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I have a 1996 Fatboy 13k miles (yes, it sat a bit with the previous owner.) original CV Carb
I ran 350 miles on a first ride then it quit. after starting a couple times and making it down the road, it quit again. This happened a couple of times. Checked plugs, they are lean. Mother Road Harley changed petcock and cleaned carb.
Then rode the last 150 miles home, it quit once (just died) but restarted.
Got home and the pictures show what I have.
Left is after tooling around town. Right is after a 500 mile ride.
The Bike was originally owned in Wisconsin and is now in Arizona in Prescott at 5,000 ft. elevation. Shouldn't they be running rich?
The one on the left is when I started the trip, the right pic is when I got home.
So you think I might be sucking in air from behind the carb? I had thought about replacing the seals to the jugs and the one on the carb.....to start.
If I do that, while I have it torn apart, would a carb rebuild be in order too?
Instead of just throwing parts at your bike how about doing a little testing first?
Fire up the bike and while it's idling spray some carb cleaner around the seals and see if the idle changes.
If it does you have a leak and if it doesn't you don't have a leak.
To effectively read sparkplugs, you have to start with new clean ones. Run at certain speeds, then shut down while running, etc... I'm sure the instructions are out there. Now, looking at your right plug pic, I would not say that you are running too lean. That's an OK tan color. I would be more worried about the shutdowns. Start looking at your ignition system, cracked coils, timing plate, etc...
A cruise on the open road with a correct CV will look like that plug. Your stall problem is something else. All that setting, I would pull petcock again an drain tank into qt jars and see what you have when it settles. It is possible that it is running out of fuel.
Last edited by Jackie Paper; Jun 5, 2019 at 06:03 PM.
I'm just gonna toss this out 'cause it happened to me.
On my bike...The right side gas cap has a "one-way-valve" to allow for venting as you use gas. Many years ago...I was a new guy on a Club run and my bike repeatedly cut out. In that case...it was like running out of gas. My "one-way-valve" had quit working and the bike would run a while, then quit. One of the brothers said "gimme that F...kin' gas cap", put it in his mouth and sure enough...something was stuck and no air would pass. Pulled out his big ole Buck knife and proceeded to carve out all that plastic "one-way-valve" material.
Problem solved. Thanks Boneyard 1%'er..GBNF.
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Spark plugs all of a sudden runs lean
