My first Harley...86 FXR. It was a basket case and I have had a good time fixing her up and getting her back on the road, but am having trouble with the carb. I tried to get the stock butterfly dialed in, but gave up and found a used CV on eBay.

I have rebuilt the CV and have temporarily mounted it on the bike, but need to find a proper air cleaner/mounting bracket because the stock butterfly bracket doesnt work. Any ideas? I also have new throttle cables on the way, as stock were too short

I am still having the same issues with the CV that I had with the butterfly, hard starts and cough through the carb off idle, but I am also getting severe shutters through the carb when I open her above half throttle.

She idles well, but the front cylinder doesn't seem to be carrying its weight. At idle, the front exhaust is cool and erratic, whereas the rear is hot and constant. Seems to be getting spark. Pull the front plug wire and the idle RPM increases a bit and seems to smooth out. Pull the back wire and she dies.

The bike has drag pipes, but I don't think has had any cam work. Does it sound like something that can be solved with jetting/tuning, or is there something else I should look at?

Any help is much appreciated!

 

Í did my conversion about 2 years ago...I bought a high flow kit that I think was aftermarket or screamin eagle, I can't remember right now...it uses a K&N filter and i was able to reuse my original air cleaner cover...you do not use the black bracket the connects to the heads anymore...it has some chrome hardware to bolt to the heads. If I can find any part number info, I'll pass it along.

I don't think you can really tune your carb accurately until you have the air cleaner mounted.

Coughing could be from AF mixture not being tuned in right, small jetting not correct, air leaks....but I believe you should get the air cleaner taken care of first.

When i tuned my CV I got lots of help from these forums and searching old posts and I got some good hints from this webpage:

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/carbadjust.htm

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/hd_cv_mods.htm

 

Front cylinder is not firing, hence the cooler pipe. Fix that first.
John

 

Do a compression check and see what's up with the front cylinder...no way to dial in the carb with the bike missing like that.

 

Thanks for the help. I had read somewhere that the front cylinder is cooler at idle because of the advance...not true? I will do a compression test regardless, and I have an aftermarket bracket coming as well as the proper intake fittings.

Even if it isn't easy, can I still borrow the girls to help?

Thanks again guys!

 

Did a compression test...no compression in the front cylinder. Did a leak down test, and the intake valve is leaking. Removed the pushrods and still leaking. So, I guess I have to take the head off and get the valves ground, change pushrod length...money?

 

Shouldn't need to change the pushrod length....if you do its likely because of major seat recession and then you would just get adjustables.....not that I am too keen on the things but its an easier fix than a new head.