Hi
Just back from a week in France taking in the Le Mans 24 hour race on my 1986 Heritage Softail with 40000 miles on it. No oil used at all and no problems of any sort. I love EVO's.
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One thing. If I start bike and leave it ticking over for 5 minutes or so, when I ride away, not hard, it back fires and splutters uo the road for the first few minutes. If I just start it up and go, no probs, just after ticking over for awhile.
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Does not do it if warmed up.
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Any ideas or sugestions appriciated.
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Cheers.
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TC

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Unfortunately with these engines, especially if you have the later CV carb, you almost have to overload them with fuel to make them idle when cold starting. And unless you stay right on top of it and constantly adjust the choke/enricher, they gas foul the plugs and that's the reason for the erratic running out of the hole. High energy ignition cleans the plugs right up though.
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Assuming you have the original carburetor, pull the choke all the way on a cold start and&nbsp\\;leave it&nbsp\\;no more than half out for fast idle and you really shouldn't leave them idling (ticking over) for more than 1 minute. You're not doing anything wrong particularly&nbsp\\;- it's just "nature of the beast" for Evo's to be cold natured. Most importantly with these Evo's though, is to be easy with the throttle until the cylinders get some heat to them and expand. They will "grow" about .010 from cold to hot. Abusing the throttle when cold causes cylinder base gaskets to leak and you're most likely to have a head gasket failure when the engine is cold.
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Ride safe

 

yep t150 is right on the money. What I do is pull choke out, open the throttle quickyl a couple of times to get the accelerater pump to squirt some neat fuel down the inlett then hit the statrer on a closed throttle and away she goes as soon as she is fired up push the choke in to half. Then as soon as I am rolling push the choke all the way in. Then just ease on up the road a little till, but then its not as if your going to be ringing the bikes neck riding away form your house now is it

 

There's&nbsp\\;a good chance your plugs are loading up a bit as the bike idles. After you accelerate they get cleaned out. You shouldn't be idling that long anyway. Not good for a lot of reasons.

 

Plugs fowling, the early carbs use an enrichment process which is different to the traditional choke, leaving the bike idling with the enrichment on for any period will eventually foul the plugs. Not good for an EVO to sit idling.. they really don't like it..&nbsp\\;