I've got a 78 FLH that I got when my brother died. I haven't done a lot with it over the years but I'm wanting to get it up and going. I tried having the local shops work on it for me, but I'm tired of getting the shaft.
Anyways... I'm having problems with the carburetor. It looks like its running rich but I don't really smell gas fumes. I'm getting crappy MPG.
I'm pretty sure it has the stock carburetor and I'd like to keep it that way. Any thoughts on what I should do?

 

If it is a Keihin carb, that's the problem. In most folks opinion, and mine after running various HD stock carbs for 40 years, the keihin is the worst to dial in correctly. They actually made kits to make them run correctly. While I understand you want to keep it stock, sometimes it does not make good sense. Can you post a pic of the carb....you may not have the stock carb on the bike. Many folks went with an S&S super B back then and those are notorious gas hogs....I have found the Bendix carb to be the simplest carb to dial in with the Super E a close second....

 

I don't know how to post pictures here? How can you tell what carb it is? As for the keeping it stock, it's mostly because money's real tight. That's why I'm trying to do the work myself.

 

if it is a super B or super E it will be casted/written on the side of the carb....the Keihin from the period had an accelerator pump diaphragm that is held on with 3 screws....Bendix the pump just goes down into the bowl and is a piston....the Keihin often has plastic parts....go to ebay and look for Bendix carbs and Keihin carbs and you will see plenty of pictures and identify yours....of course the later Keihin's (CV Evo carbs) were great....but I can almost guarantee your bike does not have a modern CV carb on it.

 

just wanting you to know Im going to get to back with you on this. A few things have come up and Im busy as hell.. Thanks for all your help man.

 

It looks like my bike has a Mikuni??? I only had a few minutes to take a look before I went to work.

 

Looks like the dude didnt know what he was talking about. I found a video on Youtube that shows the different kinds of stock carbs and it looks like a Keihin. I cant find the stamped numbers on it. at least not like the ones on Ebay.
You were talking about the later Keihin's being better. What years, if any, can I use the carbs off of?

 

I have a 77 FLH and I personally really like my stock Keihin but then again I run stock linkerts on my pans and flatheads without issue. The worst stock carb I ever dealt with is the late 60's Tillotsons.....holy hell talk about junk.

Anyway my point being is you can make your Keihin work well on your shovel with a little effort. Pull it off, take it apart and clean it. Get a rebuild kit for it and make sure the accelorator pump is working. Search the internet for keihin tuning procedure and see what you can dig up

 

Heres a bad picture of the carb on my 77 for your comparison. I took the picture awhile ago for another reason.

 

Ok, I got some time to take off the carb. From what I've seen on ebay the little blue tag that has the model number is missing. On the bowl I found B78A and it has a "90" right above it. And right above where the bowl attaches on the body I found o2bfth22. I still don't know how to post pics here or I'd post some.