I have an 04 HD FXD and had great pick up and torque but was missing some, I took the air filter off and got to the carburetor I did not unhook the throttle cables I did unhook the vacuum and pulled the choke through, I was able to get the bowl off to check it and it was clean. I did take the jets out and cleaned them while i was on this side(maybe messed them up) took the top of carb off to get to needle and diaphragm but since I did not take the throttle cable off(having a hard time getting them off and I do not want to bend them) any thoughts on that? I wasn't able to take the black cover off. I moved the black top to the side and could see the diaphragm but maybe it moved on me and it isn't seated right. I have a loss of power in the higher gears like 3-5th gear it takes forever to get to 60mph. Usually when I give it throttle no matter what gear I am in it takes off quick or picks up fast in higher gears. I wonder if I cut the diaphragm or if I didn't get it to seat properly. If that's the case would that cause me to lose the power I am talking about. I guess I will have to completely take the carb off and see if I messed the diaphragm up.

All in all i was stupid to even mess with it until i had the rebuild kit here, but I did and now I need to figure out what I did to mess the bike up.

Thank you for the help

 

Why do you think it’s the carb? Could be pretty much anything from a worn clutch to stripped gears....

Now that’s it’s been tampered with, best to pull it off and have a real mechanic rebuild it.

 

Take the cover off the carb (black piece), lift the diaphragm out of the carb hold it at a strong light and gently check the rubber for any holes/tears. If none found, put some Vaseline in the ring on the top of the carb or on the outer edges of the rubber and install, the vaseline should hold the rubber in place long enough to gently put the cover back on and slowly fit the cover on the rubber and carb and put everything back together and try again. It's easy to pinch that rubber on the back side.

 

Put a mukuni on it......

 

Had this happen a long time ago and forgive my CRS but do recall the Throttle Cables were the problem ..

 

Neither a worn clutch or stripped gears will give him the loss of power he's seeing.

 

Thank you for the replies everyone. I will be able to take this apart tomorrow, I will let ya know but I have a feeling it is the diaphragm.

seniorsuperglideE8 thank you for your information..Should be the diaphragm cause it was only thing really messed with and I rode it the night before and was running with power.

Thank you

 

A leaky diaphragm may fully open upon rapid throttle twisting, then relax and fall back to idle, even with the throttle twisted. How much tampering did you do with the carb? Just the top, or did you get into the bowl also? (You mention it was "clean" but did you mess with the jets?) Other than clean and replace? I'm thinking this might be part of your problem.

 

Hello and thank you for all the help...I went ahead and took the carb completely off and cleaned it, I did not add new seals because the ones in the carb were good. I did take out the jets and cleaned them put it all back together and the bike has it's power back:-)

Thank you SeniorsuperglideE8 it was definitely the diaphragm that was not seated right.

 

But now every time I turn the key the accessories fuse blows. Have never had any fuses blow since I have had the bike.