Hello and a quick question

Hello to everyone. I recently bought my first Harley, a 1997 Sportster 1200 that I really enjoy. I have been tuning the bike up since it was in storage for several years. My rebuild of the carb included the CV Performance Kit and EZ-just needle. The bike runs great. My question is how to set the idle speed without a tach. I looked at multimeters / engine analyzers for cars, but they only have a setting for 4, 6, or 8 cylinders. My ears have not been calibrated to Harleys yet, so how do I set the idle to 950 rpm?


-Andrew

Hi Andy
After you find someone to set the RPM/s Stick the 4 Cyl Analyzer on it and see if it reads 475 I think that will work next time.
Later Ole Ted

The '97 model has the "dual fire" ignition, with the "wasted spark" on the exhaust stroke, so you may get a correct reading with the instrument set for a 4-cyl. And 950 rpm is a bit low - should be 1050-1100. The oil pump does next to nothing @ low rpm & setting the idle low for the "potato-potato" sound as many do is not wise. Also, while 883's didn't come with a tach, 1200's did & if yours is an 883>1200 conversion, you can still put the 1200 instrument panel with tach & speedo both on if you want. There were very few changes on Sportsters '91-'99 & virtually all parts are interchangeable - you can turn an 883 into a 1200, a Standard into a Hugger or Custom, etc.

Thanks for the replies,

I was shooting for an idle between 950 and 1050 rpm as was specified in the manual, so 1000 rpm would be right in the middle. Will a tach from an '01 Sportster work or did they change to a single fire coil?

Thanks again for the help
Andrew

The '01 tach should work fine - there were some changes made in 2000, but not to the ignition until 2004. Only exception is the rare 1200S model, which has a completely different ignition from the rest of the Sportster line.