Urgent advice wanted on 97 evo

Hi all

Welcome to my first post.

I am looking at a 97 Road King tomorrow, 17000 miles, full HD history, stage one with a hypercharger.

In short are there any pitfalls with this bike or engine I should be aware of. This will be my first Harley, my current ride is a Triumph Daytona 1200, and I've grown up riding big mileages on Jap, Italian, and British machines so this is a long way out of my normal experience.

The bike will be used for work as well as pleasure so it needs to be able to rack up the miles with minimum fuss.

What fuel consumption can I expect.... so many questions!

Any help or advice gladly received.

Regards

David

[Strawhead]

Am not sure if it relates to tourers also but my 97 softail had issues with the starter motor clutch. i believe this was a problem had by quite a few bikes of this era, according to the Indy i was using at the time.

other than that and a propensity for eating batteries i have never had a problem at all (reason being long winter storage - so my fault really)

enjoy it and rack the (s)miles up
SH

[Moley]

When you say you plan to use a bike for work - do you mean full on commuting right through the winter

[kiwidave]

Sounds good. Last Evos are excellent.

Starter clutch failures are like leaky base gaskets and charging system faults - inevitable on Evos.

I take it from your ''stage one'' ref that it is a carb bike. Good - the late 90s fuel injection system was H-D's first and is reputedly inferior to that now being offered.

Hardly run in at that mileage.

It's gonna be a minter - but **YOU** wanna whistle through your teeth and drone on about how it is the old motor that no one wants now, it has a fiddly, messy carb instead of the splendid 21st century fuel injection, and it's almost ten years old so worth damn all. Get haggling

[Stuarty]

Originally Posted by kiwidave

Sounds good. Last Evos are excellent.

Starter clutch failures are like leaky base gaskets and charging system faults - inevitable on Evos.

I take it from your ''stage one'' ref that it is a carb bike. Good - the late 90s fuel injection system was H-D's first and is reputedly inferior to that now being offered.

Hardly run in at that mileage.

It's gonna be a minter - but **YOU** wanna whistle through your teeth and drone on about how it is the old motor that no one wants now, it has a fiddly, messy carb instead of the splendid 21st century fuel injection, and it's almost ten years old so worth damn all. Get haggling

Shameless, utterly shameless!!;) But so true!

Thanks for the input people, good useful stuff.

Starter clutch, base gaskets and charging systems? Are any of these ruinously expensive to fix?

When I said I will use it for work, I do some personal coaching work and if it's OK to good weather I will use the bike to beat the traffic. Looking out of the window at the snow and slush right now, the Daytona is staying tucked up tight in the morning. After 12 years in the London courier business, I choose not to get cold and wet unless I have to now

David

[kiwidave]

Let us know how you got on.

That stuff above is no big deal

Base gasket job is pricey at dealership...never paid to have it done but I am guessing £400? But a snip if you do it yourself. We can walk you through it if ever......

Voltage regulators go down regularly. They can be bought off ebay via USA or Europe for around £50...or maybe £120 at dealers if you are mad enough.

Starter clutch gear can also be £££££ to get fixed at the boutique but read the tech tips section............some car ones fit and are 20% of the H-D price

[michael_dinwiddy]

Brilliant bike.

Mine is just about to do its 50,000 miles...

Rode it hard (once it is properly warmed up), You will only blow base gaskets if you thrash it when its cold...charging systems problems are usually regulator failure.

I couriered a FLH (earlier evo roadking) in the late 80's

It was great.. easy to service.. no chain to adjust.. and good 150 miles a tankfull.... and best of all I couild walk upright after a days riding..

Argue about the price recon of starting at £7,500 and see how you go..

Let us know how you get on.

[snowflake]

Originally Posted by michael_dinwiddy

I couriered a FLH (earlier evo roadking) in the late 80's

It was great.. easy to service.. no chain to adjust.. and good 150 miles a tankfull.... and best of all I couild walk upright after a days riding..

What's happened since then - you look like a bag of old bones now!!!

[Phil]

97 is not a bad year for an Evo, it is in it`s last & final form, most of the problems sorted.
We did not establish if it was injected or not. Magnetti Marelli was a compromise set up, especially when compared to other brands of that year. Harley had become aware of that since it`s intoduction in mid 95, but was stuck with a contractural obligation. 97 had several improvements & (this may sound odd) but if it has not gone wrong by now it should be fine.
The Magnetti system is pretty much set up from the position of the Throttle Position Sensor, which is ajustable . In other words if the throttle position sensor position is spot on the system works quite well, it can get slightly off over a period of time. It is a good idea if you have this system to get it checked every so often. It is a simple job to a trained mechanic & can be done with a hand held scan tool.
Base gasket leaks are part & parcel of the Evo experience. Whether you have any will very much depend on how the bike was treated by its previous owner.
Starter clutches are acts of God (seriously), I have seen bikes go 100,000 miles without a problem, others go through a couple in 30,000.
Not sure about Voltage Regulators, to be honest I have not experienced too many (or over many) failures.
I would get a thorough service done by an EXPERT mechanic. Make sure that he:
1/ Checks the rubber mounts for wear & check/set the alinement of the chassis.
2/Make sure the clutch is properly set & adjusted, at the pressure plate as well as the cable. Correctly set the primary chain.
3/Correctly adjust the shifter pawl. A job often missed as it takes a special tool.
4/Change ALL the fluids, lube all cables & controls
5/Lube the Caliper sliders, check the brakes for correct operation.
6/As it has a stage one, clean the air filter.
7/Check for intake leaks.