After years of headaches and lots of wasted tuneup money with my 97 Roadking, EFI, I gave it to Psycle Barn, Little Orleans, MD, who converted it to carb. I should have done this the day after I bought the bike new. PB removed all EFI equipment including fuel pump, installed CV carb w/ Dyna-jet, Dyna 2000I ignition & coil, some simple rewiring, not a complete or even partial wiring harness, installed a Pingle valve kit on the tank and now I have a real bike. I took it on a 1000 mile ride right after it was finished and it never skipped a beat and never ran so well. I was riding with a friend on a EFI Roadglide and our fuel consumption was almost identical. I realize the newer EFI systems are great but if you have the old MM system, dump it and go with a carb. I was told by local HD mechanic/partsman, replacement parts for the original MM system are almost unavailable and the HD test equipment has been pulled, meaning a breakdown on a trip means disaster. You either try and find used parts, call home for a trailer or sell the bike and get a bus ticket.

 

My bike started out as a FI bike. Did some engine mods and couldn't get it mapped properly. Two high performance shops tried to map the engine. The shop that did the last mapping said that the numbers were good for this build. I wasn't convinced on that but decided to ride it for a while. So I ran with that build until a trip from Sturgis left me stranded because of the cams I was using and the mapping. A HD dealership couldn't touch it. Had to rent a Uhaul and bring a broken bike home. I called Bobby Wood and talked to him about numbers and he confirmed my thoughts. So out with the Fi and over to Carb. Never looked back and the bike actually woke up even more than the FI tune. For me I like the carb side of things.

 

I'm with you guys on this one!!
My carb has never skipped a beat. 11+ years !!
Turn the gas on, pull the choke out and go!
And I LOVE my throttle cables !!!

 

Any Harley of the period your bike was made had to meet the same EPA regulations when it was built, whether it had a carb or EFI. If you had one of each version, when ever you made mods to them the only way of getting them both to run right would be to have them set up on a dyno. Same rule applies to both bikes. No change!

It is true you might find messing with the carb bike is easier, but there are owners here on HDF who tinker with the EFI on their bikes. So you also could learn to do that. One thing is certain, the EFI bike will run better than the carb bike, so don't chuck your EFI just yet!

If you make a package of changes to your bike, then get it properly tuned by an expert, you should be set for a very long time. Carb or EFI.

 

I switched to a carb on my 09 FXDB and I am happy with the change. I used a S&S super E carb and a thunder heart stand alone ignition. The ign runs off the factory crank trigger and uses the factory coil. You dont have to do much wiring and it gives you full control over the timing. Took me about 8 hrs to switch it over.

 

changing EFI to carb is just plain crazy,,and costly,,,learn how your EFI bike works, and you should be fine,,,,

 

Im making the swap! Just trying to put a parts list together. I have read nothing but good about changing to a carb. Im sick of efi. I can tune a carb

 

I have an 06 ultra and someone on here gave great details on how to do it and a harley parts list to do it and I saved it to my email but don't know how to post it here...about $750..to do the job in parts as I recall..

 

I converted my '05 roadglide to carb and never looked back. EFI is fine if you want to ride a stock bike. As I recall all parts for the conversion came out under $500 and I used a spare carb that was laying around in my garage. Cost to dyno-tune an EFI bike was about $350 around here. If you have the know how to swap the carb, you have the ability to tune the carb...

You need a petcock, carb, manifold, sub-harness for a carb bike preferably the same year as yours, (replaces the efi sub-harness), an aftermarket electronic ignition module. Delphi TB uses same cables as a CV. Either make a bracket for the choke cable or buy the carb model top motor mount bracket.

Just make sure you can get the carb sub-harness for your bike. It's likely the same harness as I have, but you never know, harley could have changed the main harness once they went to all EFI just to avoid having that extra harness... I dunno... The Carb sub-harness very basic but most importantly it provides the connector you'll use to drive the ignition (you remove the factory ECM).

It really IS an easy swap...

 

You remove the ECM?
Oh you rebel !!!

I LIKE the sound of that. One less electronic POS to go south.