I Bought A Motorcycle Out of A Hoarders Basement, WAS IT WORTH IT?

oh there it is looky there it didn't go anywhere I just bought this 1947 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead out of a hoarder basement look up there I paid a lot for this motorcycle it was not cheap whether I made the right decision or not is going to hinge on three things is the bike actually original will it run and ride and the owner said another motorcycle went with it which just might set this deal Over the Top If this this is indeed original paint it's a nice example oh yep that's a good sign see these right here see how they're red crisp the factory they're painted the same color oh yeah feels like compression all right first time in the sun in 10 15 years woo that brake felt nice 1947 Harley wow looks even better in the daylight it looks nice in the daylight doesn't it toolbox it's the oldfashioned wheel time toolbox there so first things first that's a hill and pushing this thing up the hill Chris is a nogo no we have to ride it out um so we're going to try and fire it up and we're going to see if we can ride it out of here that means it is going to run yeah oh yeah oh sometimes it takes 80 or 100 hours so 45 minutes we're right here let's get to work it ain't going to take long and you know the thing is too I'm just it's not I'm not finding much that doesn't look right you know gas cap was replaced it's got a pan head rear axle the spotlight bar here somebody painted black somebody painted the headlight bezel black it's got a 41 to 46 Speedo in it but it's the right Muffler it's the right kick cover it's the right kicker pedal right floorboards is it a e or an FL can you tell over here Chris 47 e low 47 number too they made 12,000 something and this is the 320 something off the line right battery lid a lot of this W all the wiring looks original it's got a military coil on it you want to do the honors verification coding PM Mills 236 you can see the white underneath here there's this here is 2 37 yeah I see the white here too they painted the dashes white first 236 so original paint is usually somewhere in between like8 if it's been worn a lot to about 3 and 1/2 287 169 wow 142 91 amazing 137 really awesome it's all original yeah that red is all original frame I don't think there's any doubt oil tank 140 three see that's the typically where it's going to be the thickest is right on the side of the the gas tank there nice original emblems beautiful original emblems beautiful seat this original rubber beautiful so what the the interesting part is going to be all right good stuff Let's uh check the oil see what we got Chris it is oh it's nice it's clean it's dry there's no oil in there but it's clean so mat checked check for spark seems to be the next thing we'll do uh put a battery in there and then the carburetor go ahead and check the uh transmission oil while a little bit of oil done in there definitely need some more but it's not dry what do you think oil tank was pretty clean and I went ahead and sprayed the uh C on the carburetor did I didn't I didn't do anything with it I just set it on there so well before we do that let's check the points see what we're looking at points wise oh man that's yeah that's super clean it's like new give it a real easy kick H points gaps a little tight okay um little go come again yeah come again okay we're going to uh pull the spark plugs okay you might need a yeah you got it pull the spark plugs I'm going to get a screwdriver adjust those points we're going to eye it because I didn't bring a feeler gauge so one of the first things I noticed about this is the points gap for some reason or another had shrunk up the points inside look brand new beautiful it doesn't look like it's hardly ever been run those are what appear to be New Old Stock Harley-Davidson points so we're going for 22,000 of an inch that looks like about 22 again we're just going by eye but that's around 20,000 you've done it enough done it that's right you done it enough you know factory specs 22 some guys set them up 19 20 some guys go a little fatter that's good though so we're set there Chris we what's what do the plugs look like yeah rear plug front plug yeah genuine Harley plugs both kind of Rich while they're out let's do a compression test yep fingers mhm ready yep yep which one was that front Okay front again okay there's rear yeah I see both of them okay pretty even pretty even good deal it's an e these plugs look good enough to use Harley-Davidson Number threes Champion plugs um here you go now we're making great progress on this knucklehead but I'm getting a little bit antsy to go check out this other bike those tires still holding air yeah seem to be was there anything in the toolbx yeah some weird little funky tool have you ever seen one of those no what is that probably metric this Germany a ger never seen one of those before that that feels uh oh no yeah it's a German tool but that's a 5/8 where we got a seven 16 this is cool that's what I said it's like it would be perfect ifz you just throw it in your pocket and wow dude he only had one tool in his tool box and it was every tool that is awesome so guaranteed still a 6vt system um we're 3 hours from home dude if this thing runs if I can ride at home man but you guys going to have to follow me we got no tread on the front even oh look at there it's starting to crack on the outside they cracking on the sidewall we can live with that cracking on the the outside you're kind of just gambling with your life there but that's okay um you hand propped a Harley airplane in the parking lot of the museum we've done much crazier than that I can't believe these tires are holding air this thing sat on flat tires for 10 12 Years anyway that seat up real Y is there a pad on the bottom of that battery no nope I think I've got some card board I can use for a battery pad down low yep so old 6vt H2 harly battery they're not really made to bounce around having a little bit of a pad down on the bottom is always helpful all right screwdriver I do believe now I just filled this battery last night hopefully it has a charge all right how we got headlight not yet no headlight no batter's charged these oh there we go I knew it was just corrosion yeah tail light no no tail light how about a brake Light No breake Light No so it may be right up here yeah may be in the switch oh there was a tail light there's a tail light it's goes on and off as you're doing that right there it's on so this headlight ought to come on with that post too there it is there it is all right that's a horn ain't it that's a get out of the way horn every time I put one of these together the horn is a little bit lackluster they never do it like original okay now we're going to check spark here did you uh you have the plugs back in no not yet okay oh yeah all right oil there's a bike in a warehouse that's calling my name Chris Matt felt like there was a lot of oil in the lower end when I was kicking it mhm so I think what we'll do Chris is just put maybe a cord and a half in to fire it up I'll get the funnel all right what do we got here work shut off work no it it unscrews where the the just the top part where the spring comes out where the spring comes out so we have to bring it up a little bit and then see if we can get the pliers on it use the pliers yeah so this fuel shut off runs all the way through the tank down to the bottom where the fuel line comes out there's a little Needle on the bottom of the uh fuel shut off that rod runs down through there and that needle sits in the top of uh where the fuel line comes out and that's what shuts your fuel off so in looking down in there when this UND it's actually opening it's controlling the rod all the way down contr theod so even though it's letting this top piece come up it's actually coming up out to oh yeah yeah yeah oh this whole thing well somebody added that spring Springs extra yeah somebody put that in there because it kept it kept falling down on that's that's okay and then that closes back down ah beautiful that's cool that's I I I used to tie a rag on my Flathead just to keep it up I used to have a cloes pin on my every trick in the book's been done okay now number two okay um I'm going to run get fuel you got fuel yeah I've got to free up that carburetor what's that the tornado not where we're at where we're in the mountains you know it's I I really say it's the best of everything doesn't get too hot in the summer doesn't get too cold in the winter how's it going well this is tight here and you can see it's starting to wiggle just a little bit spray spray it down with C pretty good up top there yeah we're starting to move ooh we're going to get rid of that and then if you could scrape out that yeah we don't want that's a fire hazard I'd rather run no filter than that filter these things fill up with gas and when they catch on fire it's hard putting them out that's why I like those little wire mesh filters it's metal there's nothing to burn you know we're going to Hope and it looked like it from the inside of the tank that he dried this thing out worst case scenario we're pulling this carburetor apart now what I did notice also is this throttle plate is hard hardly opening okay yeah so we're going to reset this throttle all together that's one of those self-imposed governors set your throttle lever up so you can't get that Full Throttle so you never get the Full Throttle yeah we can't have that here we go fast we're going to open it and you loosen this screw right there yep know little back and forth here and that's what I'm talking about all right we definitely need to adjust the rear chain really is it Loose yeah there was tight spot there it was tight when we rolled it out so there's loose and there's tight you're doing great Chris hey I'm working here Chris gets frustrated calm down I'm sorry I'm sorry all right I think we are uh I think we're gas and go now we're going to make sure the float's not leaking you looking good still we're dry right now how much you want me to put in there uh half a tank okay if you would we're ready yep who's ready are you ready how many kicks I'm ready how many kicks need earplugs how many kicks I'm going say four four kicks what would Ken say 25 25 kicks always three kicks well three prime kicks and one to go and as long as we got gas I think that's what it's going to be plugs in plug wires on yep three prime kicks tell me we got gas one two there's gas in there I can hear it three oh yeah I see it came out you got gas oh yep we got gas we got ignition ohen to that it was one kit one all right here we go again oh come on keep running for me let's try this again one to go nope come on [Music] now all right well we know it ran so let's regroup I'm wondering if that coil stopped sounds like it you know but got anything I mean there's something in there but not uh how about a little carb cleaner and we'll just see if it fires on that ready yep watch your face yeah okay so man this thing just wants to run all we got to do is give it gas okay fuel delivery we got uh first thing let's crack this 9/16 at the you're open yeah and you close it uh no I'm just going to crack this barely yep we got gas yeah we got gas there okay shut the fuel off what I'm worried about is the main nozzle being so gummed up yeah but maybe the needle's just sticky so if we're shut we should be not leaking like crazy here NOP it's just barely coming so let's get this here oh I think I got it it it it clicked one more little thing and I think it did it good yeah shut her down beautiful um so I think we're going to end up probably taking this float off real quick but let's just try it one more time I just don't think that did it I feel like the needle could be squirrel's heavy oh there we go yeah it might be a little dirty and you know as gummy as the lid as gummy as the throttle lever was on top I bet this pivot here is equally as is equally as gummy that'll be one kick yeah so we've got a man when you hear it like that though it's like it it's like it's spurting but it's not getting it so I'll tell you what let's run on that for one second Chris you know you just about this far you can just keep hosing it all right or just yeah come onoo it sure wants to [Music] run you can let it go yeah it's it's just a gummed up float Bowl so all right five minutes 5 minutes and we'll be riding 45 minutes so I got a fuel off let's go ahead uh could you grab the half inch wrench and see if you can give that a torque give that some torque and but it ran and it sounds good too the motor's not clacky now let me try it out Chris this is yeah I do not want to put sh up thatle man come on with it you're beautiful thank you oh yeah there's yummy yummy yeah that's been in there a little bit wow man that may be that may put a stop to us all if the if we uh if that main is locked into in place yeah that's some stinky G from this side I can see this green when it's coming out the bottom of the bowl a little bit what we're hoping oh I see our problem well part of the problem is this and that seems like it would be a problem but I think to be really honest man first glances that that would be a big problem but it actually kind of ran right here we got no action got rubber ducky float in there maybe we use this other float it's New Old Stock I like that it's a brand new NOS Flo p and it seals we can slap this on really fast plug up the fuel line see if it starts and runs and if it doesn't there's problem in there and that's another issue which we probably may not be equipped to fix that being said even if the low speed's plugged we can maybe uh run it on choke yeah to get it out we're going to try it new parts literally brand new old parts okay let's go ahead and turn the fuel on fuel is on oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah it's pulling a lot more fuel than it was yeah it is I I want to bolt the cases back together on top wow fuel delivery issues so you never can tell if a bike was put up absolutely properly or not it looked like they drained the gas out of the gas tanks um that being said kind of a nasty situation inside the floow uh I've seen a lot worse so all things considered I'm thinking we're going to skirt out of this one relatively easy now I said three prime kicks and one to go right yep okay oh yeah so much more fuel now oh yeah hey wow so quiet yeah [Music] circulating oh yeah absolutely defin ly circulating oil you hear that little squeak yeah watch this what it's cleared out cuz you're idling now we're idling yeah no B wow okay let me put the air cleaner back on unbelievable so the question is can we make it up the hill I trust you can and then do you have your pillow ready oh am I going to ride it up the hill now you don't have to ride it up the hill you go take it through the neighborhood if you want okay guys so we're two out of three the bike is original and it way exceeds my expectations on how it actually runs now it's time to take a peek inside the warehouse and see this WLA that Linda's been telling me about a look at this motor I mean this is nice so the bike's in pieces then yeah so but there's there's some other stuff yeah we saw there's the front end and stuff and fenders and there's one front end right there there's I think there's your bars right there yeah those are the bars Firestone Deluxe Champion 516 that's it that's 45 okay yeah there's so much stuff in here looking for Harley parts I see some Hummer fenders grab that can you grab anything else else there if you want man there's a fork leg H this place is packed cck it all right so we're still hunting Harley parts okay well that's maybe a different year transmission oh yeah there's the seat teep WLA clutch pedals y set it all up so we got got brake drums brake back and plate there's that military case which might be nice to use cuz it's got old green paint on it Dash and a speedometer I'm going further from the door man look at the size of that thing is that incredible or what holy SM look at that there's old race car back there and then under here is one of those t- bird power cars there's so much cool stuff here I mean the equipment the Machinery I mean he had a little bit of anything and everything that you could think [Music] of got more t- bird power car stuff Corvette body oh there's stuff literally in every corner little dirt bikes model T's Dodges kushans there's a couple old Harley like short sers straight up above us there's a lot more here than I expected God it's crazy I think there's some star Hub Wheels over in this corner and don't damage anything don't worry no we we yeah now we got to get that motor Chris all right we get you most of it yep all right you guys are doing great St nice work Steve let's see here [Music] all right so one box left we got a little distracted we got a little dusty but uh Harley 45 project awesome little bonus uh but now we got to get to this motorcycle yeah let's see if this thing moves should we try it let's do it right starts right up all right heel down front brake Works hey do have reverse but we're in gear there we go should we see if this thing's a hill climber or not all right pressure's [Music] on hey hey wa we made it easy what a sweetheart of a motorcycle no kidding just wow man wow I just can't believe how good it runs so epic day it was awesome to meet Linda and her nephew you I'm so stoked about the 1947 Harley and the WLA project we're going to get loaded up and headed home thanks guys so much for tuning in if you dug what you saw check out either one of these two videos and we'll see you on the next round all right

Channel: Wheels Through Time

Views: 483,104

Keywords: american motorcycle, motorcycle history, burnout, Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum, Maggie Valley, North Carolina, Blue Ridge Parkway, Riding on Motorcycles, Classic Motorcycles, American History, Dale Walksler, The Time Machine, Vintage Motorcycles, Whats in the barn, Velocity TV, Harley Davidson, Indian, Matt Walksler, Rare, Unique, Wheels Thru Time, American Restoration, Fast, Fire It Up, Classic, Dale's Channel, AMA

Id: 8Lmj_FQxhWM

Length: 26min 48sec (1608 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 12 2024