hello, my iron head is sick. a week ago it was running great, then i let it sit for a week, and now its backfiring like crazy and smoking a little bit of black smoke. what causes backfiring, i thought timing was off. i checked the points and it they had gotten out of adjustment, but i re adjusted them and still the same thing. i think it may be in my carb, the bike sat for 2 years and i never did rebuild the carb. so my first question, what could be the culprits of my backfiring? it is only the rear cylinder if that helps.

next question, what do i need to do to rebuild the carb? do they make a carb rebuild kit? how much is it? how do i check trhe floats and jets to make sure they are working and adjusted properly? anything else i should know about rebuilding carbs?

i have a big ride sunday and need to get this figured out. pleeease help. thanks

 

Well timing could be off a little or running to lean
You can buy rebuild kits for almost any carb I kinda had the same problem at one time I took the jets out and cleaned them really big improvement since there was only a few holes open on the jets. Jets that I know of are fairly cheap but I would consider a really good cleaning of the carb and whatnot. What kind of carb do you have?

 

I have the zenith carb. the o-ring on my accelerator pump is shot, thats why it was leaking gas from there a little bit. I bought a rebuild kit at the dealer today. Also got the correct spark plugs. Im gona rebuild the carb at work tonight and throw it on tom morning, im pretty confident thats my problem. Can anyone tell me what the stock adjustments are for the stock zenith carb?

Oh and i checked on jet kits for this carb and they are completely unavailable from the dealer. Cant even get the stock jet if i wanted to. Anyone know another place for jets for these old carbs?

 

You do not need to be fooling around with the jets. What came with it is what you need to use. All changing jet size is going to do is make the bike run worse than before........pg

 

ok we just finished rebuilding the carb, everything went smoothly and got the bike back together but its 2am so im waiting until tomorow to start it, my neighbors already hate me as it is.

i didnt plan on replacing the jets, but in my past life as a sportbike rider/mechanic, jets and exhaust were like peantut butter and jelly. you didnt do one without the other. i guess its not like that with Harleys?? anyways im very confident that the fresh carb will solve all of my backfiring, running rich issues. ill post up tomorow to let you all know how it goes. thanks