I have a 1985 ElectraGlide with the stock butterfly Keihin carb. I have been doing a little reading lately and it seems Harley changed to CV carbs in 89 and have been considering upgrading the carb. I would like to know your advice and experience with this type of upgrade (reliability, performance, brand, type, etc.). My thought is to find a used upgrade off ebay. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

 

A soup can with a hole in the bottom would be a better carb than what you have now. A lot of people change to the CV's and like them. The S&S Super is also a good choice. Get the whole system, including replacing the intake manifold to get rid of those compliance fittings.

 

For what it is worth my '95 came with a Keihin carb.
I got an S&S E and love it.
It uses more gas but it is easy to set up.

 

Buy a S&S Super E and donate what you have to the trash bin.

 

I recently swapped my butterfly for a CV. Night and day difference and not alot of coin.

 

I have the Mikuni HSR42 on mine since '02 and love everything about it except the fuel economy. If that's important, it's hard to beat the Keihin CV carb for fuel economy.

 

Your bike came with a Keihin CV carb...

The OP`s bike came with a Keihin butterfly type carb. Different animal altogether.

CV carbs are excellent units.

Butterfly carbs are for batting practice.

 

If mine came with the CV carb then I really don't understand why everybody likes them.

I had it rebuilt to try and help it. It did help but it still ran like crap.
The first mile or two it spit and sputtered bad.

The S&S Super E I replaced it with is so much better.

 

My 94 came with a CV , still running it today , havea rebuild kit setting in the shop to go into it when I pull the top end to replace base gakets & install a EV27 , Cv is the easiest carb to set up & keep it there, I've gone from sea level to high mountians in NM & bike the same , the CV stays the same , parts from the newer ones fit right in IE jets, slide, cables , go to CV performance & read up on the CV carb

 

I think your carb was past its best. As a sweeping generalisation the c/v is fine and can also deliver great performance when tuning a stock motor. Mind I have a G on my current motor....