883 Sportster vacuum line woes.

My wife's girlfriend has a 1995 Sportster 883 with 5,000 miles on it. She was married to a mentally abusive prig that didn't like her riding.

Long story short, the bike doesn't run and she asked me to look at it now that she has a place of her own and can ride more.

It doesn't run under normal starting conditions, but it will fire up if I shoot gas down the carb. OK, it's full of schmegma and all gummed up.

I pulled the tank and find a vacuum line with a wooden plug in it. Pretty sure the folks in Milwaukee didn't do that. Imagine a vacuum line with a tee in it; one end goes to some kind of electronic vacuum sensor thingie, the other goes to the base of the carb where I assume the suck is generated, but I see no fitting for the third end with the plug in it.

Some Japanese bikes have a vacuum petcock, you need vacuum to open the petcock; this is a 1995 and H-D didn't do that until 1996 or 97.

I googled around but couldn't find anything. I'm just helping and don't really want to invest in a shop manual.

Appreciate anything you have,

Dan

Was the carb or intake changed?

weird the only vacuum lines on my punky buellster are charcoal canister and pcv valve. what can that sensor do? when i think vacuum and sensor I think it either has to do with ignition advance or full throttle enrichment neither would stop the bike from running.

I don't think this girl would swap out the carb or intake, PO perhaps; but it looks stock.

According to some places I've looked, the "Y" hose goes to the petcock on a later model, this is a '95 and doesn't have the vacuum petcock. It is chrome though, is that stock or can I assume it was swapped?

It did run. Maybe I'll clean the carb and cork the line, see what happens.

Here's what I found on a Harley site: http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=324989

There should be a vacuum line to the VOES (Vacuum Operated Electrical Switch) that connects to the ignition module for timing control. That should be the only vacuum line you really need. If you just connect that up and plug everything else, (assuming the petcock is not vacuum controlled) then I think you'll be OK. Carb is probably gummed up from sitting.

kind of off topic but I was in the bike shop and a guy had a honda carb apart, there was a electric enrichment solenoid in the carb. I guess you want the bike tuned lean at idle and moderate throttle for crisp response but when you go full throttle you want enrichment so you don't burn the engine. interesting design.

Thanks guys.

Had to attend a pool party BBQ but between the time I got home and 8:00; I pulled the carb, cleaned it, douched the tank and got it back together.

No fuel filter anywhere in the system. Hmmm.

I replaced the "Y" plastic fitting and the hoses with a brandy new hose, straight shot from the carb to the VOES.

It runs!

Rained yesterday, sun today and tomorrow, so tomorrow should be a good flying day! Gonna clean things up, give it a bath and put some Save-The-Baby in the tank.

Thanks again for the help!

Dan

The fuel filter is a fine screen that fits over the petcock inlets.

Wow. Most bikes have those plus an in line filter.

In reply to 914Driver:

Do they? When I was new to motorcycles I had a GS500 with a rusty tank and was looking into adding a filter. Was told that most bikes don't have filters because the filter can get warm and become pressurized, stopping fuel flow to the carb. And it happened to me a few times before I pulled the filter back off.

If you run one, I'd get a very small one that is basically a mesh screen, not a filter with a lot of volume.

In reply to pres589: Never seen that or heard of it before. I allway pop on a filter and never had any issues.

Makes kinda sense, Pres589; but OTOH my 1975 BMW has these right above the hot jugs.

Update on the Sporty.

Cleaned the carb, reinstalled it and the bike starts & runs. Doesn't run well.

It takes a while for it to warm up enough to come off the choke. Warmed up I set the idle a tad high and just let it run with a fan on it. I put in one gallon of 93 octane and some Sea Foam. It runs, but every 5 to 8 seconds it pops and then spits raw gas out the carb. (air filter's off) Running for 10 minutes it got a little better so I'm going to let it cool off and start over. Hopefully some time and Save-the-Baby will fix it.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Dan

BTW, I love the green on this thing!

It's running too lean. Check for an intake leak (spray carb cleaner around the intake and other connections leading from the head to the carb with the motor idling and listen for a change in engine RPM/sound.) A common problem. Otherwise, I'd say your carb is still gunked up. Sea foam may clean it out. Put it all together and put a hundred miles on it with sea foam in there and see how it does, after checking for intake leaks.

You might try some denatured alcohol in the tank instead of sea stuff. Heck of a lot cheaper and does a very good job of cleans carbs, jets, orifices, etc. A few ounces in a gallon of gas will do the trick. It will smell funny when running so be sure to do it outdoors.

Tight intake valve, and or tad lean will do that

Hydraulic lifters, so they don't go tight.

A gallon of 93 "gasoline" and then Sea Foam on top... how much alcohol was actually in there, anyone want to take a guess? The fuel may have been a source of lean-out or a contributing factor at least.

Check for air intake leaks,run it to see if it improves,if not do a compression and leak down test.puking back thru the carb. could be an intake valve hanging up.JMHO