EFI Sportster 48 to Carb Conversion Pros and Cons?

[brooklynbomber]

What will you use for ignition? Enlighten me , as I have not seen anything on the market for that engine. You will still have lots of wires if you use a stock carbureted harness.
Leave it alone, you will ruin the bike.

ChopCult not StockCult.

[Trippster48]

Yeah with the Altmann, you need the CPS, but aside from that it's pretty effing minimal!

Is there any other options apart from a $700 dollar german part?

I wish more people were crazy enough to scrap EFI and go carb on bikes these days, Cept most of the guys riding the shiney new bikes KEEP them that way haha.

[MercuryMoto67]

Yes... There are. I listed them earlier. C'mon. Look up thunder heart ignition. I've never used it or seen it, but its cheaper.

[Incrediblah]

I wish more people were crazy enough to scrap EFI and go carb on bikes these days, Cept most of the guys riding the shiney new bikes KEEP them that way haha.

I'd say most of those crazy people would just rather buy a slightly older carbed sporty for 1/3 the price of a new one, and use all the extra cash to make it your own. None of the sporty models are so radically different in style, that you couldn't recreate it yourself. Why bother buying an EFI bike if you're just gonna revert to a carb? To each his own I guess.

[HRK123]

Why bother doing anything custom if you can just go out and buy a bike someone else chopped? Because it's fucking fun and challenging, that's why. This is chop cult, right?

Regarding the ignition and wiring questions above, I used the Thunder Heart. Just a few wires and it installed no problem. Comes with it's own coil, I'd guess you could also use the Harley coil. For the price of that German unit I did the entire swap with the Thunder Heart, including the cost of the intake and carb. No idea on longevity, but I've read threads on them and guys have been using them for years with no problem. I think all of the Big Dog bikes came with them. Not that this counts for much, but those guys don't seem to be having any ignition issues.

For wiring, I did my own harness from scratch. I think I'm using 4 fuses and 2 breakers for the whole bike. I ripped out the entire stock harness and built my own. If you get a good chopper wiring diagram and adapt it where needed, it's not too difficult.

[Trippster48]

Yes... There are. I listed them earlier. C'mon. Look up thunder heart ignition. I've never used it or seen it, but its cheaper.

Sorry, I'm on chop cult on my phone. I must have not seen the post. I will look it up, thanks for the guidance.

[Trippster48]

I'd say most of those crazy people would just rather buy a slightly older carbed sporty for 1/3 the price of a new one, and use all the extra cash to make it your own. None of the sporty models are so radically different in style, that you couldn't recreate it yourself. Why bother buying an EFI bike if you're just gonna revert to a carb? To each his own I guess.

I guess I didn't let you in on what I actually paid for the bike. Roughly about $800 out of pocket. Yes I said 800. I had a half finished bobber project, a CM400, about a year and a half ago. I ride it to work every day where all my coworkers would bash on my little bike. When we went to the gas station to fuel up the work trucks one day, there was a little box on the table that said something about winning a bike. Everyone signed up then told me to do the same. Four months later after I forgot about the whole thing, I get a call while strapping on my helmet to ride to class. The lady asked me if I would like to claim my prize: a 2011 sportster 48. I got the bike a few months later in november, inthe rain and rode it untill I was soaked to the bone. After a while it dawned on me that I just got a bike for as much as I had invested in my honda. So I decided to start a build with it. Out will be slow and steady since I dont have a shop and im trying to finish college. Almost all of the work done on the bike has been done strapped in k of my truck going from garage to garage. I'm 21 and this is my first harley and second road bike. I grew up on two strokes been riding 16 years and alls I think about is bikes. So since I don't know much about harleys let alone the new bikes, I want to convert to carbbecause I grew up on two strokes and value the simplicity. I wouldn't do it any other way.

[Incrediblah]

I guess I didn't let you in on what I actually paid for the bike. Roughly about $800 out of pocket. Yes I said 800. I had a half finished bobber project, a CM400, about a year and a half ago. I ride it to work every day where all my coworkers would bash on my little bike. When we went to the gas station to fuel up the work trucks one day, there was a little box on the table that said something about winning a bike. Everyone signed up then told me to do the same. Four months later after I forgot about the whole thing, I get a call while strapping on my helmet to ride to class. The lady asked me if I would like to claim my prize: a 2011 sportster 48. I got the bike a few months later in november, inthe rain and rode it untill I was soaked to the bone. After a while it dawned on me that I just got a bike for as much as I had invested in my honda. So I decided to start a build with it. Out will be slow and steady since I dont have a shop and im trying to finish college. Almost all of the work done on the bike has been done strapped in k of my truck going from garage to garage. I'm 21 and this is my first harley and second road bike. I grew up on two strokes been riding 16 years and alls I think about is bikes. So since I don't know much about harleys let alone the new bikes, I want to convert to carbbecause I grew up on two strokes and value the simplicity. I wouldn't do it any other way.

That's awesome man. I wasn't raggin' on your bike at all. I may have not worded my response the way I meant it. I was simply saying that I don't think you see as many newer bikes being torn up, because I assume most people who are into chopping stuff up, wouldn't see a brand new bike as the best "blank canvas".

Why bother doing anything custom if you can just go out and buy a bike someone else chopped? Because it's fucking fun and challenging, that's why. This is chop cult, right?

I didn't tell him to go buy a pre-chopped bike. He made a comment about the lack of people hacking up new bikes. My 2 cents on the matter, was that it's not the ideal starting block. That's all. By all means, switch to carb and chop away. Pardon the slight derail.

[HRK123]

I didn't tell him to go buy a pre-chopped bike. He made a comment about the lack of people hacking up new bikes. My 2 cents on the matter, was that it's not the ideal starting block. That's all. By all means, switch to carb and chop away. Pardon the slight derail.

I was just using that as an analogy, I get that shit all the time with my bike so it was more of a general statement using your post as a reference than particularly directed at you. Carry on!

[Trippster48]

Why bother doing anything custom if you can just go out and buy a bike someone else chopped? Because it's fucking fun and challenging, that's why. This is chop cult, right?

Regarding the ignition and wiring questions above, I used the Thunder Heart. Just a few wires and it installed no problem. Comes with it's own coil, I'd guess you could also use the Harley coil. For the price of that German unit I did the entire swap with the Thunder Heart, including the cost of the intake and carb. No idea on longevity, but I've read threads on them and guys have been using them for years with no problem. I think all of the Big Dog bikes came with them. Not that this counts for much, but those guys don't seem to be having any ignition issues.

For wiring, I did my own harness from scratch. I think I'm using 4 fuses and 2 breakers for the whole bike. I ripped out the entire stock harness and built my own. If you get a good chopper wiring diagram and adapt it where needed, it's not too difficult.

That's great to hear man, I think I will probably shoot for the same setup. I should have 1k for the swap meet in Des Moines this weekend and am hoping to find a carb and a few other miscs.

[Trippster48]

That's awesome man. I wasn't raggin' on your bike at all. I may have not worded my response the way I meant it. I was simply saying that I don't think you see as many newer bikes being torn up, because I assume most people who are into chopping stuff up, wouldn't see a brand new bike as the best "blank canvas".



I didn't tell him to go buy a pre-chopped bike. He made a comment about the lack of people hacking up new bikes. My 2 cents on the matter, was that it's not the ideal starting block. That's all. By all means, switch to carb and chop away. Pardon the slight derail.

No offense was taken. The only way you would offend me is if you were to kick the big lady off her kickstand haha im too happy to get stirred up. And yeah totally makes sense why people wouldn't chop a new bike like this, Guess the noob gets to be a pioneer in a sense

[BrokenSprocketGarage]

Ok, so I am slightly enlightened. Never heard of that crazy expensive German ignition. Now, enlighten me again. The Thunder Heart system appears to be for TC88 only. Do they have an XL specific unit?
It would be more challenging to run the EFI and hide all the wiring and sensors. Most people ditch the EFI cause they don't understand it. It works better than carburetors.

[Danoh]

Heres the "wiring diagram"

http://www.thunder-heart.com/Tech%20Service%20PDFs/EI5012.pdf

Im using this on my 08 nightster, I got a CV carb off a 96 touring bike.

Used an intake manifold from an 04-06 sortster, tapped and plugged the hole the sensor sits in and used the stock flanges that were already on my bike. fit up pretty nicely! I still need to run the ignition still. You do use your crank sensor and your voltage regulator, obviously. I ripped out all of my wiring. ECM, TSSM, 02 Sensors etc.. The only other wires Ill have aside from the ones for the ignition will be for my headlight and taillamp. Im gonna hit up Rene again about getting a set of pipes and ditch these damn V&H that everyone seems to have..

[mrcoffee]

Ok, so I am slightly enlightened. Never heard of that crazy expensive German ignition. Now, enlighten me again. The Thunder Heart system appears to be for TC88 only. Do they have an XL specific unit?
It would be more challenging to run the EFI and hide all the wiring and sensors. Most people ditch the EFI cause they don't understand it. It works better than carburetors.

Been done - CosmoKramer has one of the cleanest EFI Sporties around, real subtle but tasty. Ran all the wiring inside the frame. I'd love to see the next logical step, done to a scoot that's cut up a little more.

I think the trade-off with carb vs. EFI is pretty straight-forward. Carbs are simpler, and if you know what you're doing, you can tweak them relatively easily without a lot of expense. EFI is more complicated, but if you have the resources you can get a far better tune.

My $.02 anyway,

-m

[Trippster48]

Heres the "wiring diagram"

http://www.thunder-heart.com/Tech%20Service%20PDFs/EI5012.pdf

Im using this on my 08 nightster, I got a CV carb off a 96 touring bike.

Used an intake manifold from an 04-06 sortster, tapped and plugged the hole the sensor sits in and used the stock flanges that were already on my bike. fit up pretty nicely! I still need to run the ignition still. You do use your crank sensor and your voltage regulator, obviously. I ripped out all of my wiring. ECM, TSSM, 02 Sensors etc.. The only other wires Ill have aside from the ones for the ignition will be for my headlight and taillamp. Im gonna hit up Rene again about getting a set of pipes and ditch these damn V&H that everyone seems to have..

Get a set of stock headers, grab some prebent tubing (biltwell/speedway) and tac some crazy shit together

By the way, what was your method of plugging the sensor on the intake?