97 Dyna EVO - Upgrade to which carb?

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Jul 5, 2023 | 07:34 AM

Don Lampert

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Joined: Apr 2014

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From: NJ

97 Dyna EVO - Upgrade to which carb?

Looking to put the OG CV carb to rest and upgrade to something more reliable.

What are you all using?

Bikes a 97 fxdl with the 1340.

Thanks!

Jul 5, 2023 | 09:48 AM

eighteight

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Joined: Oct 2019

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From: OH

An upgrade is fine but,
What part of a CV do you find to be "unreliable "

Jul 5, 2023 | 12:14 PM

hattitude

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Joined: Sep 2008

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From: San Diego, CA

Back in the Harley Keihin butterfly carb days, they were routinely replaced with Mikuni or S&S carbs.... I swapped out an early HD Keihin carb for an SUII Eliminator Carb. Worked very well and looked cool too...

Harley went to the Keihin CV40 carb in 1989... it has proven to be much better than the older Butterfly carb that had the bad reputation. The are easy to tune, to rebuild, and work well up to about 100-110 HP....

Not sayin it's the best carb out there, but I have one on my 2001 Springer. I wouldn't consider the cost of swapping it out to an S&S or Mikuni carb (or even an SUII Eliminator carb) to be money well spent.

If you want a different carb, so be it, nothing wrong with that... but I am also curious as to what you find unreliable about the carb...??

Last edited by hattitude; Jul 5, 2023 at 12:19 PM.

Jul 8, 2023 | 11:17 AM

Trumpet

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Joined: Oct 2019

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From: Connecticut

Great performance and mpg to be had from a rebuilt CV carb. Tune easy and run well. SS super E works good too, though even tuned to an extreme fettle never will get the mpg of a cv.

Jul 8, 2023 | 11:23 AM

98hotrodfatboy

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Joined: Mar 2010

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From: Poolville

All I use is S&S.. The E can perform like a bigger carb because of the tapered venturi.. It helps to keep the air velocity higher than a smooth bore carb which aides in better fuel atomization, plus it's easy as hell to tune..... I had a 10.2:1 comp build with a Woods w6 cam on an earlier 1340 and would still get 52 mpg on trips..

Jul 8, 2023 | 01:55 PM

Dan89FLSTC

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Joined: May 2008

Posts: 21,176

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From: South Carolina

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Lampert

What are you all using?

All of us?
That would be a long list of people, and a short list of carburetor types...

Seriously, if you are having reliability problems with a CV carb, it needs to be rebuilt by someone who knows what they are doing.

The CV carb is simple, a good performer, and as reliable as any carb out there.

Last edited by Dan89FLSTC; Jul 8, 2023 at 01:58 PM.

Jul 9, 2023 | 08:19 AM

sharkey

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Joined: May 2007

Posts: 3,870

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From: Alberta

I've had a 100hp Sportster with a 44CV and a 111hp 103 T Sport with a 50CV. Buddy had a 124 S&S with a 50CV, we adapted his cruise control to it easily, too. Whenever a shop would dis the CV and claim I'd get FAR better performance with another carb, I'd say "put it on and we'll dyno it" Never any takers. Shops make lots of money upselling. The CV's run very smooth and reliably, I've only ever used them bone stock with OEM jet's as required...no aftermarket trickery whatsoever.