Very Hard Turning Over

[hdfx78]

My Son and I went out for about a 60 mil shake off the winter run on a cool day a few weeks ago. He had about 850 miles on his 78 XLCH 1000. Ran great, started great all day. Would not start a few days latter. Charged the battery and the same thing. Seemed very hard to roll over. Tried to kick it and definitely too much resistance. Removed the plugs and rolls over normal. Put the plugs back in and begins to rotate normal but then gets tight after a few revolutions. Looked in and valves seem to be traveling normally.
Any ideas? Great bike and time to hit the road. Thanks, Mark HDFX78

[saltcaveminer]

i would start by checking the pushrod adjustment(cold)Salty

[Lew]

Won't start and is tight to turn over.....  One thing that comes to mind...if running an ignition with an advance assembly, might have a look to see if it fell apart and is jamming up inside the cavity, keeping the cam from turning freely.

Lew

[wreck74]

Primary chain to tight ?

[hdfx78]

Here's what I have so far. Checked pushrod adjustment and it is good. Remove plugs and rolls over fine by hand with kick or electric start. No noises no binding. Put plugs back in and may get a few cranks then tightens right up. Put oil in the cylinders through the plug holes and no difference. I will put a compression tester on it today as it is either abnormal compression, Not surer where that would come from, or mechanical binding only under compression for some reason.
Ran fine then just sat in the garage for a few days before starting again then this new trick.
Thanks for the responces so far hopefully this may ring another bell for someone out there. About 850 miles on rebuild and hate to break it apart if it is not necessary.

[Lew]

Have you tried turning it over with the clutch disengaged?  Might be the tranny causing this.

Lew

[wreck74]

Can you look into the cylinders through the sparkplug holes with a flashlight to see if the cylinder walls are scored ? Maybe the cylinders are not bored far enough to fit the pistons and they're just to tight, binding up. It could be timeing gears also, pinion gear is to big. If it's not in the tranny.

[hdfx78]

Thanks for the new ideas, checking all. Cold compression 100 front and 99 rear so that seems good. Do see some vertical lines on the rear cylinder wall. With no  plugs  or front plug only, it will roll over. Swap it up with rear plug in and front plug out and will tighten up. So seems it is the back cylinder having an issue that shows up only under full compression demands. I am checking oil lines. Wondering if a problem with lubrication to that cylinder wall. I am seeing pressure to the rockers from the pressure gauge on the rocker shaft and the oil light goes out right away from sender at the pump. Back at it tomorrow.

[wreck74]

When it sat for a few days was the fuel shut off or left on ?

[hdfx78]

Fuel was off. I did consider the bike was running rich  and thought about cylinder wash . Today I changed around some jets and adjusted the float. Got it started and ran nice. Good  idle, fired up on a number of restarts right away. Then same deal but I may be heading back to the battery issue at this point.
I will see if it starts normal after a slow charge and motor temp back to cold. I do have some vertical lines in that rear cylinder wall so maybe some damage resulting in extra drag on start up. Maybe a result of too rich too long or maybe a contaminant was missed by the builder during assembly.

[hdfx78]

Looks Like Carburetor was the problem. Too much gas. Starting good now. Maybe this will help  someone else in the future.I posted some picks on the Iron Head Gallery. Saw some great bikes on there, very inspiring.