I Bought a New Old Harley Motorcycle, Its got Problems

if you're not wrenching on the side of

the road your Harley-Davidson I don't

know if it's really a Harley-Davidson a

few months ago I bought a brand new 1978

Harley-Davidson with zero miles and

after doing a few things to it we got it

to run but then the Dark Side of buying

a 45-year-old new motorcycle out of the

crate started to show its head the bike

had some very interesting issues because

it sat for so long but my mechanic no no

my super Mechanic Dave from Tennessee

was able to get them all fixed not only

will I be riding this bike for the first

time

but we're also going to put it on the

dyo to see if AMF Harley-Davidson was

lying to us when they said that this was

going to be the most powerful Sportster

of my lifetime then we're going to add

up the purchase price plus all the cost

of repairs I had to put into it and see

if this was a financially awful decision

or the second coolest thing you could

possibly do second coolest behind

whatever John mik is doing right now and

we're going to see if this actually

works oh god oh it's awesome let's go

see this bike so I jumped in the clous

come on

clouse pressed the button and then

pretended to leave without my camera guy

so you can see what that looks like Q

5sec

[Applause]

[Music]

Montage this might be the six maybe

fifth 40 something year old motorcycle

that I bought in a box and this Harley

started up pretty easily it wasn't that

bad started up pretty well and it idled

instantly which was very impressive but

this one had some unique problems that I

didn't foresee having I didn't know that

was a thing but I think part of the

issue was these things were never made

to sit they were never made to sit and

be inside of a a crate for 45 years then

we rode up to crusty grunt Cycles to see

my friend

[Music]

Dave there it is what's up Dave oh

what's up Sean how you doing man just

giving her a good wipe down before what

you got here good to see it man you too

man what do you think looks great that's

a good looking bike she runs great too

really yeah so one what was wrong with

it so a couple of things uh the inside

of the tank even though it had no gas

the moisture had eating away a lot of

the liner and stuff like that and

exposed the bare metal inside there and

it was starting to rust so we went ahead

and eted the inside of the tank and we

Reign the inside of the tank we replaced

the fuel line as well as petcock when we

pulled the the air cover off the air

filter it just crumbled in our hands

charged the battery up the original

battery that's the original battery

that's the original battery I changed

the fluids uh flush the brakes and then

once that all got done we pulled the

primary cover off and we realized that

the the clutch Hub had excessive play

side to side movement went ahead and

tore that down replaced that we also

found that the uh steel plates were all

warped uh so we went ahead and ordered a

a clutch set from DP brakes you think

they were warped from the beginning

because this is AMF it's very possible

it could have come from the factory

warped these things were known for you

having to learn how to hit neutral

before you came to the stop sign right I

would say that it was probably they were

probably warped from the factory okay

when this bike came out it claimed 55

horsepower I don't know about all that I

don't know about that we're going to

find that out we're going to find that

out 55 horsepower is a lot of horsepower

you know for back back then for these

old bikes yeah heck yeah oh we changed

the tires too tires were dry rotted well

cool let's um let's fire it

up that sounds awesome side note I want

to ride the motorcycle that requires

this brake right here what motorcycle

needs this and I want I want to ride it

that's for later on today I got to do

brakes on the truck all right did you

ride it yeah how's it run great man I've

done 5 1/2 miles on all right all right

I'm going to take it for a spin I can't

wait to ride it let's get her backed out

man so before I take this bike for a

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beards let's take this thing for a spin

[Music]

getting a chance to ride this time piece

was aw awesome I was also calmed into to

Dave who was driving the camera guy in

front of me I do this so let me and the

driver both know exactly what's going on

for everyone's safety but also mainly

for my safety so I don't get run over

and for extra benefit Dave got to fil me

in on his thoughts of this bike so don't

get scared when randomly Dave's voice

kind of Pops in

here oh man this feels

great this bike is 45 years old so if

you bought this bike when you were 18

you'd be what

63 that's incredible

ible so to compare this to a modern day

Harley the cable clutch is significantly

harder these are buckhorn handlebars

they're kind of a little uncomfortable I

thought I'd like them better but you're

supposed to grip them less like a hammer

and more like a screwdriver the braking

is pretty awful on the line of dangerous

Harley's never been known for great

breaks that's for D sure yep people say

sport Serv are for girls this sport ster

is not because I'm a pretty strong guy I

got pretty strong hand strength some

would say I've got the hand strength of

10 men and this is tough this clutch is

not easy it's a man's clutch it's a

man's clutch either that or she's a hell

of an iron

worker you got a big old hand it's

almost like they designed this lever to

take away any leverage that you may have

had well those things were designed

originally to compete against the

European market you know the bsas the

Nortons the Triumph those are smaller

framed bikes man they're not big

Harley's absolutely now you got to learn

how to ride the bike before you have to

deal with a heavy bike I call it

motorcycle balance once you have it ride

the biggest thing you can

find and then after getting back from an

amazing ride on an amazing day we had a

slate

problem hey Dave we're leing a little

bit hey Dave did the float Bowl get

stuck on you when you were driving it uh

no did it just get stuck yeah it's fine

when I was riding but then when I pulled

over so ended up not being a big deal

and it was what I suspected it was you

wouldn't really have the whole

experience with an old Harley if you

weren't wrenching on it a little bit

right even even though it's a brand new

the float got stuck down causing the

fuel to run out of the Overflow tube

this is kind of normal Harley-Davidson

stuff if you're not wrenching on the

side of the road you're Harley-Davidson

I don't know if it's really a

Harley-Davidson we jiggled it a little

bit and put it back together and then I

was ready to find out what my bill was

for all the work that Dave did I paid

15,500 $ for that bike all the work that

Dave did let's go see what I have total

so here's the two invoices we got for

you the first one that's that's mainly

all the service stuff your grand total

of1 18584 after tax and then for the

clutch plates in the primary gasket you

were at 12190 so pretty much 2,000 bucks

to get this thing Road worthy that means

I got 17500 in this bike still not that

bad but the next biggest question is

does that thing make as much power as

they told us it did let's go to the dyno

and find out and now it's time to see if

AMF Harley was telling us the truth

about how much power this bike really

made so I love Dino day although it's

generally disappointing it was

disappointing with the Orange County

Chopper bike it was disappointing with

Craig's TR Turbo Bike however it was not

disappointing with my Turbo Road King

that made an incredible amount of power

I don't know what's your guess throw in

the comment comments they claim 55

horsepower on this thing and it was

supposed to be it said on the ad in

1978 this is the most powerful sportser

of your lifetime let's go see what this

thing lays down all right so we're over

here at M&M Machine Shop in Columbia

Tennessee this is Jim we just got done

putting air on the tire and we're going

to put on the dno and see what kind of

power it makes you have a guess they

claim 55 horsepower at the wheel

probably that that's probably going to

be about right even if really

yeah so a lot of times when you put your

bike on for a dyo run the place will

make you sign a waiver in case it blows

the engine up because that happens you

know you're P you're pushing it as hard

as it can go no different than you just

you know go into red line on the street

but for whatever reason sometimes they

blow up on dinos it's rare but they

don't want to be liable for it can this

do 300 horsepower 250 250 so what he's

doing now is he's connecting some wires

so we can see the RPMs now we have 19

mil on this bike what are the chances

that it blows up we'll figure it out and

all this fun motorcycling reminds me of

one of my favorite Bible verses Proverbs

35-6 trust in the Lord with all your

heart and lean not on your own

understanding in all your ways

acknowledge Him and He will make your

path straight making sure the bike's off

warmed up getting in the proper gear

that it needs to

be and then whenever he's got the the

computer dial in he's going to floor it

and we're going to get some

numbers and just about the time we were

finished with the dyno we were visited

by a very special friend

[Music]

so 44 horsepower 42 foot PB of torque

that feels right to me we're riding the

bike somewhere between 10 and 15% loss

of like through from the engine to the

powertrain a lot of times when they give

you a a number they give the highest

number that's to the to the crank you're

going to lose some through the chain

through the wheels and all that stuff so

I'm not a math wizard but I I think this

a little more than the the the normal

percentage drop so I think they may have

been overestimating the power on the

bike well we can tell too the bike needs

to be tuned up okay and just having your

tire pressure down 7 or eight lbs can

can change your horsepower reading four

five horsepower wow so it's it's pretty

sensitive so then maybe it is maybe it's

a little closer than I thought maybe it

is pretty close to that 55 but they

claimed that this was the most powerful

Sports of my lifetime now this magazine

article was written before I was alive

but I got another sportser that I think

actually is the most powerful sportser

of my lifetime let's go bring it out so

I backed off the 78 and then brought in

the big guns this is the Sportster s and

Harley-Davidson claims that this thing

is sitting at 120 horsepower and up

until recently this would have been the

most powerful motorcycle hardly ever

made other than the pan Amica and other

than their new CVO bikes you might

remember this bike this sherf 2.0 this

is the bike that Craig tried to trick me

with when his tri-turbo sherf bike made

like 30 horsepower and my nitrous

powered sherf bike made 100 30 something

so AMF Harley was actually pretty close

not that far off and they were fairly

honest of the horsepower on this let's

see how new Harley-Davidson is as far as

I know I've never seen a video of anyone

putting one of these on the dyno to

really test it out and this is a

completely stock

bike and that's when the problem started

I was so excited to see what this bike

would make in terms of horsepower that I

didn't even stop to see if it even

worked because like every Facebook

Marketplace ad I've ever read says it

ran when I parked it I got to be honest

with you I'm really hoping this thing

run cuz I haven't heard it run in like

maybe a year so cross your fingers so I

put a battery jump box on it assuming

that the reason it was unresponsive is

because a dead battery but that did not

help but when we put a multimeter up to

the battery it read 12.8 volts which

should be enough to turn on the gauges

but still nothing completely

unresponsive so then I resorted to

calling a Harley-Davidson dealership to

see if there was a master fuse and good

news for us there was and he told me

exactly where it was but death fuse was

not bad so now we're back to square one

after messing with this thing for about

an hour we still had nothing I guess

we're not getting this thing to run or

make any dyo power all right well guess

we'll get this thing off of here I guess

that is the uh most powerful Harley of

my lifetime I going to make zero

horsepower so the AMF Harley beat out

the new Harley in raw horsepower I don't

know how that happened or what's wrong

with that one but in the past couple

months I sold off all my trailers except

for my big flat bed trailer uh trailer

Swift because I have one getting built

for me in Indiana I'm told it's like the

coolest trailer I've ever seen and I

can't wait to see it so they told me

it's ready let's go get it all right so

me and my buddy Brock we made it to

where

Indiana somewhere Indiana we an ATC

trailer they built a

trailer for bikes and beards and uh

we're going to go see it Brock's going

to be the uh the camera guy I'm the

camera guy yeah I I forgot to tell you

but you're the camera guy now let's go

find this uh trailer it should be pretty

cool like should be I'm pretty they sent

me a couple pictures of it I've never

seen a trailer like this before I can't

wait let's go see it I'm excited should

we just walk in like whatever door so

ATC if you don't know stands for

aluminum trailer company or as the Brits

say aluminium

aluminium I don't know where to go hey I

don't know where to go I'm looking for a

man is there a boss man around here

where's the front at be all way the

building can we walk through the

building I can walk all right yeah my

next trailer needs to be that so we went

to the wrong building so after going to

the wrong building we finally made it to

the right building where we met with

Jeff but before we saw my trailer I

convinced him to show me how the

trailers were made and I got to say it

was pretty impressive the facility was

huge I mean just ginormous and it was

extremely clean the first station we

stopped at was the cut line This is

where they cut all the pieces to build

each trailer each cart sitting here is

an entire trailer then we went to the

welding line where everything gets

welded by these ginormous hanging

welders and remember never look at the

welding Arc or the welder himself in his

eyes or his hair never then we went to

the floor line where they put in the

floors each line has around 80 minutes

to finish the job before it's sent to

the next one then the interior and

exterior walls got installed and this

could be either metal or wood well the

exterior is always metal after that they

did the most important part which is the

one piece metal roof which is one of the

reasons why these trailers last so long

and then it was time for me to see my

trailer specifically designed for

transporting motorcycles and Motorcycle

Accessories is it in the lunchroom yeah

wow there it is right there all right

this is a b-roll moment let's get that

[Music]

b-roll you got to make noises with your

mouth when you're doing b-roll stuff

like epic noises like

[Music]

like some people know it's

epic so this is awesome this looks great

the reason I'm I decided to go with

aluminum yeah cuz I I buy these new

trailers and this this part of it looks

all nice when I first get it within 6

months it's all rusted out it looks it

looks like it looks like it's like it's

like 20-year-old trailer yeah aluminum

it'll look like that forever yeah what's

great about aluminum is it'll it'll o

oiz but it only oxidizes at the very

beginning level and so once you it

oxidizes it gets a little bit of a Milky

finish which it already has and it looks

that way but then it doesn't continue to

regenerate and destroy the metal like it

does in steel right this looks great

what do they call this this is like

seamless it's a 3M tape it's our

screwless uh application yeah yeah so

yeah it actually has a special 3M tape

they use it on a bunch of aircraft type

applications we've been using it for 20

some odd years it's very well well

proven yeah that's awesome mhm gives a

nice clean look especially doing

Graphics or something like that here's

something you got these you got these

uh these Jacks if you've ever been in

the situation where you need those you

know what I'm talking about where it's

not connected to the truck you're

loading something up that's heavy and

the whole trailer tilts up that's what

those Jacks Are Awesome

for Let's uh let's do it let's pop it

open

that's not bad that's that's pretty cool

this is a new line you were telling me

about well what's what's unique about

this this is our stove 450 and what's

really unique about this is that we have

this track system that goes up at the

top and we have a track system that goes

down here at the bottom and so what's

really incredible about this is all of

the components every single one of these

components in this trailer integrat into

this track system and so if you decide

you want to have the sofa at a different

spot or if you decide you know I'd

rather have this cabinet to flip you

know horizontal you can or you know I'd

rather have this cabinet up over here

all of it's configurable and so

depending on how you're going to use it

for that weekend or that Adventure you

can configure it however you

want and then this is how it is in the

bed position you'd want to have these uh

extra legs down okay but when you went

the couch position this will roll all

over and now you've got a nice place to

sit down relax you're on a dirt bike

trip you're on a road trip something got

a little cup holder for you up here yo

that's not

bad that's pretty nice this is awesome

this is pretty cool so all all these

things that you you want to bring with

you on your trailer they're always

rolling around hitting stuff banging in

and stuff driving you

nuts just they have a there's a spot

built in for it you know and and the

these are all interchangeable if if you

if you you can get when when you buy the

trailer you get one later you can you

guys are still making new stuff oh yeah

yeah yeah you know you still making new

stuff so later something cool comes out

oh me get that thing yeah you're exactly

right because you know if you'd buy just

a regular trailer that has like no

components in it you can build it up to

this trailer just give it time whenever

you whenever you want to add components

to it some modular what's going on here

so this is an in floor compartment uh

you had mentioned you wanted some extra

storage space whether you put your

straps in there whatever it is that's

the coolest thing smuggling

stuff I've had people put can you step

in there yeah it's it's about the size

of a crib yeah I've had people actually

um put a little drain hole in it and you

can put beer in there you can put ice in

there you can whatever you want anyway

some people have made that into a little

cooler as well and then this up here is

where your electrical um components are

integrated so you've got your 30 amp

service um and as I mentioned up there

at the front this has a converter in it

as well so every time you're plugged

into 110 like we are right now it's

actually charging your battery and

you're running your 12vt lights right

now off of the 110 power all right and

these are all LED lights yeah LED lights

which look really really nice got some

oh look at that yeah do do you yeah pop

that one more

time and this is like your radio

and USB you've got two interior speakers

and then two exterior speakers it can

switch just play on all of them at the

same time or you can switch them yeah I

got to see this open up

we've all been in situations you're in

the trailer you're fixing something

you're doing something you're moving

something it's a hot day outside you

were you're you're begging for a breeze

to come through this is this is and it

doubles as an awning yeah and then on

top of it let's go look at the other

side there you go there's LED lights up

there that's so cool

yep so you've got a step here that'll go

ahead and go in so it's not going to

flop out no so the step it actually

works off of a gas shock so there's a

gas shock that holds it out and then

when you're done you can just push it in

and now the gas shock holds it in so you

don't have any Clips or anything like

that for

awesome and you want to put the awning

out here then yeah there's a button in

here yeah it's got an extend and retract

button here

there you can have it halfway out uhhuh

yeah you could stop it anywhere along

there and you can change the pitch of it

too if you want yeah and then that

little wheel is so it doesn't scratch up

the scrip the the awning pitch is down

it has a roller instead of a ripper oh

and this has its own gas shock too yeah

it keeps it open and keeps it

closed got exterior Outlets there power

ports yep and then the stuff like the uh

like that table Yeah the table that can

be pulled out here that can be because

of the length yours is a 7 and 1/2 wide

by 14 so it's a relatively short trailer

still there's only so much space um out

here but the table fits here but what's

great is we're developing more and more

components as you mentioned so in time

you'll have a bunch of different options

this table right here um it's a full

down table so when you're ready to use

it it just locks up in their place and

then it's it's a pretty strong table and

then you've got your helmet rack up here

room for a couple

helmets got room for more hanging rod

stuff this is for your straps so you can

go ahead and put your straps up here it

gives you an organized place to put it

so you your your buckles aren't bashing

and scraping this the whole time and you

have a charger up here yeah it's a USB

charger there's an exterior light over

here um in addition to the awning light

okay oh I it you also have a separate

light back here for your spoiler

lights so spoiler lights yeah so

everyone knows I got a spoiler loading

at night and so forth you can go ahead

and have some nice illumination back

here on your ramp that's so cool and I I

love this the the tires just out of the

way yeah it's not getting all rusted and

yeah beat up and stuff like that that's

so cool yeah you do have the 135 BTU

with heat strip and it's the low profile

score for Shan nice score for Shan I got

heat This Is The Life track that we use

that goes up here and so what I want to

do is include two of these so you can

put them in your shop back at home oh

cool and then if you ever decide you