done searches and still not too clear on all this. 04 roadking with 5,900 mi. carbed model. bought it with rinehart slipons. carb had already been jetted with a 48 pilot and still had a 190 main. no needle changes. ran good with an occasional cough out the carb. recently purchased a set of BUB CrossDresser II , true dual headers and mated them to my rinehart slipons. seemed to be decent. still had the cough sometimes and then lagging in 5th mid throttle. turned my AFR screw in and took it out to 2 3/4 turns. good idle. good in all throttle posistions under acceleration but no color on the plugs. barely a hint of grey on the rear cylinder plug. i know that cylinder is richer. and on my way to work a couple of days ago...i noticed that it is doing that surging type thing. in all gears at steady throttle. quite aggravating.
So no color on the plugs makes me think lean. pops on decel. have heard this is a rich condition. also heard it is lean condition. exhaust is all tight. have some buddies that own a shop back home who run this set up on most of their rides and say they run fine. and now the surging? at a loss for the moment. any advice? thanks

 

48 seems like it would possibly be rich. 190 should be right on. I would drill the slide and round it out and go with a 46 jet and new plugs then try riding it under 65% throttle for 10 miles then check plugs

 

I agree on the 46 slow jet, 2 1/2 ~ 3 turns out on the mix screw, and the 190 main, however;

DO NOT DRILL THE SLIDE!!!

It made the carb coughing ALOT WORSE on my '06 RK, it screws up the calibration of how the slide reacts with atmospheric pressure and air flow through the carb.

shim your needle up with a couple of small .030 ~ .050 thick brass or nylon washers, if that don't give you some plug color, try a '88 sportster needle, HD # 27094-88.
the diameter of the straight section, which controls fuel flow at cruising speed is smaller.... giving you a richer mix in that range.
good luck!,

K.

 

thanks for the advice guys. at this point i have left the 48 pilot which in know is a bit rich. i can tell that, cuz when i run in my screw...it never really gets to running rough. it just chuggs real low but keeps running. anyways that is still in. and i put a 200 main in it. screw is out to 2 3/4 and is running perfect as far as riding. just starting to get some tan on the center electrode. i might drop to the 46 still. thanks