I have a 1996 Road King with Fuel Injection. I've owned it for the past 4.5 years. It seems like at least once a year I start having problems with the bike sputtering when it gets hot, and often just dying. Twice its been a bad throttle position sensor, once its been something related to the idle speed sensor.. Othertimes its magically just fixed itself for a while.. but it keeps coming back. It seems to be worse when the bike gets hot. A recent ride out to eat took me about 5 miles before the bike started sputtering and just died while driving leaving me stuck at a busy intersection. I let the bike sit for about 5 mins, it started, and I rode it home without incident.. but I am getting really annoyed with the issues like this I am having.

If I bring it to a dealer they just tell me to buy a new bike. If I bring it to an Indy, its tough to diagnose because it doesn't happen frequently enough for them to catch it. From what I have been told this year is either the 1st or 2nd year they offered FI on Road Kings, and its VERY unreliable and almost everyone says (oh, its one of THOSE fuel injectors) when I come in with problems.

I've been told there is basically NO adjustments that can be made for this year (The bike does have aftermarket pipes on it). One suggestion has been to convert it to a Carburator. Does anyone think this makes sense and would fix my seemingly endless problems? Does anyone know how much this would cost approximately? I just want a reliable bike that won't leave me stranded. I love the convenience of fuel injection but I can't stand the constant problems.

 

YES.

You have one of the very FIRST Magnetti-Marelli fuel injection systems and they were plauged with problems, at least mine was. You can either go with a carb (the most inexpensive and reliable option), go with the Zippers Delphi conversion kit (expensive and you will need to learn new software and stuff) or convert the whole thing over to the new style HD Delphi (also expensive). Over on Harley Tech Talk you can find a listing of parts you will need as well as the cost to do a carb conversion.

I you don't want to keep the bike and go with a carb, you can always use this as a reason to buy another bike!

Good luck

 

I am having the same crap w/mine i have a 96 flhtcui i would like to make it a carb bike. I have been all over the web looking for a kit if you find out anything on one please let me know and good luck if i fine i will let you know. Thanks

 

I have a stock throttle body and manifold from my 05 Twin cam that I'm looking to get rid of. I Don't know about compatibility however. If you're interested shoot me a pm.

 

http://www.zippersperformance.com/ca...=870&prod=2101

 

Wiron,

Go over to Harley Tech Talk, (I hope this link works) http://harleytechtalk.net/htt/index.php
and either search or introduce yourself as a new comer in search of a carb conversion list. You may have to sign on as a member but it will be worth is as the folks over there are very knowledgeable and will steer you in the right direction.

Good luck

Mark

 

That's the one I was mentioning in my earlier post. I'm running one of those on my '01 Ultra right now and it's working out very well. But like anything FI/ECM/Computer related, it may take a while (at least it did for me) to get everything dialed in correctly. There is also the Thayer Harness from http://vtwinfuelinjection.com/index.htm which allows you to change over to the real HD Delphi.

If I had it to do all over again, I would go carb.