Picked up a 2002 Superglide today that been sitting in a workshop for a while....bike starts up good....after it warms up it will idle ok, then starts idling high, then go's back down....up and down....Is this a vacuum leak; am sure this has been a topic before, but have not owned a harley in a while...bike only has 10k miles on it....

 

I had the same problem when I bought my 2002 Wide Glide. Probably not the definite reason but having no baffles in the exhaust caused some of that for me. I had my Indy make some baffles out of washers and weld Into the old screaming eagle II mufflers. They were just enough to make some back pressure and the engine ran a lot better. No more " surging" as I call it. Also I was running a little lean and he adjusted that as well. Problem solved.

Might try adding some Seafoam to the gas and running a tank through. It's good stuff. May help or may not, but won't hurt to try. It's the next best thing besides removing carb and cleaning it.

Or as my grandpa used to say " take it out and blow the soot out of it" lol

 

Appreciate the info...this bike has drag pipes on it and its way too loud for me, and there is no back pressure at all with these pipes.....I put some fresh gas with liquid performance additive in it today...will get it on the road in a few days and blow the hell out of it...that might help more than anything....Man I hate it when people let these bikes set up and never ride them....

 

Well there's your problem, drag pipes and no back pressure. Makes them loud and run like ****.

 

I just ordered some baffles for them...might help a little, gonna wrap them if i can find high temp wrap somewhere...lol...

 

I was having all kinds of issues before and after I took off some old ratty 2-in-1 Hooker pipes installed by a PO and installed some 2-in-2 Samson Wildcats without baffles. I could never get it to tune with the Hookers and only slightly better with the Samsons. I eventually overhauled the carb and replaced the tuning kit jets that were installed with OEM parts and things got much better but not perfect. I researched my issue and decided to try out a pair of Samson torque cones.

I know that torque cones are a controversial subject, and there are folks who swear they don't work and folks who swear they do, but torque cones are designed to provide back pressure for drag pipes. I am not running drag pipes, just the Samsons without baffles, and their cones were the final tweak that made it all run smooth and gave me back most of the low and mid-range performance I lost when I replaced the Hookers.

 

Well I got the carb kit put in the bike and took the loud pipes off and she sure does run good...Brian, who owns the Christian Leather Ministry Bike Repair Shop over here in Irving Texas did the work....This is the only repair shop that I believe exist that does not overcharge his customers and you get to meet new friends at the same time...pretty rare here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area....