83 EVO FLHT questions

kiwidave said:
Nice bike. But are you sure that's not a 1984 FLHT? There were NO Evolution-powered H-Ds for sale in the 1983 model year.

From August 1983, the new Evos were on sale in the USA, and a bit later elsewhere in the world. But those were 1984 model year bikes.

The VIN will tell all.......
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A lot of people have said the same, I’m new to Harley’s so I’m learning. The chassis is 1hd1ddk1xdy500808 if you can shed some light. 👍🏻
 
Correct, it is a 1983... but look again. The 7th item in the VIN is ''K''. That is Shovelhead 1340.

Somebody has swapped out the engine. No harm done - the Evo is a better motor, of course!

I never knew that the Evo could fit into an FLT frame (the FLHT, despite the first three letters of its designation, is not a classic 4spd FLH, it is one of the new 5spd tourers)....maybe a previous owner had to do some clearance work or maybe the Shovel FLT frame had a bit more room than the FX frame did. Remembering that when the factory produced a small run of 4spd Evos in an FX frame, it had to modify the frame to fit the taller new motor.

Anyway, mystery solved. ;-)
 
kiwidave said:
Correct, it is a 1983... but look again. The 7th item in the VIN is ''K''. That is Shovelhead 1340.

Somebody has swapped out the engine. No harm done - the Evo is a better motor, of course!
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If that's the case the engine number will not match the chassis number, so you may want to identify the year of the motor too!
 
kiwidave said:
Correct, it is a 1983... but look again. The 7th item in the VIN is ''K''. That is Shovelhead 1340.

Somebody has swapped out the engine. No harm done - the Evo is a better motor, of course!

I never knew that the Evo could fit into an FLT frame (the FLHT, despite the first three letters of its designation, is not a classic 4spd FLH, it is one of the new 5spd tourers)....maybe a previous owner had to do some clearance work or maybe the Shovel FLT frame had a bit more room than the FX frame did. Remembering that when the factory produced a small run of 4spd Evos in an FX frame, it had to modify the frame to fit the taller new motor.

Anyway, mystery solved. ;-)
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Yep Mystery solved re-frame, looked up the part Numbers for and 83 FL rubber mount frame fitted with a Shovel, the same as an 84 fitted with an EVO and still the same in 86 ! 47900-83D
 
Deanokidd said:
I’m slightly confused but cheers guys 😂

My engine number is BKLH501756
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If the VIN decoder page I have bookmarked is correct... :)

You have a 1983 FLHT Electra Glide Classic, that was originally fitted with the 80 cubic inch Shovelhead engine, but now has an 80ci Evolution engine from a 1987 FXST Softail Custom.
 
Cheers mate that’s great to know, as I filled with fuel and set off for an MOT rode for ten minutes big back fire now it’s popping back and misfiring so I need to get that sorted.
IMG_7114.jpeg
 
I got the Harley back together, I rebuilt the carb. Drained the tank and checked it,it’s clean and rust free. I repositioned the coil under the seat and built a completely new loom for it the ports for the HT leads where corroded too so I cleaned them out. New HT leads and plugs, she’s running fine and idling fine so I just need to run it up to temperature tomorrow and set the carb up. Sounds promising though.
 
Deanokidd said:
Parts seem a little sparse though 🤔
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The problem you've got is it's a 40 year old bike, and you wouldn't expect HD to keep new parts, particularly stuff like that, any more than you'd expect Ford to still be stocking Cortina bits. Doesn't help that it was produced at the changeover between Shovel and Evo and there were a lot of short production runs in that period. I had a 1992 FLHS and it was a very good bike.

What you need is a factory parts manual, and Google. Searching parts by the correct H-D part number is the easiest way to track them down.
 
So went for a ride got her up to temperature to make final carb adjustments and all is well maybe a small tweak here and there.

Took for an MOT and it’s failed on rear shocks leaking, it has air suspension on the back. My question is does anyone know a good place in the UK to rebuild them or buy replacements or should I stick standard shocks on?
 
depends on if you want to stay original or not loads in here use hagons or ikon and progressive just depends on budget the aftermarket has loads of options you can rebuild yours but just as easy to find a low mileage take off on flea bay for a roadking as the big glides have different damping rates to the lighter glides (y)
The important measurement is the eye to eye length as it varied from year to year
 
The air shocks are rebuildable, I think Goldwings are the same.
Overall length is the deciding factor as mentioned by Watchman.
I have a pair that I assume are still good, the original P/n is 54532-83 I think, the ones I have are 54662-00
I would need to dig them out to check the length, but if they are any good to you?
IMG_0518.jpg
 
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