Looking for help with an 03 1200 Sportster. After a several month storage period, the bike will not stay running once the choke is pushed in after a significant warm up period. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

can not diagnose it on here, but you are getting way too much air. check for air leaks, spray carb cleaner around the carbs when it is running, when it hits the leak it will rev up. The only other thing it could be is not enough gas, I have run short on gas and pulled the choke out to make it another mile on fumes to a station. just check for leaks and make sure all lines and the carb is clean and allowing enough gas to get in

 

Looks like you may wanna clean the carb out.....A basic cleaning will probly surfice, just pull the jets out and clean them. Another option that sometimes works with minor varnishing of the jets is to run some seafoam fuel treatment through your tank, and you may be able to get by without physically having to clean the carb. Also like midnight2005 said, it could also be from an air leak, but because your having problems after storage I'd be leaning more from fuel varnishing as being the culprit. The other thing is, do you have fresh gas in the bike?? if not get some fresh gas and see if that helps.

 

when you hit the throttle if you hear kindof sucking noise. keep reving throttle, if you fell air pushing out around your push rods or heads, you have a bad head gasket, sort of common with sporty's. and definetly clean the carb out. if in doubt, support your local mechanic

 

oh, and dont even think about trying to ride it and keep it running by throttleing it. you will cause more headaches. tow it to the mechanic. good luck.

 

Run some SeaFoam through it.