This winter i purchased a 2000 883 hugger with 11,800kms. Owned by a 60 year old woman in a small town. She had every receipt and all the maintenance records since she bought it new. She hadnt had it on the road since 2013. It started up and ran great but i didnt ride it because of the snow. Since i brought it home ive done a oil change/primary oil change and chain adjustments well as clutch adjustment. New tires and brake pads and a new air filter as well as spark plugs. It starts.idles and runs great. When going to take off i have to give it alot of throttle and slip the clutch or it wants to stall. after taking off it runs and shifts smooth but feels like it should have alittle more power. I have a 2010 iron 883 with stage 1 and it feels almost twice as fast and has alot more pull. I have done a compression test and both cylinders are just over 125 psi. The bike is in like new condition and was always stored inside. Im not sure what else to check or try any advise would be great! thanks

 

It's old enough and low miles enough it likely has original intake seals that might be dried up and leaking, would cause a lean condition that could cause takeoff issues, but not be as apparent at idle. Could try taking off the air cleaner for access, and spray WD40 around the intake header to cylinder connection (I'd do this on a cool motor) while running; if you got any kind of rpm change, the gaskets are leaking.

Put a mirror under the carb to see if the mixture screw cover plug has been removed; if it has, might not be adjusted right. If it still has stock exhausts, wouldn't normally mess with that screw with stock mufflers, but someone might have done what I did with my 2000 883, put a size bigger low speed jet in the carb and adjust the mix screw for that. They're so lean from the factory it adjusted just fine with that bigger jet, and mine seems to run smoother with it.

 

Thanks for the reply I did drill out the baffle on the inside of the muffler i believe i used a 1 inch hole saw bit i didn't remove the baffle completely. Today i drilled out the cover for the mixture screw but havent got a chance to mess with it. I will definitely check the intake seals like you said. I did try and go up on main jet size to a 165 but it was to big. I did purchase a 44 low speed jet,stock is 42 i was thinking it would be to big as well. I did check the plugs today when i did the compression test and its definitely running a little lean. Ill check the intake seals and let you know. If anyone else has any opinions let me know. Thanks

 

It will run real lean with the baffles drilled out, my 883 had that done when I got it, and really barked and farted when I'd back off the throttle. Putting in the low speed jet and adjusting the mix screw cured that. I eventually put uncut stock mufflers back on, and it still ran fine with the larger low speed jet.

If you put less restrictive pipes and air cleaner on, a high speed jet can give you a little more at high rpm, but most of us don't spend much time there. The larger low speed jet is pretty much mandatory for smooth running with the baffles out, although you can also modify the needle valve, but that's a lot more complicated and I doubt most of us would notice the difference. You'll still lose a little mid range power with the back pressure loss unless you do more work than a jet change, but it shouldn't backfire, but it shouldn't be the power shortness you described, that's why I suspect an intake leak. Or ignition timing, but that's something we rarely have to mess with on a sportster.

 

Another thing to consider is rebuilding the carb. Jets could be gummed up.

 

Well I tried running it squirting wd-40 all over both intake manifolds where they bolt to the engine. Idle didn't change, nothing changed. Jets arent clogged I've had them both off and the carb seems to be pretty clean from what i can see. It still has the factory vacuum carb i have checked the lines but haven't pulled it apart. Weird it will start and run and rev good but when there is load taking off from a stop it needs almost half throttle. Doesn't back fire or pop when riding or idling.

 

Accelerator pump working okay? Replacing those manifold to head seals is really, really easy. Good way to eliminate one possible issue.

John

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah i think ill replace them anyway looks pretty simple and i imagine they are pretty cheap. I dont know much about how the accelerator pump works but when i twist the throttle it does squirt gas into the carb.

 

This. Idle jet passage is pretty small, doesn't take much to plug it up.