Blood, sweat, tears & beers . . .

I'll try that today. Stay in happy land - it's a good place! My back & right knee are still giving me trouble. The back thing is on the lower left side, can't sit very much. I can still kick the bike over, though . . .

I noticed that when I had the carb apart there was a little piece missing that's supposed to be connected to the float bowl right where it joins the carb body. But it seems to work without it. The settings are correct. Could this be the culprit? All those butterfly carbs are different and maybe mine doesn't normally have one. It's a little clip that you bend to set the angles of the float.

joshbob,I've seen a lot of butterfly carbs over the years...almost all of them on a shelf or in a boxif that means anything
I've never worked on one ,but I don't think there would be too many unnecessary parts in them...
How do you set your float height without the clip there??

You can score a good CV on ebay for decent prices if you're interested...
Here's one for $100.00 OBO


Harley OEM CV 40mm Carb Carburetor 27504-96 COMPLETE XLNT CONDITION BIG TWIN EVO | eBay

I already have a CV but it is missing the enricher assembly and the fuel inlet - I pirated it off to replace the leaking plastic one on my Keihin. Besides, if I go to a CV, I can't use my Chopper Dave custom air cleaner that I paid $185for, plus I would have to get an adapter and probably a crutch to hold the new air cleaner and carb up.

I just want to get my butterfly working. This is not rocket science. Must be some little thing I'm overlooking. Another thing is, is that the float that's in my carb doesn't look anything like the one in my motors manual.

There's a tab that is attached to the float bowl that you can bend for the adjustment.

Dave won't make me a new backing plate and I'm not gonna waste all that money. I don't have it to waste. Already wasted enough money on mistakes I've made. This is something that is gonna have to be fixed - I'm not giving up.

Today I made sure fuel was getting to the carb and it is. I have had the bike running several times before and as long as I keep tweaking the throttle as it winds down it runs good. soon as I let off the throttle it dies. It must be it's not getting fuel at that point. I tried once with the idle adjusted really high and it ran then, too, though it surged a bit. Didn't want to run it too fast so soon because the motor hasn't been broken in yet.

I took the carb off yet once more (4th or 5th time ?) to ponder this mystery. This time I have pictures. For one thing, I believe there is a part missing called a "stopper" (see pic of cutaway diagram). But the diagram of the exploded view shows a different float from the one I have. Maybe when HarleysLR sends me the info on the newer butterfly carb it will shed some light. I am certain the problem is in the float. The only adjustment I have is bending the brass "lip" up or down (it opens & closes the fuel valve) and I think that's the wrong way to do it. I think there should be a stopper of some kind. Note the nice band style intake seals.

BTW, this carb is clean enough to eat off of.

I don't think the float would have anything to do with it not idling correctly. The float shouldn't come into play until you pull enough fuel out of the bowl to lower the float. I believe some floats have a stopper and some don't. bending the tab is the only way I've seen to adjust the float level. In all my years with carburetors I've had very little trouble with floats, the usually trouble I've seen is they get a hole in them and then fill up with gas and won't float.
I have sent the pdf files of what I have on the butterfly carb to your email.

Thanks. For the past few days nobody's email has been functioning here at the house. Can't recieve or send. I tried sending one this morning and it went into my outbox. It won't send and I can't pull your email to read it. It doesn't even show that you sent it.

I'm putting the carb back together and sticking it back on the manifold and see what happens. I took the low speed jet out and made sure it was clear of any obstructions. I have heard that sometimes these carbs will suck in air around the throttle shaft. I will spray some WD-40 around it if I can get it running. Maybe that's what's causing the problem.
I'm running out of things to look for . . .

You really still at this at 3:30am ... wow ... this is getting to you!

I tried starting it last night, (actually it was early morning) after carefully assembling everything. Kicked my brains out - Nothing but a few thumps out of the beast. Tried switching air/fuel mix screws - same results as with stock one. I discovered a vacuum leak at the throttle shaft. The two worse problems with old butterfly carbs, (I have heard) are leaky throttle shafts & accelerator pumps going south. Appears the dang thing won't start at all now. I'm going crazy. No, more crazy.

Sucking down Ibuprofens this morning for my back. Think I'm gonna to be knocked out of the box for awhile. Can't sit. Mac the Wife is going away for the day to Edenton, N.C.
I'll spend the day in bed reading and napping. Maybe go for a walk or two. I am putting all thoughts motorcycle far from my mind . . .