the vet goes bad on the gas cap you can ride for a few miles then it creates a vacuum and you won't get it started again until you unloosen the cap
Same issue with a 75 ironhead, new spark plugs, points & condenser, ultrasonic cleaned the carb with rebuild kit fitted to it and the problem still exists
throwing parts at it never works.work the problem an old harley mechanic taught me many years ago,good luck!!!!!!!!!!!
Get your self a new coil. If it still has points check the capacitor / condenser.
replace electronic ignition
I would definitely start by getting a new coil
My 85 Ironhead has been down almost a yr now;float in the carb stuck with being original HD. Shorty E carb works great. 52 bucks
Did that fix it ..
Does yours have the little helper spring in it ..??
I had an s10 as a kid that had a 350 put in it. It would act flooded and after a bunch of dumb purchases it turned out being an over torqued carburetor that split, got hot and just dumped fuel.
id start with the tick, after valves then coil or cap on fuel tank
I would adjust the pushrods first, also. It sounds like, when the engine warms up. The heads and cylinders expand from the heat. Increasing your out of adjusted Pushrods. So the valves are opening less and less, as the engine gets cooler. Electrical components cool down, a lot quicker than Cast Iron. If it was an electric Ignition problem, I would think within 10 to 15 minutes it would restart. The metal takes longer to cool. Once it is cool, the tolerances become tighter, from the metal shrinking. Letting the Engine breath, once again.
i feel your pain. my 76' has similar hard to find problems
I had an exhaust valve stick. Talk about a scary sound. Had just done the top end. It fixed itself a mile down the road
when u run a fuel line horizontally it is far more suseptable to high temps than vertical
Jusssst for shits and giggles....look at the ground. A weak or loose ground cable will do some funky stuff. If your bike started back up and ran fine for a while, it' probably aint fuel. If it plugged up on crap in the float bowl, it isn't going to suddenly unplug and run well afterwards.OH hell, i just looked at the date this video was posted. He probably doesn't even have this bike anymore.
😎👍😎
So..9 yrs ago..what did you find out was the problem with it ..??
Hopfully you figured it out..
Most likely the ignition plate down where the points would normally go. They can quit when they heat up and run again when they cool off.
heat rises. factory line routing is low and between the cylinders.
Ur piston seized up , scorned. Did the same thing. Too hot , torn it down , piston looks bad.
After cleaning your carb if you still have the problem try changing the gas cap it may not be venting properly
Put your bike back together. Fix any stranded wires. Your coil is overheating. Go out and buy yourself a single fire ignition system
Put a S & S hi fire ignition on it install it single fire. I had similar problems with my bike. I put the new ignition on fixed several problems on my bike.
Well when it dies does it lose spark? If not it has to be fuel if it’s spark then it’s ignition
Dude carb is the first thing you check lmao
Damn that's ashame u was getting bad advice, but u live an learn brotha! From the get go I was taking to myself saying it was a gas feed situation. It looked like as it was running fine till it putt out an u showed the inline filter, it didn't have gas in it. So u finally figured what I would've started out wit, pulling out petcock. When u said u saw the cream liner broke down, I knew u was headed in right direction. Hopefully u cleaned the carb thoroughly begin meticulous all da nooks an cranys ie. jet passages all tiny air feed vents. You should be riding hard disturbing the Pease. Lets us know ur results. Good luck wit her brother!
You prob figured it out by now but If it was me I would just lose the filter all together. Coil is possible like others mentioned. XLforum is the best place to get info on these if you run into more head scratchers.
Fuel filter?
REPLACE MODUAL ....TRUST ME...
What did you find out to be your problem...???
You need 3 things to run fuel which you can test by putting youe hand over the carb and see if gas is present, spark which you can test by pulling a wire and grounding a plug wire with a screwdriver and watch for spark and compression which is not a come and go thing. its that simple ride it when it stops check it.
Get a factory service manual "HD Bible"it'll tell you everything you need to know👍✌️
Should be a easy find , when it dies check to see if it has fire. If so then its fuel related. Loosen the gas cap and run it to see if dies with it loose.
Nice bike and video. Sorry you're having problems. I own a '85 Ironhead as well as an early '84. I've done a lot of work on both and chased many an issue myself. Did you ever get yours fixed? When I first watched the video, I first suspected a fuel issue. Did cleaning the tank and carb fix the problem? If not, there may be another simple issue - the gas cap. If someone put on a non-vented gas cap, you could be having a vacuum build up inside the tank which wouldn't let fuel go to the carb. To check this, run the bike til it dies then remove the gas cap. If you hear a whoosh of air going into the tank, this means there is a vacuum in the tank and that's not good. After it dies, try leaving the cap off and starting the bike. If it starts, you know it's the cap that's the issue. I'd make sure to check this simple potential problem before spending any more time/money on replacing parts. Best of luck!
Do you the manual for your bike?
shit from fuel tank getting into the fuel system, same thing that was happening to my bike, i changed the tank, rebuilt the carb. ran some cleaner thru it. Has not done that shit again ..
during the rebuild of the carb, clean the jets and ports out really good.. once the fuel stops going thru the carb, that shit will build up in the ports for the jets and you will be back to the same bullshit again .. wondering what the hell, and you will be rebuilding the carb more than you want to . Note i rebuilt my carb 3 times, before i cleaned the posts and shit out inside the carb. and thats after the newer tank ..
Is it getting enough oil , the engine will shut down like that if they get to hot , maybe check your oil pump Maybe your motor is getting to hot ,
how does the oil look? mine makes the same sound
its the condenser in the points.
did you ever rebuild the carb
Dude I hope your not letting it sit there and idle!
Did mine for 15 minutes , it lock up and after cooling down for a long while , it finally started. Torn it down and found the piston scorned badly.
It sounded like junk in the tank 👊💨
If you are running the stock Kein carb get rid of it asap. I had tons of trouble from mine and even bought a new one and continued to have problems from it. Those things were originally designed for a 2 stroke snow mobile engine. They do get good gas mileage but after that they suck!! They are cheap junk! That is putting it nicely for community standards. They are actually much worse.
Why are you letting it run so long
needed to know how towire my generator wires go to
It's overheating
1st thing to do is fire your parts changer "mechanic" he is a hack. 1st thing to check when it dies spark 2nd fuel. Pull bowl plug capture gas in a pickle jar is it crapy or clean? Will it come to life off eather? ICE need 3 things air fuel and spark. If it runs 10 min it's got air fuel n spark if gas is good clean and spark goes away coil battery or bad ground or wiring.
Pickup coil
The carb is an easy fix
run fuel line low
fuel line too hot
start checking the cheap things first haha
get a factory service manual and stop guessing!!!!!!!
vapor lock
Throw the pieces in a box and get what you can for it before it drives you nuts and drains your wallet , these bikes are junk brand new .
Weak coil.
yup there are two types of caps , vented and invented. it's the gas cap. all you guys under 40, show the bikes, not your mug,