A few weeks back, I came across a web site (link at the bottom) that had some interesting info on tweaking your carb (EFI guys can quit reading now). I was thinking I should tweak my carb, as it seemed my bike was running lean, and not running as well as it should. You may remember me from threads such as "My Bike Hates the Cold" and others.

Well, Saturday night, it was only 11:30 pm, and the garage was a balmy 32°, so I figured I should head out there and go ahead an try that carb tweak. I finished up right at 5:00 am (nodding off just after hearing my lovely wife ask "Are you JUST NOW coming to bed??" - Yeah, well, I was working on my bike)

It's definitely a trial and error thing. Warm up the bike, ride a little, tweak, ride a little, tweak, ride a little, tweak. We went out for our daily ride Sunday, and it was running good, but I had the idle set way too low, and I thought I could use another 1/8 or /14 turn on the mixture screw.

I got home Sunday, turned the idle up a bit, tweaked the mixture screw a bit, took it around the block and it felt great. It was supposed to snow Monday, so I took the Jeep to work. Finally got the bike out on a good run today - to work and back, then out for our evening cruise. Damn, for the amazing low investment of turning a couple of screws, it's like a whole different bike. Runs smooth as silk now. It's almost un-Harley like. No more popping on deceleration. No more coughing on acceleration. No more hating to run in the cold. No more having to run with the choke/enricher half way out. Makes good power right off the line, all the way through red line. Real nice.

One thing this tweak helped my figure out - I need to rejet my carb, go up to the next size, as it was way too lean. My mixture screw is pretty much all the way out. I'll leave it as is for now, and mess with tearing the carb apart when I have the bike tore down for paint and other winter project mods.

If you have a carbed bike, and are comfortable doing your own wrenching, it's well worth it to check out this tweak.

http://www.harley-performance.com/ha...arburetor.html

 

thanks for the web addy!

 

How do you know it's too lean? What do your plugs look like after a good long run and a cool down?

 

The plugs looked OK... maybe a hair lean, but that doesn't tell you anything about what's going on at the low end and at idle.

I was guessing it was running lean because of the way it was running. It hated the cold, it would cough on acceleration and pop on deceleration. My biggest clue was that I needed to run with the choke half way out when the weather got down into the high 30's.

The original owner did a stage I upgrade - V&H longshots, SE air cleaner. I don't know if he rejetted the carb when he did the upgrade, but, I'm guessing not. I've got the mixture screw on the carb out about 4.5 turns - which pretty much means it's all the way out, and it's running like a dream now... which would seem to confirm my guess that it was too lean before.

 

I have an 05 wide glide.I have the same mods as you and had the same problems.Definatly jet it up one size.I went to a dyno tuner and he said it was close.Much better bike to ride.Happy riding.

 

Got it Evil, Thanks

 

Changing the jets is cake. What size jets does it have now?

 

any body ever drilled out the holes in the emulsion tube??

 

You probably have a 45 slow jet. Change it to a 48 and you'll be fine. You'll need to screw down your mixture screw though, maybe between 1-1/2 and 2 turns. Be extremely careful screwing the mixture screw in though, if you go too far you'll damage the end. Go until it just touches.