Welcome to the traditional world of motorcysickles.

It's actually a source of pride and value should you need to do a roadside diagnosis and repair.

 

I have seen in the past that a rubber tipped needle can distort over time and cannot be detected by eye. I used to have leaking gas out of the over flow when parked and replaced the needle n seat with an all metal unit, I believe it was out of Dennis Kirk book for an S&S. Problem solved...

 

After thinking about it overnight I have decided to go up a size on the intermediate jet. When I get home from work I'll pull that float bowl off and switch out the jet. S&S gave me a couple of extras so, hopefully I have the one I need already. I'm cautiously optimistic that this is my issue with starting the bike. Seems that others have had the exact same symptoms that were cured with a larger intermediate jet.

 

Is it still flooding? If so then do one thing at a time! While it is flooding it hardly matters what jets are in the carb as it ain't going to run right! Stop it flooding first, then you can decide later if it needs any adjustments or jet changes.

 

What are the current jet sizes? 72/295 is factory I believe. I always felt I needed a 280 myself due to smelling rich and black soot.

 

Yes, this....... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

So, I have everything back together. I switched out the intermediate jet for a 31 (it had a 295). It started really easy, warmed up quick (keep in mind it's about 40 degrees outside, or less). I let it go to idle after a bout a minute on the enricher and guess what..it just loped along. No wandering, perfect idle at where ever I set it. I had to back off of the accelerator setting a full turn but, the throttle response is instant. The idle mixture is perfect at 1 1/2.

I let it set for about ten minutes, gave the throttle one squirt and hit the starter, no throttle. It started immediately and went straight to a nice idle at 1000 RPMs.

I think I had two issues. An intake leak and too small of a intermediate jet. I'm going to go change the oil on my car and then give it another try to start. If she fires right up I think I'll be home free.

I think that it seemed to flood because not being able to start caused me to start trying to feed it gas through the accelerator pump. Of course, I can't swear that it ever flooded. It just wouldn't start and smelled of gas. When I pulled the plugs they were bone dry. Time will tell if this issue is done but, if it's not I know a whole lot more about jetting it.

As far as intake leaks I have a theory. When a carb isn't set right it causes backfires or coughing, or both. If the bike is coughing I theorize that it could cause an intake leak. That little explosion's got to go somewhere. Then, the problem gets worse and harder to diagnose. It seems to me that these Harleys have zero tolerance for intake leaks, even very small ones.

 

You can lead a horse to water but if the keg is left unattended the horse is still going to **** all over the place. even an Iron Horse......

 

That's a good one!!!
I haven't heard that one before.

 

Most small engines don't like intake leaks, or exhaust leaks for that matter.