Outer Cam Cover Overview. 1979 AMF Harley-Davidson Ironhead Sportster

[@palehorse6393]

Watching the care and time that you put into your ironhead is the most American thing I ever seen a non American do. I had a 1978 with a wide glide front end and miss hearing it come to life after wrenching on it. Love the videos btw

[@ImminghamIronhead]

There's a poster in my front room of Elvis playing guitar in his GI uniform; it's the most American thing I've ever seen 🙂

[@HenryMawcat]

Hi from Cumbria. Recently bought an 81 from the chap in Telford who imports them. Where do you get your parts from? thinking engine spares really. The bike is in truth a bit of a nail with a noisy valve train and other problems. Enjoying the challenge and guessing its history is great fun cheers

[@ImminghamIronhead]

Hogparts and eBay are my go-to sites; always check the part will fit a 79-81 model and you should be fine. Some new parts are less than perfect, but can generally be made to fit and work.

[@MoeLarrycurly1]

☺️☺️🏍️

[@FourIntoOne]

The reed valve is a one way valve, to let blowby out, but no atmosphere in. Normally this outlet is either directed to the floor (early bikes) or has a connection to the back of the air filter housing on later bikes to allow blow by to go into the engine for burning (EPA stuff) This is the outlet that is notorious for dripping oil from either the filter housing or the pipe to the floor and is often modified to be redirected high up under the tank, or elsewhere with a mini K&N style filter. The line to the back of the oil tank is the one which facilitates vacuum in the system - as the oil pump delivers oil to the engine from the oil tank it forms a closed loop with the tank/crankcase. Ideally when the engine is running you should feel a slight vacuum/pull on the oil tank cap as you hold it near to the opening. (Im guessing you prob know all that any way lol)

[@ImminghamIronhead]

As it turns out my reed had bent back so far it was blocking the breather and causing the fine mist from the front cases (my rear one to the oil tank doesn't breathe unless I remove the filler cap - very strange). The reed housing (press fit? Screw thread? Who knows) would not undo no matter what I tried, but in the process the reed snapped off. Problem solved, in my opinion.

[@dakotadutton9722]

I got a question!! I was just handed down a 1981 sportster 1000 and I wanted to get new cover for that side so the shine is nice, but my question is do I need to take off the points and swap over all of those bearings as well I have no idea about this stuff yet I’m learning as I go ??

[@ImminghamIronhead]

Yep, the points, backplate, advance/retard all come out. On removing the cover the cams will get disturbed and may need lining up to their timing marks again, which is how we learn 🙂 PS: Cam shims only exist to make cams quieter; they are fiddly and you can absolutely do without them.

[@stephengibbs4372]

@@ImminghamIronhead also cams are colour coded (paint marks) this denotes the gear outside diameter because they run in bushes if you use different colour ones they whine or bind.

[@ImminghamIronhead]

@@stephengibbs4372 I remember reading about that, but all the paint had come off mine 😞

[@MegaTroyhamilton]

that on the front tube is called a woohoo valve over here, no idea why.

[@ImminghamIronhead]

It's a good name. Mine's bent back so far it's blocking the tube; think I see the trouble there.

[@stephengibbs4372]

Run the breather into a catch bottle then from bottle to either air cleaner or better still atmosphere so the bottle catches any oil. Maybe needs new rings? If it’s breathing to much.

[@ImminghamIronhead]

@@stephengibbs4372 got it sorted now; front breather to air filter, rear to oil tank with a breather to atmosphere from a T connector. This sucked in moisture at first (very humid in England) and introduced streaks of emulsified oil to the tank, but putting a loop in it fixed that.