Running too rich at higher elevation.

03 Road Glide, 95in kit, 203 cams, Thunderheader and HD Race Tuner. I have had problems with this bike running right since I bought it from the dealer. When I first got it, it would occasionally die at idle upon coming to a stop. After several dyno's by the dealer, it now runs ok at home. But, when I take a trip to the mountains, 7000ft, it won't idle at all. It just coughs and spits with me trying to keep it alive by hitting the throttle.

After being frustrated for nearly a year, I called Harley. They got my story, then the dealer's and called me back. They say that the Thunderheader is not a part of their upgrade kit, so results with running it are unknown. Geez, they didn't have a problem selling me the pipe!

I have since heard that Thunderheader's on EFI bikes are quite hard to tune. People are basically comparing them to straight pipes. Does anyone have an idea?

Should I purchase a PC III so I am able to adjust the curve manually? Should I change the pipe? Or, should I ride this bike right through the dealer's front window!

I'm going to show my ignorance here, but I thought the HD Race Tuner would do everything the Power Commander would do...........and more.

Don't drive through the front window, go in the other direction. Either find a dealer who is capable of fixing the problem or go to a non-dealer type who is. I have seen several posts on this forum about dyno savvy mechanics in the Western U.S. who can probably take care of your issue. If I'm not mistaken, there are some right in your own State. Sounds to me like that's all you need, get it on a dyno and tune it properly by someone who knows how.

Good luck!

Nothing wrong with the combo. Something is wrong in the EFI I suspect. The Delphi's do not have a dedicated barometric sensor like the Magnetto Morrelli does. It uses the MAF sensor during computer boot to determine altitude after that, it remains set until the next start.

Does the bike run correctly at your normal elevation? When you climb from there to altitude does it run better after a re-start? If so, then there is something wrong in the EFI i.e. the MAF or possibly the TPS is off. Has anyone done a full diagnostic on the sensors, one at a time or just relied on the scanaliar?

An EFI bike will run smoothly at any altitude unless there is a problem with the sensors or the ECM. An intake leak can cause problems but it is usually the reverse as the bike has no idea it is lean. Or, they may have played with the idle mapping?

Since, I do not find them listed as a Power Commander tuning center, I wonder how they are determing the mixture? They may well only have a Dyno and are using the best guess method.

Here is a link to the authorized tuning centers in Arizona:

http://www.powercommander.com/centers_az.shtml

I would contact a couple and see if any offer the HRT tuning. If not, consider returning the ECM to stock mapping, add a power commander and have it run on the dyno to tune.

There is nothing wrong with a Thunderheader. With certain combinations, they exhibit more reversion than other 2-1's do but not an issue most times. Sounds like a B.S. excuse to me.

I definitely would have the dealer do a full sensor diagnostic manually. I have a sneaking suspicion that either the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) is bad or needs adjusting or the MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor) is defective.

http://www.powercommander.com/centers_az.shtml