A few months ago, I was riding my Harley on Highway 26 late on a cool evening when my bike just stopped. I immediately pulled over to the shoulder and waited a while before restarting it. It begrudgingly carried me to the nearest exit, after which it started running perfectly again, but I stayed off the freeways for the rest of the trip, just in case. This bike had struggled like this many times in the past year, as if it had been starved for fuel. Accelerations were difficult sometimes, while other times it ran perfectly. I would sometimes lose power while passing another car, or accelerating into a turn. Dangerous, yes, but it was more frustrating than anything else, because I didn’t know what was wrong, I didn’t have high confidence in the mechanics at our local Harley shops, and I didn’t know any good independent mechanics. Some would tell me that some sensor in the center of the engine wasn’t getting a stable temperature reading because I didn’t let the bike warm up, while others would blame the spark plugs, yet others told me I needed to put it on a dyno first. That might have worked, but I didn’t want to pay for it. Previously, I had wondered if maybe I got a speck of something stuck in my jet, so I tried a few Sea Foam treatments, but the bike would only perform better for a while.
So, last weekend I took apart my carburetor, because, why not, it’s fun to take apart a carburetor! I removed the No. 48 pilot jet (I have the Stage 1 upgrade), and all I could see was a tiny little hole through it. Not remembering how big the jet orifice should really be, I threw it, and the main jet, into a little beaker filled with Sea Foam for a couple of hours, followed by a soaking in Hopps No. 9 for another hour or so.
Wouldn’t you know it, the hole in the pilot jet looked bigger now! Excited, I reassembled the carburetor, wash, dried, and re-oiled the air filter, put everything back on the engine, adjusted my throttle cables, and took off for a ride.
Wow! My Harley feels like its young again! It’s so responsive to the twist of the wrist and it doesn’t stutter or cough anymore even if I don’t let it warm up. It’s like hell on wheels!
Some of you out there might say, “Duh!”, but if it was so easy, why didn’t the guys at the shop just say, “Dude! You need to clean your jets!”
By the way, this website has good info on tuning your carburetor, Stage 1 upgrading, and more. I also like this page for basic carburetor theory.
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