harleyKmodel

A guy had a motor for sale at the Sunshine meet. He said it was a 1968 XLR motor. I didn't get a close up of the stamping. I know the number was 1012. He claimed it was #12 of 14 made in '68.

Does anyone know about this?

Thanks,
Chad

XLR or XLRTT?

There was no TT on the VIN pad. I should have taken a close up.

most likely not Lance Weil's if no TT but who knows? XLR stats and rumors are both unreliable

Hello all - tiny red flag going up here - I'm suggesting if it was a genuine 1968XLR engine it wouldn't be showing up at a swap meet - and the gent wouldn't be 'claiming' anything. He would have that baby front and centre showing it off as much as he could - just my 2 cents worth. I've seen too much 'he said' - 'they said' bullshit over the years. There needs to be unconditional proof and or providence before I believe anything to do with any motorcycle. Too many dishonest garage jockeys out there. Cheers Hayley.

Hi Haley,
He actually did have the motor on a stand out front. I only took a quick pic just in case. I bought some other early Sportster stuff from him, I just wasn't in the market for a motor. On the way home I began to wonder about "15" made. Now I see there is no real info so I wonder some more.

Obviously it's not that hard to whack an R on there but why do that unless there is something behind the notion to do so.

I'll call him and see if I can get a better picture and more information. It would be interesting to see what the title says.

after a few minutes of research, I see that the heads have thicker bosses for the spark plugs so that's a good sign.

Is it common or uncommon for the upper (tool box stud) boss in the left case to be undrilled?

Z

Thanks Zaemo - that looks more promising. Good find if it's the real deal. Vin pad and belly numbers will help determine authenticity. Pull the timing cover off and it should be a complete bearing motor - also I've only ever seen one pair of 'late' XLR heads in the flesh and they had a centre spark plug and the 'normal' spark plug position was still a cast boss. These heads may have been use on the 'iron maiden' XRs as well I think, not sure. Who knows what HD did and when in the race department through those years. The tin primary should have 9 screws and no indentation for a screw on the top middle of the cover (if you know what I mean). I've never seen a dual inlet manifold set up on one before. I think 69 was the last 'off the shelf' available XLR and I believe there were a hand full of engines produced in 1970 (vin starts 1C...), a few less in 71 and only 2 or 3 engines in 72. I'm not 100% sure on production numbers for 68 but 15 sounds low to me. It could be right though. And yes I have a set of NOS (no-trapdoor) un-numbered K model cases and tool box boss is still nude - but all the bosses around the primary side of the left case have been drilled and tapped to take a 10 screw tin primary cover. Go figure? Will be interesting to see if engine is genuine - a good thing if it is. Cheers Hayley.

From the pics the heads appear to have a raised plug boss which indicates XLR. There should be 10 primary screws (extra at just left of center) and the belly numbers should be two digit, not 768-###. XLRs were hand assembled and will have non year-specific belly numbers. They will be simply sequential, Theoretically if this was #12 the belly should be 12. The generator boss should be bored larger for a forward mount Mag gear, and the front cylinder fins would be trimmed to clear the said mag.

Thank you sirs!

I will try to confirm what this is using this info.

I also read about ball bearings in the cam cover instead of bushings. Is that what you mean Hayley? Would the inner cam bearings be ball and not roller? Hard to imagine room for that.

Z

Yep Zaemo - inner and outer cam bushings are roller bearings and also I think they have a different speed oil pump. A good friend of mine has a heap of this sort of stuff on microfiche film - loads of HD comp department info and service bulletins from the 60's & 70's. We'll have a scratch around over the weekend and see what comes up . Cheers Hayley