CV carb kit / tunning

Bought a 2006 XL 1200C with stock AC, screaming' eagle tips, stock carb 42 pilot / 185 main with California emissions.

Installed Vance & Hines 2 into 1 blackout pipes, Arlen Ness Big Sucker and CV stage 1 jet kit and Dakota Kid pedestal. misplaced emissions equipment.

Have tried both 45 and 46 pilot jets, have settled with the 45, Mixture is at 2 3/4 out. Backing off of WOT with a 185 main would actually accelerate a bit so I upped the main jet to 190, now WOT in 5th gear just goes and goes into scary-land.

The only problem I'm having now is, at any speed/gear (can't tell you the RPM no tac on a custom :gah: ) right at transition from coast to just barely throttle I get an occasional backfire and also a bit of popping on deceleration. I'm not sure if the two are related or not.

I did drill the vacuum port to 3/32nds and I'm really hoping that is not causing this symptom. Would shimming the needle help this problem? Or am I still needing to fine tune mixture?

I did check for input leaks by spraying carb cleaner around the sides and back of the carb with no noticeable changes in idle.

Anyway hello all...

Tim

Yes I did, however I opted for copper gaskets instead of the wire mesh. I'm not sure which is best and I'm also bit suspicious of the seal on the front pipe. I wound up stripping the nut real bad to the point of having to use a nut extractor. I think I'm going to buy new gaskets and nuts and reinstall the pipes. Was trying to get to 80lbs of torque, too much maybe?

Yieks!..35???. I thought I read somewhere that 60 to 80 was good... crap! Next purchase is a Service Manual! I guess I am lucky things aren't worse, now I'm worried about getting the damn nuts off without breaking something.

I would second what Ken says here about the SE gaskets. I had similar issues with mine and I changed out the gaskets and my problem went away. I have a 96 Sporty, not to scare you but I did find that I also had a head gasket leak that I think was contributing to my popping issue as well.

BTW, I do not torque my exhaust down at all. I get it nice and tight by hand and just periodically check them to make sure that they are still tight and retighten as necessary.

Thanks for all the input guys, Gaskets (correct torque) a wee bit of fine tuning and a manual. I'll keep ya' posted.

Funny I was trying to explain to my youngest daughter (16) how in the not too long ago past we didn't have this huge resource of the internet to be able to interface with people that had more knowledge and experience . She asked, well what did you so? The only thing I could come up with was a trip to the library.


Any way, thanks again.......

Ok so an up-date... 1/6/2011 I changed the pipe gaskets to wire-mesh and torqued correctly, that alone got rid of most of the decil popping.

Still getting carb farts at steady low/mid rpm (just past no throttle) so I kept backing out mixture 1/8th turn at a time. Eventually changed the pilot jet from the 45 to a 46 and shimmed the jet needle about .030. Ran it and got what I thought was satisfactory result with the mixture out to 3 turns.

1/9/2011 This afternoon I started it up ran it to warm. Am still getting carb farts and same problem at just above idle. (not nearly as bad as before) Now have the mixture adjusted out 3 3/4 turns and seems to be running good. This seems out too far to me but I can't imagine going up a jet size.

I've checked for leaks as posted earlier and all seems ok. I've checked float level and I think I'm measuring it correctly and seems good but it doesn't look exactly like the picture in the CV Carb Reference. In the picture the float appears to be exactly parallel to the carb body when tilted 15 to 20 deg, mine appears to be slightly out closer to what it would look like at 0 deg. Since I have no experience with this I don't know if this is normal or if its all that critical or if the symptoms I'm seeing are at all related.

I also can't seem to figure out how one would adjust the float, they describe it in the reference but aren't clear enough for me.

Sorry for the long post....

Thanks for the input Ken, I have the same picture (without the chart below it). I did figure out how to do that last night but it was late so haven't been able to test. I also pulled out the jet needle shims, I want to get a base starting point. I'm going to have to take it apart again today to clean I used carb cleaner on the inside and I'm sure I got some on the slide and diaphragm. I feel like I'm learning this one mistake at a time.

Thanks Chuck... I guess you know you've turned the corner when you have more trial then error. :witsend: