hey guys! so over the weekend i picked up two iron heads one of them is a 79 with a s&s shorty that runs fine just needs some tlc and the other is an 83 with the stock b83a carb on it with the stock jets and thats the one giving me a hassle. i got it home and in the garage saturday night, charged the battery and gave it a shot and nothing, it sounded like it wanted to start but wasnt getting enough gas even with the choke all the way out and giving it some throttle. i decided to take the carb off and give it a good cleaning everything seemed okay in there except for the slow jet (underneath the black rubber cap) has been chewed up quite a bit (so i left that one in there until i can grind down one of my screw drivers to fit in there snug tomorrow at work) but i checked float height and set it to spec per the manual, and cleaned out the passage ways including the mixture screw on the top and set it back to the original 3.5 turns it was at when removed and put it back together and on the bike (w/o air filter) it will start up but wont hold an idle and when i give it gas some of it seems to spray out and on to the floor and it will start to smoke, it ooks like my sccelerator pump is facing and spraying the correct way so when i put the air filter back on now just black smoke and it will idle for about 20 seconds. my rebuild kit should be here tomorrow by the time i get home, do any of you guys have advice on what my problem might be or where to look when im in there tomorrow? thanks

 

Hi Erika, you may have sorted this by now, but black smoke is diagnostic rich - too much gas. Could be as simple as the float level is too high.

 

i almost got it sorted out I rebuilt it with a fresh kit and set the float height. I can get it to idle now for about a minute or so fairly rough until it dies out, there is still black smoke so I know it is rich but it won't run with the choke off. Also the mixture screw was 3.25 turns out and the manual says it should be set at 1.25-1.5 turns out. But when set at 1.5 it won't fire up. It has to be at least 2.75 out to run and even then it stumbles

 

The only shovel I owned was a new one and in the years I owned it I never had trouble in that department. When ticking over it 4-stroked on the front cylinder and 8-stroked on the rear, but seemed happy enough! Hopefully someone on that school course you're doing can help you out?! Or is that the test.....

 

i actually graduated in January landed a full time gig at a Yamaha/kawi/polaris dealer but unfortunately the guys at work want nothing to do with any kind of Harley especially the old ones so I guess its just some more trial and error for now, wish me luck! 💪🔧

 

There is something that is overlooked very often and seeing how you are having idle problem . there's a washer and a O-Ring under the idle mixture screw and spring , remove the screw and spring , straighten out a paper clip bend 90deg at 1 end and cut off to 1/16 inch go down in hole and fish out a washer and a O-RING . The only way to get a new O-RING is in the kit . to reinstall -- put a dab of a light grease on O-RING and washer , turn carb upside down , install everything at once

 

I should have said my shovel had the same carb as your iron head. Best of luck and let us know when you get things 'just so'!

 

You have been moved to the carburetor section . I have a 81 Ironhead , I can tell you how to turn heads and beat 1450's , and everybody will ask you what's that engine , for less than $100

 

unless I'm mistaken I Dont recall seeing a washer and o ring when I cleaned out the passage so hopefully that right there is my problem, I will know tomorrow when I take the carb of for the hundredth time! Hopefully its just that and the local dealership will have a rebuild kit

 

Rat was thinking of the CV carbs used on the '88 to 2006 models, the 83 models had a Butterfly carb stock.