Hey all just joined the forum today. I was just given my fathers custom softail. It has a 116 cubic inch motor with S&S carbs. It sat for two years without being started. My father had drained the tanks and removed the battery before storing the bike. Today i went to start the bike. First thing i did was replace the oil and oil filter. Next i put about half a gallon of gas in the tank and let it drain out the petcock valve. The tanks themselves looked fairly clean inside and the gas that came out looked clean. After draining the tanks i filled them back to about half full with 92 octane fuel. I put the freshly charged battery in and after the 3rd hit on and the choke on the bike came to life. However it ran very rough spitting and sputtering and backfiring flames out the exhaust pipe. I was a little worried so i shut it down. I am hoping someone could suggest what i might look for as my problem.
This is my first bike and i do not have much experience wrenching on a bike. I am assuming it has something to do with the carburetor. Second question, do these types of motors have some sport of timing device like cars have?
thanks for your help

 

What year is it?

 

Need to know the year like mentioned above . Does it have a carb or fuel injection makes a big difference as to how to start looking at things. Good luck with your bike it should not take much to get her running fine ..

 

Welcome to the Forum from Kansas!

Good luck on getting it all tuned up!

 

First thing to do is remove and did-assemble that carb,and soak it for a couple hours in a bucket of carb cleaner. Find a youtube video on rebuilding it. Get new intake gaskets to replace the dry rotted ones on it now. [they will probably be the o-ring type,or possibly the older 'rubber band ' type.
[ The timer is inside the 'nose cone',but there should be no reason for the timing to change while the bike was setting.] Before you put it back together,a compression test will tell you if all the valves are opening and closing like they should.

 

Get an S&S rebuild kit for the carb, pull it apart, clean it up. May want to "zero it out" and reset it. Meaning...set the screws all the way in, and then set them to default settings...and tweak it from there. It's very easy. I don't know the model S&S, but for example, here's a guide for the popular Super E and the Super G
https://www.sscycle.com/docs/default...e.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Note the first line...with the settings for the 3 screws...turn til bottomed out, and then follow the turnout settings for each screw...now you're at factory default, and tweak it from there if you want.

Over time, carbs tend to get out of tune....mostly cuz of constant tweaking. I always fiddled with the S&S on my Shovelhead, and sometimes someone else said "Here..let me do this (they go turn a screw)..see if it runs better. Hey, we always know best after a few beers!.....Sometimes you just have to get them back to default. It's quick and easy.

With this bike engine over 100 cubes, it probably has a Super G carb, as the Super E was more for < 100 cubes. The above guide is for both.

They're easy carbs to work on, they're thirsty (bad fuel economy), and known to leak a bit as they age, which the rebuilt kit will fix.

Change the spark plugs....get some Autolites. At least for now though, just clean up the current ones.

As for the flames...meh, it's an S&S...they can throw a lotta gas in there. But something else to check, is the pipes going into the heads. If something came loose there, and any air can get in, she'll back fire 'n pop. Maybe wanna at least check those header bolts, perhaps put new exhaust gaskets in there. For a whole summer I rode my Shovelhead with a snapped exhaust bolt...I just hung the pipe up there and held it on with wire wrap. That cold air leak, combined with the S&S carb I had, when we did night runs, whoever was behind me was always commenting on my blue flame shots when we were doing some..spirited night rides.

 

Welcome from Georgia!

 

you are going about the right way. 2 years is not very long for a bike to sit. i would try running it alittle longer and see if it clears up before taking anything apart just yet. the passage ways in the carb do become clogged after sitting though. if your dad put some kind of fuel stabilizer in the fuel and ran some though the carb before draning the tanks ,i wouldn't think it would be to bad. S&S carbs are simple, so don't be scared of it if you have to take it apart. be aware if it's an E type S&S there are some small parts in the accellerator pump that will fall out. good luck !

 

116 cu. in...probably an S&S G. Take it apart and clean it.

 

Two years isn't a long time. I've run two year old gas before. Add a little stabil and run her a bit see if she comes out of it. Might check the air cleaner for mouse nests. If you're reving it up and it's poping on taking your hand off it that's pretty common. If you do need to clean the carb up I've taken to using an ultrasonic cleaner and not even taking them apart. A simple green and water mix and let it go to town.