Hey All,

I jsut purchased a 2003 1200C with 1590 miles. She was a weekend toy of a friends friend who decided to part with her. I've put about 150 miles on her and I've noticed a few things of interest.

1. She doesn't idle well with the enricher fully in. She starts up fine with the enricher out, and idles, but after she is warm and the inricher in she stalls.

2. When riding, I am getting some backfire when I let off the throttle and coast.

3. When coasting I am getting some carb farts... Probably too lean.

The bike was not used too often, and I am thinking that it may be fouling of the carb. The original owner did take good care and did usual maintainence (yearly oil change, etc).

The bikes mechanicals are stock other than V&H straight shots.

I want to put in a better flowing AC, but have not decided on which type to purchase.

All this said, I think I am running lean and the carb may be gummed up as the original owner did not drain fluids over-winter... I plan to pull the card, clean it out, rejet, install the AC, change oil and plugs and hope for the best.

I was hoping you could help me with the following questions:

1. Can you suggest a carb rebuild kit and source? I want to replace gaskets and the intake gaskets as well. So a full rebuild kit would be best.

2. What AC offers the best performance at a good price?

Anything else I should be thinking about?

I'll be doing the work myself, and just picked up the 2003 service manual.

Thanks,


Bryan

 

First thing to check-spark plugs. They are commonly over looked when problems occur. If the you ran the enricher for too long the plugs could be fouled.

 

Everything you need for and need to know about a CV carb can be found HERE.

 

take carb off and clean and SOAK IT in sea foam cleaner.

 

Plus, keep an eye (as Wraith said) on your plugs.

Plug chart.

 

I'm a newb to the forum and just purchased my first Harley. I raced motocross for 10 years and have a lot of experience wrenching...
The best clue is that when you let off the throttle the bike pops. That is a lean pop and is caused by your pilot jet being clogged.
Take off your carb and clean it out.. run a thin piece of wire (carefully as to not change the size or shape of the holes) through all the holes of the pilot jet, because it may look ok but still have a tiny piece of something in there somewhere.
I have had people come to me and say I've already cleaned the carb etc. so I nod my head and say ok.. I take the carb off and go directly to the pilot jet get a small wire, run it throught the jet and to their amazement, problem solved.

I'm here to look for some tips on gearing I hope some of the members can help me with with but I'll post my question in another post as to not high-jack your post )

Ride Safe!

 

Don't forget to check the intake gasket to the heads and on the front of the intake. Being a '03, might need to be changed. Give Sportster.org a look too. Lots of good info there as well as here.

 

pretty much everything you posted points to a lean condition.

question for the experts...since the pop and coughs the OP gets are all from being 'off throttle"...any chance it's just the air/fuel mixture adjustment? I've wondered about this with my S&S carb, too. Once you get off the throttle isn't it the idle circuit?

 

harley peformance and other sites have the same kit, all the gaskets etc, than get a new needle float bowl screws, ez adjuster screw and if you want to go one step further, the max inlet elbow, i did all that, rejetted replaced all gaskets, changed the accelerator diaphram as well as it was torn. i thought it would be real tought but it was not. throttle cables are easy, loosen the adjuster but the handlebars, when you remove them from the carb mark which one is which, unscrew the choke cables from the other side, one nut underneath, than you can remove the carb and work on it, i did it today. worked out really well, follow the instructions to get the fuel out of the carb before removing the hose, basically run the bike with the petcock off, when it is out of gas it will stall. Good luck!

 

Thanks for all the input, guys!

I'm gonna do all the mods at once, while I have the carb out. I've got to assume I have gummed up jets, and I am clearly running lean.

Is there a carb kit that comes complete with all the above including the intake manifold gaskets?

Thanks,

Bryan