A tried and true for "most" carbs in twin cam bikes for rejetting with intake and exhaust mods would be on the low speed jet 45/46 (46 being the best usually), and on the high speed jet would be 185/190 (190 usually being stock). Install 2 - #4 washers (available in most hardware stores) under the main jet needle to raise it up .050 (see detail below), and readjust the idle mixture to the highest and steadiest setting, usually found about 2 1/2 to 3 turns open after LIGHTLY seating it and backing it out. This is done after the removal of the concealment plug that covers the idle screw from the factory. Care should be taken when drilling a hole to remove this conceament plug because if the drill goes through the plug and contacts the screw, it can turn the screw in and bottom it out damaging the seat of the mixture adjustment. All adjustments to mixture should be made at full operating temps. This mod will set you back about $4-$5 total.

This can be done without removing the carb by rotating it slightly for better access to the screws and works best with a stage 1 intake kit. Using the stock air cleaner would cause a rich condition with this proceedure.

Refer to the other CV Carb posts in this area for more info and pictures of the carb to help you out here.

The installation of the washers is an easy thing to do and is pretty much straight foward. It just takes a little patients to seat the diaphram back into the groove when you reassemble it. No experience needed, just straight foward common sense using a light handed circular motion to gather it up and drop into the groove in the carb body, You'll feel it drop in when you do it .The washers go under the ring on the needle after lifting it out of the diaphram to raise it up in the assembly as seen in the pic at the bottom here .

I prefer not to drill the vacuum port in the slide. It can cause pop backs under certain conditions in cold weather and low RPM's.Also slide spring replacement for a weaker one or cutting the origional one is also optional here.

I prefer this method to replacement of the main jet needle as not all know how to determine which needle would be the best for their application and it eliminates the guesswork. It also does not require dyno runs to validate the results. It works in most cases as a cut and dry method of getting a seat of the pants improvement without the time and expense of the DJ carb and other kits at $60-$100 and does not kill your MPG like the kits or sporty needle has done.


Some people decide to use the sporty needle # 27094-88 in their upgrade. These are my feelings on doing this. That needle comes from a carb that had NO accelerator pump and when you install it in a carb that does have an accelerator pump, it for sure will give you more fuel when you get into the accelerator circuit, but I feel it gives you too much fuel at that time and that's why I prefer the shimming with washers against the replacement of the needle to the sportster needle. The taper of the stock needle is more condusive to better mileage than the sporty needle is and if you were to ride two identical bikes with the two different setups, you really could not tell the difference.


1. Slide Spring
2. Slide Diaphragm
3. Vacuum Slide
4. Vacuum Port
5. Needle Jet
6. Main Air Jet
7. Main Jet
8. Slow Jet
9. Idle Mixture Adjustment Screw
10. Throttle Plate