I apologize in advance for this being posted in the Carb forum and the Sportster forum, but I need help.

Last fall I didn't put Sta-Bil in the tank of my wife's 2005 1200 Cutsom sportster. Got it out of storage this spring and it took quite a bit to get it started but eventually it did run. It didn't get ridden for a while after that and first time she took it out it spit and sputtered horribly at low idle, dying often. I changed plugs, which were dry black and sooty, new ones went in along with a fresh tank of fuel and we tried again. Same results within 15 minutes and that includes warm up time and "riding" time. Bought new jets (same sizes as what is already in bike). Original Idle jet was at least halfway plugged, cleaned carburetor and air cleaner and reassemble with new parts. New plugs and fired it up. Idled perfectly off and on. Took it for a drive and back to same results within blocks.

Only other thing that has been changed since it was put away last winter was that I swapped out the grips for a different style. I marked the adjusters by the grip and reset the cables to that after putting the new grip on. since the new and old grips were the same diameter I assume that should have gotten me damn close to start. and shouldn't be causing this problem.

Any ideas what to try next? Only thing I can think of is to try to lean out the carb with the mixture screw in the bottom but don't really want to mess with that bcuz if I am wrong I will only make it worse. Plus, I haven't changed it yet so it should still be right, shouldn't it?

 

check the float level , and float needle for leakings