Last night I finished up a long-awaited project: the carburetor conversion of my Dad's '02 Heritage. I inherited his bike last year. It had been sitting for four years, since it developed a problem where it would shut off as soon as it fired. My Dad, for other reasons, just gave up on it and let it sit.


I spent some time last summer diagnosing and found it was a faulty TSSM. I replaced it with a used TSM and rode the bike home. The next day, it developed a fuel leak at the tank quick disconnect. I rebuilt the fuel pump assembly, but the cheap replacement parts made it run like crap from low fuel pressure. I decided to just rip all the FI out and convert it to carb, just like I always wanted to.


I started this project in February. First task was to remove the tank and associated fuel pump assembly:










Next I removed the throttle body and intake manifold:

 

Next step was to remove all the FI sensors and connectors. Everything was removed except for the crank sensor, which I used for the Thunderheart Ignition module.







Terminated and tied off the FI sensor wires, never to be seen again:







I installed a S&S Evo intake manifold and Super E:








Mockup of the air cleaner:

 

I decided to utilize the factory coil location to mount the module and its coil. I used the included spacer from the Thunderheart kit to drill and tap a new hole:







I picked up some hardware and aluminum angle to fab a module mount.

 

Coil and module mock-up:





Now to start wiring it up:







I found the red and black crank sensor wires in the ECM harness. I tapped into the wires close to the ECM connector. I did at that location so I can utilize the exisiting wiring run on the bike. If I ever have to replace the crank sensor, the factory connector is already there.







On the other side of the harness, I made a t-tap splice into the white/black stripe wire, which is coming from the kill switch. This allows me to shut the ignition module off using the kill switch:

 

A shot of my workbench with soldering action going on:







I repurposed the wiring loom protectors from the FI sensor wires to use on the module wiring. I rattle-canned the module and brackets gloss black so they blend right in. Also, you can see here, the top coil cover mount hole was used to support the wire loom going into the under-seat harness area:







I routed the wires in the factory wire channels:









With the Thunderheart module, you only need the crank sensor. Everything else can be removed. You still need the ECU for the speedo and turn signals, so this means your CEL will always be on. But who the hell looks at their speedo?

 

For the last few steps, I bought the universal "Muscle Car" ignition wire set from Summit Racing and made new plug wires:







Lastly, I used Pingel's FI-Carb tank adaptor and their Hi-Flow petcock. I routed the fuel hose thru the jugs to the carb. I bought a compression spring from the hardware store to use as a hose protector (hard to see here):







I fired it up last night and I must say I was quite impressed, hearing a formerly injected TC88 idle nicely with a carb. All that's left is to fine-tune the carb and ride!


If anyone has questions, please ask! I had a fun time with this project. I'll be updating this thread with videos soon, so check back!

 

I converted my 07 street bob, using the Thunderheart module, too. Almost 30,000 miles since the conversion, and couldn't be happier. I wish I would have done it before I bought all those tuners that didn't work worth a crap.

 

Nice job. Now it sounds like it's CAM time........

 

Excellent work, both on the bike and on the post.

 

I converted my 2001 Road King about 2 1/2 years ago using a CV carb and the Thunderheart ignition (which works fantastic). Best move I ever made on mine. I've got about 25,000 miles on it and still keeps on keepin' on. You did a really good write up on your article 'specially with the great pics. I know your info will help others when they do this change over. I would have liked to have seen this before I did mine! GREAT JOB!