hi,
the grease i used is rubber grease, the same stuff they used to assemble brake system's. do not use chassis or bearing grease it may affect the rubber seal ring's.
one thing, i do, do is i mark thing's with a sharpie, before i pull thing's apart, so i can realign and place part's in the way they were.
i also only grease the intake to head seal's.
it allow's them to pull down evenly as you torque the intake manifold to the heads.
i heard of someone having a intake leak, it leaked because the a/f backing plate was not correctly spaced when bolted to the head's, with spacer's and it pull's the carby slightly out of the intake manifold and create's a leak.
i used genuine seal's. i know jame's gasket's and seal's are good quality, but i have not used jame's stuff since i owned my shovelhead.
good luck, you can do it.
grumpy.

 

OK, This is where I'm at. sprayed wd-40 around all seals, intake and carb, no change in idle. Sprayed carb cleaner on all intake and carb seals. No change in idle. Just a quick shot of starting fluid and bike dies instantly. I went for a ride today and still have a lean condition pop. Pulled both plugs and they are white. Real white. I'm guessing I have to pull it apart again. Just seams weird the Idle only changes when I use the starting fluid but not when I use the carb cleaner??

 

After spraying the intake and carb seals with carb cleaner and not getting any idle change, Im assuming I don't have a leak there. So I pulled the carb off and took it all apart and cleaned it out again. I didn't get to ride it to check plugs again. But they are too white to ride. Last thing I want to do is burn it up. I have a screaming eagle filter and slip-ons on it. 190 main, 45 pilot and screw is 3 turns out. I have to be getting air somewhere.

 

your running way lean.... check your jets and make sure nothing is stuck inside them. get a can of compressed air and blow them all out. double check the carb and make sure nothing is blocking fuel passages. double check your float to and adjust it of needed.

 

Thats excactly what I did. Everything looked good but I did it anyway. Jets were good and clear. float checked out. Sprayed it all out with carb cleaner and blew it out with compressor. I don't know what else to check except pull the petcock and check tank filter. petcock vaccume diaphram checked out ok.

 

maybe try new fuel lines and filter? and this might a dumb assumption but are you sure your running the right fuel(Premium)?

 

Ya. I always buy the highest octane availible 92-93.

 

it's got me, i chased all the thing's you have done. i had the same problem.
it ended up being the diafram in the petcock for me.
just out of curiosity, the plastic spider in the slider, raise the slider and get a piece of wire that is bent at 90 degree's and see if one of the spider's feet is over the little hole on the left on the bottom of the slider.
it should not be.
also you voes unit, that look's like a black spinning top, can be vaccum and electically tested for the correct hg".

stick with it, you will fix it.
grumpy.

 

Thanks for your help and suggestions guys. When I took the carb apart this last time I made sure the plastic "spider" wasn't covering the hole. And I don't think it was before I took it apart. I visually checked the black rubber vaccume diaphram on top of carb for holes but didn't test it. I don't know if the manual shows how to test that or not. I think it said to hold it up to a bright light and look for holes. I need to ride it hoping that the good carb cleaning fixed it but we are just getting a bunch of rain for now. I will figure this thing out yet.

 

BobbyC, any update on this problem? I'm having a similar problem on my 2002 FXDXT and would like to know if/how you solved it.