BACKGROUND INFO:
My scooter is a Y2K (2000) FLHT Road King. 90,000 miles. 2nd owner.
88ci. S&S 509 solid cams. Stock CV carb. Stock air cleaner. "True duals" exhaust kit into megaphones.
I live way up in the North Georgia mountains, and have been to at least 16 different states in the last 10 years, on this bike.
It burns a little oil (probably needs rings), and it leaks a little oil (from the drive sprocket area).
Not worried. i check it over before i ride it.
Over the past 11 years, I kept this bike under the car port at the first house, then in the garage in the second house, safe and warm.

Last year I bought a new house to go with the new wife.
Unfortunately, new house did not have a garage. I used a Wal-Mart 10x10 cabana, staked to the ground, to protect my ride.
Hurricane came thru, and my cabana flew up in the air, flipped over, and came down on a stump, ruining the cabana.
Bike was untouched. Covered the bike with a tarp until it was warm enough to ride.
This Spring; the carb was puking gasoline all over the side of the motor, so I purchased a CV rebuild kit from my local independent repair shop.
I cleaned the carb and replaced a split float valve (rubber nipple) in the carb.
Replaced the old petcock (the "Gusher") with a rebuilt one, and used new vacuum hose to connect petcock to the intake manifold.
Gasoline leak solved!

MY PROBLEM IS:
The bike is now somewhat harder to start, and i have to leave the choke engaged about 1/2 way to make the bike idle smoothly (although it idles faster).
If I take the choke off; the bike hesitates when starting out, then pops and misfires whenever I let OFF on the throttle,
It also misses a random spark when I am trying to cruise down a flat level road, at a steady speed/ steady throttle.
If I give it more gas; like when I want to get somewhere faster, or pass a slow car, she runs like a scalded dog!
Spark plugs have been changed, and they were a nice sandy brown color.
Mixture screw is out to about 1.75 turns

I pulled off the air cleaner, and checked the float bowl, and the needle jet holder but they were clean. The rubber Float bowl gasket was broken in two spots, so I replaced it.
I am thinking that perhaps my intake manifold gaskets have finally worn out.
I sprayed a little Carb cleaner around the manifold, and the idle increased. but I wasn't convinced that the extra spray didn't find its way to the air cleaner/carb.
I recently had the carb off, but left the choke ****/cable in place on the bike. I will check that it is clean and seated properly.
Rain shower coming thru, so I thought I would type this message while I wait for the rain to subside.
Anybody have any beneficial thoughts or ideas?
I read thru enough of these posts to think that I can figure out who knows what they are talking about.
Drop me a line. Sleepyjohn

 

Looks like you already nailed the issue, change the intake gaskets and see how she runs, otherwise adjust the idle air mixture.

 

too lean on the bottom,check intake seals,if carb is bone stock,install a 48 pilot jet

 

Air/idle mixture screw should be 2 1/2, 3 turns out.
We start at 3 turns here.
Scott

 

did you clean and clear the slow/intermediate jet and it's passages, blown with compressed air? remove the jet from the carb body and blow them both. with your set up you probably need on size larger than stock on the pilot anyway, like 48 as already mentioned. if you step it up one size the mixture screw doesn't have to be turned out as many turns, but you will need to try it out and see what works best for you after you are sure that you have no vacum leaks.

m

 

OP said that it ran fine before with the Jets that he had on it and the idle air mixture screw is at only 1.85 turns. He seems to have discovered an intake leak and likely just needs to replace the gaskets. Plugs are reported to be reading proper color.