So here's the story. 2 weeks ago I bought a 2007 Electra Glide with 165,000 miles on it. I know, that's my first mistake. It has newer heads and pistons with about 30,000 miles on them, Vance and Hines Eliminator 400 pipes, K and N high flow air filter, and a Vance and Hines FP3 tuner on it. I rode it home about 4 hours and realized it didn't like going over 4,000 rpm in any gear and would seem to hit a Rev limiter or something and wouldn't give it anymore fuel past like 30% throttle. I figured it was the tune on the bike not sending enough fuel. I worked on the tune and rode another 1000 miles on it and it didn't change so I pulled out the fuel pump assembly and the pickup filter on the pump was black and full of dirt and mud, the other fuel filter had perfectly clear fuel in it. Changed the whole assembly because it has that many miles I figure it's due. Chages all the fuel line and everything, put it back together. Now I can hit the Rev limiter at 6,300 rpm and it'll go full throttle, but now at idle the idle goes from 750-1100 rpm and at lower rpm through 3,000 rpm it hiccups and misfires through the pipes and the air filter and tries really hard to die at takeoff. New plugs, spark seems to be fine. Runs good at higher rpm, kinda hiccups every once in a while. I feel like I've looked at everything. Next I'm gonna check the cams and tensioners and check the injectors for clogging. Any other ideas? I'm afraid I burnt a hole through the piston putting that many miles on it with a basically clogged fuel filter.

 

Can you Auto tune with the FP3? I would try that first. Who knows what the PO did to compensate for less fuel pressure..
And if you think you might have burned a hole in the piston, I don't think it would run very well at all and your breathers would be puking a ton of oil...

 

Idle problems are typically caused by a sticky IAC. You can try cleaning it. Hunt around this forum for instructions. If it don't work you can try replacing. At 165000 it might be worth replacing the whole throttle body with a low mileage take off.

 

I have run the auto tune, which helped a lot at speed, but didn't do anything for the low rpm backfiring and dying issue. I could theoretically adjust the Air Fuel Ratio to get it to deal with it, but that's not good long term. I took the intake off today to check out the injectors and wiring and clean some stuff. 1st off, the stock 1/4 allen bolts for the intake suck, replace those. The injector for the front cylinder was super dirty and covered in oil. Lots of oil in the intake port on the front cylinder. Rear cylinder looks good. There was a lot of oil in the throttle body and breather bolts. Cleaning all that atm. Gonna borrow a snake cam to look into the cylinders tomorrow and do a compression test. Also one side of the intake was way tighter than the other side. Front cylinder didn't take anything to loosen. Gonna replace the sensors while everything is off.

 

If you had a lot of oil in the throttle body there's a good chance that the IAC is all gunked up.

 

Agree with the comments on the IAC, and I'd clean the entire intake too. But based on your description of the condition of the fuel filters and "dirt and mud", I look into cleaning the fuel injectors. Or at least add some high quality fuel injector / fuel system cleaner as well.

Paul

 

Replace the breather(umbrella) valves. Probably needed replacing 100,000+ miles ago. Amazing how many overlook these or think they last forever.
And while you're at it, quit venting the crankcase into the intake tract and vent to atmosphere. Your engine will thank you. If you think your injectors are dirty you should see your pistons/combustion chamber.

See DK Customs for an External Breather Kit

 

So I did some work on tearing things apart today because it's become obvious that the previous owner didn't have a clue about the bike. Took the cam cover off and at some point someone put a screaming eagle cam plate on it with s and s easy start cams and the heads and pistons and valves that were put on it were a part of a 110 bore kit, and S and S quicky adjustable pushrods. The cam tensioner shoes were worn almost all the way through. Makes sense why all the stock 103 maps ran bad. Also when I pulled the intake off the rear cylinder was tightened down, the front cylinder felt like a 1/4 turn past finger tight like whoever did the work couldn't get to the bolts. Same thing with the exhaust when I took it off. All the flange gasket nuts where finger tight, but ig they could've rattled themselves loose. Also, there was a huge crack at the y pipe where the exhaust comes together right at the head for the left side of the exhaust. Also found 2 holes in the plug wires and some burnt wiring. Replacing all the sensors, apparently the exhaust, cleaning the throttle body and intake up, replacing cam tensioner shoes, replacing injectors, and waiting on parts. Conclusion: I'm an idiot for buying a bike with this many miles on it and expecting the owner to know what he was talking about. Glad I saved this bike though. I'll update when it's all put back together. Thanks for the advice.

 

Like stated above , the iac is more than likely in need of a good cleaning , or replacing . I would clean it first and see how it runs . You can use TB cleaner and spray the pintle down , while your doing that , turn the ignition on , then hit the run / kill switch - do not start , you should see the pintle open / close , procede to shoot small bursts of tb cleaner in there . Place a rag in your throttle body to catch the gunk .

Another thing you should do is get yourself a can of electrical contact cleaner and clean all your connectors , sensors , fuse box , fuses , relays , battery cables , ground points etc . Make sure you pull the main fuse or disconnect the battery before you start . Pay close attention to the connectors under the front of the frame ( stator - regulator ) usually , their caked with oil from doing oil changes .

If you don't replace the crankcase position sensor , pull it out and wipe it off .

After what you've found so far , sounds like a new tune / map will be in order , hope all goes well getting it back together .

 

All the parts in, everything finally back together. Had to redo the tuning which was fun. Finally got it going pretty good, took if for a ride for about 30 minutes and the dand crankshaft position sensor exploded and oil everywhere. Oddly enough the symptoms that I was having line up with a bad crankshaft sensor. The bikes basically been rebuilt so I bet after I put that sensor on AND TUNE IT AGAIN it runs pretty good. Always something lol.