Manifold o rings and bands part 2

[fulldress79]

I have a 79 FLH that I'm doing a valve job on. Supposedly rubber band intakes started in 78. Mine has the o rings. Heads are dated 7/78 and 8/78. The rest of the bike has the same late 78 casting dates through out,which would seem about right for an early 79.So the question is: Did Harley just start using bands on O ring heads before they changed the spigots on the heads and manifold? Anyone else have a 78 0r 79 that has o ring heads that were original to the bike?

[Mule]

 My wife's Shovel a 1980 80 inch has O ring heads and it should have band type. I did a little research and found out that amf was using up all the spares in the last few years before the buy back, to produce and sell as many units as they could.  The last few years of production before the buy back are know as the Bastard years...Mule...

[HDdude5]

Just did my 79 FLH. I expected bands but bought bands and Orings. It had Orings (that were toast)...sure runs alot better now!
A trick a friend shared was to get the Orings on, carb still off the manifold, wrap over the Oring area with about 5 wraps of Teflon tape then the carb, align everything, etc......
First one I had done, sure beats doing an FI Ultra Classsic that is for sure, that job just plain sucked.
Bill

[MMOCGuy]

I have a stock late '78 FX. While my bike had O-Rings from the factory and I still use O-Rings, my manifold and the the exhaust spigots on the heads are machined so that it will take eithe O-Rings or bands - Go Figure!!

Hope this helps.

Norm.