76 shovel / super e / tuning question...

Got my shovel up and running again, but since I've taken off the giant s&s air cleaner and put on some shorter pipes, it was running like shit. I'm running a benchmark a/c which is definitely letting in more air, and the pipes got blue pretty quick so I figured I was lean. It was coughing and farting all over the low to mid range so I went up a size on the intermediate jet and the coughing stopped. Might go up one more to see how that feels.

The only problem I have now is that it takes a bit to come back down to idle when you give it some throttle. It will level back out eventually but it takes a little too long, and keeps racing for a bit. Im gonna mess with it more tomorrow, but i had to stop runnin it for the night cuz my neighbor is a bag of dicks. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

S&S recommend that you don't use open pipes with a Super E, but its down to the user. I have only ever run open pipes with my Super E's and had no problems.

Start at the beginning, is your throttle running smooth, then the cable, then the throttle butterfly control on the carb.

Have you adjusted the accelerator pump at all? I find that on my Shovel with no AC that its best to run very little accel pump. I screw it all the way in, then back off 2 - 2.5 turns, wherever feels nice.

When you added the jets did you then readjust your mixture screw?

I know this might not be the greatest of help but its a start!

Good luck mate
Ben

I wasn't the first to post this link, and I sure as hell didn't write it, but I keep one out in my shed all the time:

http://www.sscycle.com/carbquickguide/

That's about the BEST advice for tuning an S&S that you're going to find on the internet, I believe.

Good luck, man.

just gonna drop this on ya since you said you changed the air cleaner. The s n s carbs have excellent fllow thru them and so a motor running draws air and by design the s n s will get all the air your motor can want so that being said if you force more air in it confuses them and so b4 you strip the bowl screws from constant attemptsto find that magic jet combo
get a roll a duct tape and stop the air that is forcing its way in and see if it doesnt come around. I know how the s n s air cleaner isnt the latest fashion fuckin statement but the sob is a filtered velocity stack soooooo i prefer to have fast clean hard runnin motors insteada the wow that looks cool but runs like shit kind. In my circles the last guy in buys the beer and im not a big buyer since free beer tastes soooo much better

Thanks guys, I'll keep messing with it. I forgot to mention that I did put some short baffles in the pipes just so they werent obnoxiously loud, and for a little of that mystical back pressure that everyone always argues about. I'll chuck the s&s cleaner back on and give that a shot too. The benchmark a/c has some foam in it, but it's certainly not much of an air restrictor. I could probably stuff it in my nose and breath fine all day.

You are running some kind of carb support, Yes? Those shovels do vibrate a lot, and disturbing old seals while changing out air cleaner backing plates can cause them too.
Intake leaks will kill any good tune, and that slow to come off idle thing usually is more than a lean tune.
I've seen a lot of bikes suffer from this from the heavy ass "hyper-chargers" plus they add two more places to leak! Not to mention being no where near fashion forward.
Do the Benchmark tops have an airhorn like the S&Ss?

Originally Posted by Sky

Do the Benchmark tops have an airhorn like the S&Ss?

I'm pretty sure the BCM ones do.Really fucking nice looking,and look like they're functional too.

Got it running pretty good. Went up an intermediate jet size and it got better, then went up another and she's running smooth. No more coughing and choking. Messed around with the idle mixture and accel adjustment, and also removed the aux bowl vent plug, and the prolonged racing at idle went away. Still a little bit of a bitch to start cold, but I'm gonna look at the timing for that.

Not sure what you mean by "air horn". I assume it's the cone shape sticking off the filter cover into the carb?

What size jets did you go up from? What size did you go up to? I'm having similar issues with mine at the moment!

Ben

RE: Airhorn
Yup, the combo of the cone inside the cover and the radiused lip on the backing plate serve to "straighten" or at least direct the flow of air down the throat of said carb