More Old Iron on Palomar, 1942 Harley XA

[C. Dolan]

.Another in a series of old bikes being flogged on Palomar.

Bike is a 1942 Harley XA oposed twin, BMW knockoff.

Only a 1000 produced with an estimated 60 to 200 left, almost all in museums or collections gathering dust.

Some advanced features:

hand clutch, foot shifter. > 1st production Harley wouldn't have that till 1952.

Rear plunger suspension. > 1st production Harley wouldn't have a rear suspension / swingarm till 1958.

1st sealed beam headlight on a bike.

One of the earliest bikes, ( and only Harley ) other than some of the 4 cylinders to have a wet sump oil system instead of an oil tank.

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[C. Dolan]

Leans over pretty decent for an old bike, and maybe will be the quickest old bike on Palomar after some more tuning.

In an age of tuning by dyno and laptop, this bike was sorted out old school style on The Hill and my driveway.

Had a bit of a miss at higher rpm, at 1st.

Final combo was advancing the distributor about 1/8 inch and leaning out left side carb by 1/4 turn.

The point lobe has about .040 shake due to worn bushing, so got bike going as best as possible at the time.

Video of final run up driveway on You Tube:

YouTube - 1942 Harley XA, 3rd Run up Driveway

 

[C. Dolan]

Some closeup pics of motor and rear section:

 

[C. Dolan]

Made some adjustments and got the idle speed turned down after this video was shot.