Hey All,
Background: First Harley, 32 years experience doing very basic home maintenance on Japanese bikes. Going deep on the Sporty however, so bear with me. A lot of it is going over my head. I've got the shop manual, Clymer, and Owners.

The bike: 2001 Sporty 1200C . 4k miles on the clock. Sat most of it's life obviously.
Had new tires put on and basic service at local indie shop. I drilled out the over torqued torx bolts on the derby myself, installed allen. Installed a new seat and sissy. Replaced some awfully corroded fasteners. I began to install a new clutch cable, but the cable came up short, so that's shelved until the new part gets here.

Next up, some parts on the way for a louvered air box, external breather bolts, and a replacement clutch cable for the one that came up short. I'll do fluids at that point as well. I'm going to pull the carb and clean it. I'm also curious what's going on in there as the bike does have some running issues. I've ordered CVP mixture and idle screws.

Couple quick questions. Easy one first. Anyone ever heard of problems with rain/water ingestion into these external facing breather bolts? Local mechanic warned me on that, but I can't corroborate online.

Next question. Take a look at these pics. Can anyone confirm that it's def carbon fouled? And how does one identify gas vs oil?
Lastly, I put a mirror under the carb to check to see if the mixture screw was revealed. Sure enough, but it looks like they gaffed it up when they drilled. Doesn't look pretty, but anyone see any issues with that? I'll have the extended screw on their soon.

Thanks all, and damn glad to be here.
RJ

 

Yep, very rich carbon fouling on the spark plug. No signs of oil on them. What jets are in the carb, or, was the engine run with the enricher **** pulled out? External breather bolts? I wouldn't recommend using them. The screw in the bottom of the carb looks like it may be a challenge to remove. Can you get it to move at all?

 

Hey, thanks for the replies man, appreciated. I'm curious what's in the carb myself. Haven't broken it down yet. As soon as I get my new air cleaner, it's coming off.
I try not to run it enriched for too long at all. Maybe 30 secs to start at full, then 1/2 for about a mile or so. Anything less and she's coughing. And yeah, believe it or not, that mixture screw moves, it's just fubar from years of neglect.
Thanks again! I'll update as soon as that carb is in pieces.
RJ