my 2000 sportster XLH 883 developed a major issue. I was travelling between 60-75 MPH, suddenly, between 60-665 MPH, it wanted to stall/flood out. I was able to power through, and get above 65 MPH, and it ran fine, As this started when I was about 80 miles from home, it continued to get worse, the power loss occurred at lower and lower speeds. Eventually, it stalled out. Upon restarting, I was not able to go over 50 MPH, or it would flood out. Now, I can't even give it any throttle when in gear, or it will flood out. I have replaced the original fuel petcock with a gravity fed model; new fuel strainer, and external filter; installed a a carb rebuild kit (from the dealer); and reset all carb adjustments to OEM specs. The ignition coil tests out within range. I am at a loss as to where to go from here. PLEASE!!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The bike has been down for almost a month now, and there aren't many weeks left to this riding season here in Iowa.

 

 

Bill, you've spent a lot of time and money on parts - the wise thing is to find a local indy to diagnose the problem - dealers can be very expensive, also have little experience with older bikes and carbs. To be blunt, your expression 'flood out' is meaningless to me and meeting an expert face-to-face will solve just what you mean and help diagnose the source of the problem.

 

I would bet it's running out of fuel. Just redid a 2000 1200 and the carb was plugged and the vacuum petcock was no good. I'll bet your in the same neighborhood........

 

did you check out the rest of the ignitions system? always make sure that you do not have an ignition system issue before you move to the carb. what did your plugs look like when you pulled them out? the ignition moidule pick up assemblies are also a known culprit for lots of issues, when they got older, sometimes the epoxy meltls out of them and when they get hot, they fail in multiple dierent ways, from weak spark, no spark or erratic timing. make sure your igntion stuff is good before you blame the carb. when plug wires start to fail, a lot of times the bike will idle just fine, but break up or not make power under load. check them out too and they are cheap.
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