How do you clean 2001 Harley Sportster Carbureator?

Answer 1

Parts needed:

New air cleaner gaskets

Anti-Seize

Carb Cleaner

Small Hose Clamp for the fuel line

CLEAN rags (four to five)

Well, the first thing I would do if the carb is not off the bike is take the carb off. I am going to assume you have a stock carb and air cleaner. If you take the two Philips bolts out of the air cleaner. You will reveal the air filter with the four bolts in it. Remove the four bolts and you will see the air cleaner back plate. THer are two larger bolts with holes in them, they are the breather botls and need to be removed. Remove those and then pull the back plate off. Then you are able to see the carb. On the left side, there is a fuel line. If it is a stock carb and has never been off the bike, the hose clamp is a factory crimped one and will need to be broken with a side cutters. Remove the fuel line with a rag to catch the little bit of fuel that will come out. Remove the float bowl with the four Philips screws on the bottom of the carb, keep upright as there is fuel in the bowl. Dump in a fuel can preferably or store the fuel properly, do not leave the fuel in the bowl as for the risk of tipping over. On the other side of the bike, loosen the nut for the choke cable and let that hang. After removing the choke cable, you should be able to pull the carb off enough to remove the throttle cables. If your bike is a dual cable throttle bike, your cables are different sized and will only fit properly one way, there is one bigger cable (return) and one smaller cable (pull). Take them off and let hang. Remove the vacuum line on the back of the carb. Set the carb on a rag and proceed to clean with carb cleaner. Be careful not to get too much on the plastic cover. Also, do not touch the float as it is very sensitive to bending on the tab where it sits on the float needle. This is set very precisely and should not be touched. Carb cleaner is harmful to anything not metal and painted surfaces. Do this away form the bike to avoid getting any carb cleaner on the paint!! Clean the float bowl and wipe clean. Clean down the throat of the carb and wipe clean. Clean the slide and wipe clean. If you feel is is necessary, pull the main jet and pilot jet and spray through with cleaner and re-install. Install parts in the reverse order and have fun with your newly cleaned carb! I feel it is not necessary to remove the top cover as the top rarely gets dirty as the slide usually protects anything from getting up there.