Timing marks on 84 harley davidson sportster - Harley Davidson Motorcycles

SOURCE: 2003 Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 Custom Tachometer kit

The only idea that i can come up with is that you dont have a good ground..or the guage was bad when you bought it..i hope this..Keith

SOURCE: Adjusting timing on Harley Davidson 1976 sportster

The advance timing should be 35° before Top Dead Center. This is how you find out which mark this is.

Get the rear wheel of the bike off the ground, remove the spark plugs, shift the bike into fourth gear, and remove the timing plug from the left engine case.
Now, take an ordinary PLASTIC DRINKING STRAW and insert it into the front spark plug hole. Do not use anything else or you stand a chance of it breaking and then you'll have to pull the head to get it out. The plastic straw will bend but not break.
Bump the rear wheel in the direction that it turns while riding down the road until the piston pushes the straw all the way up and just barely starts going back down. Look into the timing hole. You should see a timing mark. This is the Top Dead Center mark. Now, bump the rear wheel BACKWARDS until you see another mark. This should be the ADVANCED TIMING MARK. The piston should 7/16" down from top dead center.

On this model Sportster the timing is advanced by a mechanical advance mechanism. These units are notorious for wearing out and not contolling the timing very well. You must remove the breaker plate to inspect this mechanism. Mark the position of the plate before you remove it. If the pins and holes in the flyweights are worn, replace the unit. Replace it with a good needle bearing unit. Replace the points and reset the gap at 0.018 - 0.020".

SOURCE: my 2004 harley davidson sportster 1200c chugs

Had this same problem with my wife's 2004 XL1200C. Took it to the dealer and they discovered the batt cable was just a little loose. They tightened it and we've had no problems with that since...that was 2 yrs ago.

SOURCE: 2000 Harley Davidson XLC Sportster 883 won't start

the heat from the bulb being continiuosly on may have melted a wire inside your headlight?

SOURCE: harley davidson sportster iron 2009 how many miles 833 cc

Like they say, mileage may vary depending on conditions and how you choose to drive. But ..if you were trying to see how far you could go on a gallon..you might be surprised to find out that you could probably get close to 55 miles a gallon. With my 1987 1100CC Sportster, I got 55 MPG. Then I put on Screaming Eagle Carb and pipes and the MPG dropped to 45MPG. Typically you can beat the MPG numbers that the Manufacturer gives you if you go easy on the throttle and don't exceed the speed limit, and drive smoothly. Good luck!