Hello meathead here again thinking since i own a 1985 700 vulcan and it is sorta a wierd bike only year they did 700 here everything else is a 750 here. and the parts for the 750 are a lot more plentiful. I was wonder has anyone have a 700 engine and repalced the jugs and pistons from a 750 and put on the 700 crankcase and heads?? will this work i notice that the rods are the same part number but of course the heads and crank case are different. just thought this would be a alternative instead of buying a full 750 motor.
thanks for any help guys and gals

I am not positive, but I believe the jugs, pistons, maybe heads need changing.

the reason for different p/n for the case halves is the cast in displacement marking is different

all interchange but if you only need a head gasket why go through all the work and cost?

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Hi Meathead, the 700 is a great bike and there are several people here with them including me, and Doc, who posted above. If you haven't allready found out why they only made the 700 one year you can read my sig below.

well because i really dont want to chance using 750 head gaskets ..people say they will work but a lot of money and time to install and have a problem i have this whole motor tore down for a broken shift lever

I did not know that.

it has been done.

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thank you i appreciate your time

you're welcome

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Basically, and I have done the research, Harley Davidson was in Trouble. In 1981, AMF sold the company to a group of 13 investors led by Vaughn Beals and Willie G. Davidson for $80 million.

In the early eighties, Harley-Davidson claimed that Japanese manufacturers were importing motorcycles into the US in such volume as to harm or threaten to harm domestic producers. After an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission, President Reagan imposed in 1983 a 45 percent tariff on imported bikes with engine capacities greater than 700 cc. Harley-Davidson subsequently rejected offers of assistance from Japanese motorcycle makers. However, the company did offer to drop the request for the tariff in exchange for loan guarantees from the Japanese.

Rather than trying to match the Japanese, the new management deliberately exploited the "retro" appeal of the machines, building motorcycles that deliberately adopted the look and feel of their earlier machines. Many components such as brakes, forks, shocks, carburetors, electrics and wheels were outsourced from foreign manufacturers.

So basically Harley Davidson couldn't match the quality or performance of Japanese bikes so they got the government to put a 45%!! import tax on them. Then, instead of taking engineering help offered by the Japanese, they just went backwards and started using non-USA parts to cut costs.

Then, still struggling, they took LOANS from the Japanese in exchange for dropping their support of the heavy import taxes on Japanese bikes.

I am not knocking Harleys, to each his own. But until you explain why my 32 year old bone stock 700 V-Twin smokes most way bigger Harleys, I will keep riding Japanese motorcycles. My girlfriend bought a brand new 883 in 2002, it has 5,000 miles on it, is half as old as my bike, they weigh the same, and my bike will eat hers up no matter who is riding it.

I used to give credit to Harley Davidson for being made in the USA, but that has not been true for a long time, Assembled in the USA is not All-American. I judge bikes by reliability, longevity, handling, suspension, performance, braking, ease of maintenance. I work on my bike and her 883. My bike, being twice as old with 4 times the miles wins in every category.

I have taken crap all of my life for riding a "rice burner". To this day I have friends that won't ride with anyone on a Japanese bike. And I kinda got it, my 1980 GS750 will smoke any harley on the road, but you can't compare a inline 4 to a V-Twin, I get that. Never did I know when I bought this Vulcan it would run so good, and now they still bitch because it is Japanese. They are just jealous because it is a far superior bike.

Some of this was taken directly from Wikipedia, but only after I researched and verified it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley-Davidson