Just bought a 86 Softail Custom as a project bar hopper. Looking to do exhaust, AC and re-jetting, what is a good bang for your buck AC kit, didn't see one in the Screamin Eagle book, Does Harley not make one ? Any opinions / suggestions appreciated.

 

This what I did to my 1986 flhtc a year ago, bone stock and running like crap!
I don't know stock yours is so the carb fix my not be for you.

1. Got a K&N air filter at autozone. $50 bucks. Drilled out the backplate for more air and stop the WOT breakup.

2. Bought Samson silver bullets off ebay used, cut the bottlenose ends off.

3. Rebuilt the kehien butterfly carb (I know the carb everyone hates). I
bought a new #52 low jet made it run even crappier. So i put the old #50 back in and reamed it with a dental tool. (becareful of this, not too much force!) It now runs great with no hic-ups, backfires or decel pops. Check your complience intake fittings for air leaks.

If you care to hear it running after the work I put into it go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQZkuvNOx74

 

The Screamin Eagle part for the '86 ('84-'89) was 29051-85 but it looks like that high-flow ac kit has been discontinued. The newer kit for '90-'92 is 29008-90A. I am not sure what is different between the kits, the pictures look the same as what I have on the older kit, but who knows what may or may not line up right. Maybe if a local dealer has it in stock they'd let you check it out. To me it looks like the newer version has a couple extra brackets that maybe you can just discard. The 2002 prices were 89.95 for the newer kit and 79.95 for the older kit so maybe you are just paying for the extra brackets and possibly everything else is the same.

If it were me, I'd go for it..it would probably work as-is or with minor modification at worse...but I am really thinking you just need to discard those 2 brackets on the upper right in the pic linked below.

Check out this parts pic...also this guy modified the kit to work on his Virago...so you can step through his other pics too:
http://www.pbase.com/iamflagman/image/12924673

 

Biggest prob is gonna be the air filter backing plate. Assuming you still have the original carb, the bolt pattern for it is very similar looking but different from the CV carb, for which all that is easily found. Removing the baffle in the backplate with a good filter element and drilling several (hidden) 1/2 - 3/4 holes in it will make a big diference. Mufflers/pipes, well they're everywhere...

I switched to CV and love it, but for bar hopping the original carb is better especially if you're in a colder climate - they're not so cold natured. But bear in mind, the Evos are sensitive to cold started/running hard. If you lite them up and blast off down the strip regularly, you WILL have base gasket problems.

 

Thanks for the input guys, Modifying the air filter housing and going with a K&N filter sounds like the way I will go, Now all I gotta do is figure out what exhaust to go with.

 

I put an S&S on mine (I have the shortie carb) but they do make adaptor kits for other carbs to make them fit. Haven't had any problems. (Incidently, when I got it it had a velosity stack; works much better with the air cleaner now)

 

If you can get the SE air cleaner, I'd do that. They work very well and are reasonably priced (incredibly enough), and everyone's probably trying to get rid of the older ones. I googled the part number and there's one http://bikerbobsstore.com/index.php?...ducts_id=10435 for $64.

 

Good find!...I'd go for that too if it were me.