hello everyone! been having an issue with my bike and I THINK...I may know what the problem is but wanted to check to see if it might be something else before I start taking apart my bike..again. My bike is a 1995 Heritage Softail Nostalgia

Anyways, I let my bike sit for about a year and a half and finally got around to get her running again. She wouldnt start up on her own so I took it apart to clean up the carb. It had gotten gummed up pretty good so I gave it a good cleaning and replaced a few rubber seals. I put it back together and she fired right up.

The problem I'm having now is that I'll pull the choke out and start her up, Ill let her warm up for a bit, but once I put the choke back in the engines dies. I figured my idle cable might be too tight or loose so I adjusted it but still no go. Thinking back when I cleaned my carb, I dont think I cleaned the slow jet ...the main jet was clogged so im assuming the slow jet may be in the same shape and this is causing my problem. I just reassembled my bike last week an dont want to take it apart again If I dont have to, so is there anything else you can think of that might be causing my engine just to shut off like that? thanks in advance!

 

where your cables hook to carb,
there is a throttle adjustment screw
give it a 1/4 turn get it started then find your sweet spot
dump im some stabil and it should clean it out,
your cable adjustment takes the slack out of cables

 

which is the throttle adjustment screw?



i couldnt find a throttle adjustment screw in my service manual

 

Idle screw is the one in the pic under the cable. But if you didn't clean out the idle jet, you just need to bite the bullet and do it right.

 

Spend an hour and do it the right way.

Disassemble the carb and clean it again. Replace the fuel hoses.

If you have debris in the carb, stabil or seafoam or any of that stuff will be useless.

 

Truer words you will not see.

 

well for anyone interested, I took the carb off and cleaned out the carb and replaced my jets. I let her warm up and she worked .... got a little dark out so im going to take her for a spin tomorrow to see how shes holding up. Anyways, thanks for the advice guys im sure it wont be last time.

 

ok now im stuck. I just came in from attempting to go for a little cruise around the block to see how its running and this time it gave me problems on the start up. turned the petcock on, pulled the choke and fired it up, took me about 2 times to turn her over and once I pushed in the choke it gave me about 5 good seconds of idle and died? it ran perfectly fine last night so I dont know what the deal is now.

I also noticed something this morning on my old jets. I replaced them with some stock ones 170/42 and looking at my old ones they read 200/4 - 40 something, i cant make it out on the jet.I got this bike from a guy who said he hadnt done anything to the bike so how these jets got into my bike is beyond me. I really dont have a good understanding on jets and their sizes, I get how they function but the sizes and phrases such as "lean" and "rich" is beyond me. I dont know what else to try or where to investigate.

 

You could soak the jets you took out in carb cleaner...clean with a brush and put them back in...then see how it runs.

 

I'm guessing this is your first carbureted vehicle. Welcome to the world us old guys grew up in.

Starting..... Tuning and adjustments are all made on a vehicle that is up to operating temperature. Modern fuel injection has temperature sensors that adjust for a cold motor, but your bike doesn't. Start it with the enrichener (technically not a choke) and when you push it in, keep the idle high enough with the throttle lock until you're up to operating temperature. It's just NOT going to idle until it's warm. If it does, it's probably not set up right.

Lean and rich and jetting..... Proper operation depends on the proper mixture of air and fuel. You'll read threads about AFR (Air Fuel Ratio) and the lengths some guys go to to get them spot on. Ignore those threads for a few years and a few thousand dollars. What us sub-100hp guys need to know is quite a bit simpler. Lean is when you have too much air (common) or too little fuel (less common). Rich is the opposite, also referred to as fat. A stock Evo is pretty restricted by the intake and the exhaust, so the first mods most folks make is improving those two things. (What folks call a stage 1) An engine that pumps more air, makes more power.... But adding air makes you run lean. Lean means it runs hot, which is bad for your pipes, you inner thighs, and your engine, in no particular order. To cure that, you use slightly larger jets like the ones you found in the carb. You can read the plugs to get close on jetting, but a dyno tune is really handy once you have your mods where you want them.

And finally, here's a mildly entertaining and fairly short video on the carb overhaul process. He doesn't spend near enough time on the cleaning process though. If it only takes an hour, you did it wrong. The video also does not cover the mixture screw, which is covered with an aluminum plug. If you take the plug out and remove the screw to clean, there are two tiny washers and a spring under it. Harley doesn't sell them, because you're not supposed to take the plug out and mess with the mixture. CV Performance sells them, but now that you know they're there, you won't lose them, right?


Oh, and a final page with some good info about CV carbs and mods. Just don't drill the slide like they talk about.

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