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Tale of the Lectron Carburetor - HD Performance Part
Just a bit of history for any who like this sort of thing - Back in the late 1970s I had a Lectron carburetor on my 1972 XLCH. It replaced a 38mm round slide Mikuni which replaced the stock Bendix carb. The Lectron is a flat slide constant velocity type carb and is super easy to tune and work on. Once I installed it and set it up according to the instructions it was by far the best carb I've ever used. And it was even a Harley Davidson carb - it was a special performance part available thru any HD dealer.
I got curious today and did a quick search. They still make the Harley version, though it has a few improvements. Isn't cheap at nearly $800, though. I'm almost thinking that I need to start working on THE MAMA's sympathy button and ask for it as a Christmas present, LOL! I think it'd do great on my old 1987 Evo Sloptail.
Learn More about Lectron Harley Carburetors
Harley Carburetors
Did you know Lectron built the first flat slide carburetor? We have been developing carburetors for over 40 years and has a rich history in the Harley world, including being OEM in the late '70s! Known for making huge power and being easy to tune, Lectron has won more championships in drag racing than any other carb manufacturer. After proving our technology, we began to refine our product and expand into new markets.
Over the past four decades, Lectron has become one of the leading performance fuel systems brands in motocross, enduro, speedway bikes, sprint cars, karts, and many other custom and semi-custom applications.
Recently, we have made our product much more refined and user friendly with our new Gen II 4 Stroke kits. These are equipped with a dedicated, externally adjustable, idle circuit to help get that low Harley idle, as well as custom metering rods for extremely smooth power on the street. Our metering rod and externally adjustable Power Jet still takes the place of jets, needles, accelerator pumps, and other headaches. These kits now come as bolt on units that are a direct replacement for your existing carburetors.
These carburetors come pretuned from the factory and once setup for your riding style and personal preference, you never have to touch them again! This is thanks to our metering rod
The Metering Rod:
The metering rod is similar to a needle in a traditional carburetor, but with the side facing the engine ground off. These are preset do not get adjusted in Harley carburetors. The metering rod uses the vacuum from the engine to create a low pressure signal behind the flat side of the rod (think about throwing a rock in a stream - the low pressure area is directly behind the rock - then add vacuum to it). Based on the density of the air, the proper amount of fuel will get pulled up the metering rod regardless of elevation, temperature, humidity, etc. The atmospheric conditions constantly change, but the physics stay the same! This means you always have the right tune. If you plan to ride to ride from Florida to Colorado, the only tuning you may have to do is adjusting your idle!
Another advantage of the metering rod is its ability to finely atomize the fuel. The fuel coming off the metering rod is in much finer particles than those coming out of a jet. Combined with always having the right tune (detailed above), the fuel itself is easier to burn. This leads to better throttle response, better fuel economy, and better power. Riders have reported getting 40 more miles per tank!
Below is a picture of the metering rod on a flow bench for demonstration purposes. Notice the metering rod it is on the side of the slide that is always under vacuum. Fuel is always loaded in the pickup tube which means we get excellent throttle response without an accelerator pump!
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NO, they DON'T all do that!
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There were a bunch of forgotten aftermarket Harley carbs over the years...and most of them need to be forgotten...
No way I'm paying $800 for a carb...I'm waiting for someone to come up with an easy to install EFI...they have tons of them for cars
I bought a FITech...it was sweet...but I sold the vehicle before I got to play with it much...
Yeah, 800 clams is more than steep! When I bought mine it wasnt any higher than the Mikuni and less than an S&S.
Ive got 2 EFI bikes. Only thing I really like about the FI is the get on and go aspect. No choke or enrichener to mess with, no float system to mess up, etc. Still, the S&S E in my 87 has been good.
Thanks for posting these. I still remember setting the float on my Bendix with a drill bit while sitting at the kitchen table--such precision. The rebuilt shovel had been sitting on the table the day before. I was almost back in business--forty years ago. Stuff sure has changed.
Thanks for posting these. I still remember setting the float on my Bendix with a drill bit while sitting at the kitchen table--such precision. The rebuilt shovel had been sitting on the table the day before. I was almost back in business--forty years ago. Stuff sure has changed.
At least the float setting doesn't have to be super-critical. I put an adjustable main jet in a Bendix on a '78 Shovel. The original Keihin would never work right from the day my Dad bought the bike. Swapped it for a used Bendix, tossed in a rebuild kit, added the adj. main, and down the road we went. For about a mile! Bike quit and I pulled over to see what happened. Bowl was there, but the adjustable main jet was gone; it unscrewed from the bowl and dropped out. Now I had no adj main, a bowl with a honking big hole in the bottom, and a 1 mile push back home, LOL! New used bowl, original main jet and back in business.
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Tale of the Lectron Carburetor - HD Performance Part
