1976 Harley very little power

[Dabble Inn]

Originally Posted by Yofrankie

Ok so after some fiddling we swapped the forward and reverse connections on the generator and now it runs great forward and crappy in reverse (which I don’t care about)......so I’m not sure what to say.
Would this be doing damage to anything running it this way? I’m inclined to keep it this way unless you guys tell me otherwise.

YO Frankie;
What connections are you referring to? Mine does the same thing and I still think it's a timing issue but I'd like to know what exactly you did? I'm also wondering if it only charges in forward? That would give it a heavier load and help explain why it worked for you, but it would also result in a dead battery after a while if only charging in reverse

[tew45]

If you installed a new top end or new rings you may have broken a ring. Did you set the ring gap? Many of the new rings are not gaped to the cylinder and needs to be adjusted or you will break a ring or two. Also learn to time the engine correctly. The engine will normally turn over faster in reverse due to design features. check compression on a new top end.85 is normal until a run in time is over. (maybe a tank of gas or so) then the rings have seated compression will read 90 t0 100 psi. 90 psi is very good.

My spelling and instructions may be a little hard to understand for I am 83 now and have had bladder cancer, a ruptured spleen which had to be removed and 6 months of chemotherapy for blood marrow cancer. A still have about 4 or 5 months of physical therapy to regain my strength then I can get back to work!