Greetings forum folks...newbie here to both the forum and CV carbs...

Over the holiday break I decided it was time I dove into the carb on my 2003 Road King...it had been experiencing the intermittent gasket leak popping, and seemed like it always needed some amount of choke even after riding...

I have the stock pipes, but with aftermarket slip on mufflers, stock air box, but a K&N filter within it.

I bought a James gasket kit, a Vance & Hines jet kit, Yost idle mix screw, and some cans of carb cleaner...

The tear down, cleaning, and rebuild went smoothly... I followed the directions in the jet kit (including the part about drilling out the vacuum port in the slide), but I read on here that many of you have mixed feelings about doing that modification...

The bike starts better than ever with hardly any choke, and idles nice after a minute or two the way I imagined it should...but I am having issues with anything much past the idle speed while sitting in neutral...no load...

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this to be a needle setting issue with the adjustable one that came with the jet kit...the directions said to put the E-clip on the 4th notch (out of 5)...so I am tempted to try it on the 3rd and see if this solves the issue...

Anyone else tinkered around with these kits...?

Please tell me that I did not screw up by drilling the vacuum hole in the slide...

 

Could you describe the running issue a little more in detail.

 

If I slowly turn the throttle RPMs start to increase and eventually the engine starts to cough, sputter, RPMs drop, and eventually will stall out the engine entirely...

From what I read here, since my idle, choke, and mixture settings have the bike running fine at idle, it is only after throttle is applied that the problem exhibits itself... Since the main jet only comes into play for hard acceleration and high throttle conditions, by my reasoning, the only things left are the needle and the slide...

The needle is adjustable, but I have already drilled out the vacuum hole in the slide as per V&H instructions...

 

Make sure you didn`t install the needle jet backwards (actually upside down).

 

Before I change anything...



I just went outside, took the air cleaner off so I could see into the carb, started it, let it warm up so that I could turn off the choke entirely (something I was never able to do before), and played around with it...


What I found was that when I applied throttle, and slightly lifted up on the slide, the higher RPMs would smooth out and the engine would stay running...


My question is, should I not have drilled out that vacuum hole in the slide...?


Seems like that is the issue, or perhaps the V&H slide spring is too heavy (keeping the slide down) and perhaps changing back to the OEM spring would solve the problem...


Thoughts...?

 

If you refer to the piece under the emulsion tube that the needle comes down into, doesn't that only seat one way...? One end is a narrower diameter than the other...

 

Make sure you don't have an intake leak first. Second make sure you are getting fuel from the accelerator pump nozzle. I have never had a problem with drilling a slide and I've installed well over 100 dynojet kits. Finally check the vacuum hose from the carb to the petcock. Also did you check the float needle adjustment?

 

No intake leak...When I took the air cleaner assembly off all the gaskets showed new, even seating indentations on all sealing surfaces...

Accelerator pump nozzle squirts into the carb just fine...

Vacuum line is seated properly, and no line leaks...

The James gasket kit came with a new float needle and spring, I installed them, but I am unaware of any adjustment for the float needle...

There is plenty of fuel delivery, with no overflowing of fuel...the problem appears to be a rich condition (not enough air delivery) when throttle is applied...

 

Just to make sure you drilled the outside hole in the slide not the needle hole correct? Also make sure you didn't pinch the vacuum diaphragm when you installed it back into the carb. Does the slide rise when you crank the throttle?

 

Correct, I drilled out the right hole...

The slide does not rise when throttle increases...seems like the spring is too strong...

I can move it manually...so it is not hung up anywhere...