03 HD 1200 sportster only starts with choke out And only idles, dies if trying to give any throttle Fresh gas in it, jets clean out, 1557.0 mils on it Vac slide on carb dosent move when trying to throttle it. Help please

you could try opening up the idle/mixture screw another turn to make the transmission from idle to throttle better
governors just open the throttle butterfly according to the spring tension setting from the throttle lever

Hey LD,

Bummer. Sounds like one of a couple of things... You did not specify what BRAND your bike is, but with the slide comment, I presume a Mikuni or similar type of carb.

So the artificial enrichment circuit is actuated during choke operation. This circuit only works with the throttle plates in the IDLE position. ANY throttle and that circuit drops out of the picture and the idle/slow/main jet circuits take control.

You COULD have a huge vacuum leak, and that would cause what you describe. Look carefully, squirt bottle some water around the intake/carb/manifold areas. Any change in idle is suspect. But you may not be able to achieve this, based on choke only operation.

SO, my thought is something is plugged in your carb. This happens with old gas and stagnation. Often the enrichment circuit will flow, but not the idle circuit. The only remedy is surgery. Typically you pull the carb(s) so you can inspect well on a bench. Pull the float bowl and look for foreign material of any kind. I have seen moss like growths in there... Perform an overhaul, with the long submersion, followed by flushing and high pressure air..

There is one other, fairly Bonsai method that works: You fire up the bike, with the air cleaner off.... Get as much engine speed as you can... One hand on the throttle, ready to open, and briefly cover the entire carb intake with the palm of your hand, at the same time, you need lots of throttle. What this does is sometimes dislodges a blockage. Really works well on lawnmowers. This takes a time or two for you to get everything synced, but you need lots of throttle and full intake air restriction. Sometimes works, sometimes not. I always worried about being successful as that means there is some chunk of something floating around somewhere in my carb. I would perform surgery.

I hope this helps.

Doc

Check air filter- clean or replace, Make sure you have fresh fuel, A new spark while you are giving it a service, Do you know how to tune the saw? Start with basic settings 1 turn on the low and 1 turn on the high And adjust from there, You might have turned the idle up too high. The choke should always be fully in when saw is running. Hope this is a good start

A 2003 model with only 50 miles?? Wow....well,since youve already taken the carb apart and cleaned it,did you hook up the vaccum line for the VOES switch on the intake manifold? If so,..when you get the bike running,..spray some brake clean around the intake where it bolts to the heads.If the idle picks up,or starts to sputter,..youve got leaking intake gaskets. Which is a good possibility on a bike that old with that few miles on it.The choke essentailly adds more fuel to the motor,and by what your saying,the bike is obviously running lean. Also,...im ASSUMING that you have fresh gas in it,and the petcock is turned on.

blockage to the carby or the float has the needle set too high not allowing enough fuel into the float bowl

It sounds to me like your main jet or high speed circuits could be plugged up in the carb(s) or you could have water in the fuel. If you are reasonably mechanically inclined, I would suggest removing the carbs and giving them a good cleaning. You might want to give it a fresh set of plugs and a new air and fuel filter while you are at it.

when you rejetted, did you also change the idle jets or just the main jets? if you didn't change the idle jets, that would probably help. remember you might also want to raise the float level height just a little bit to compensate for the extra fuel going out.

was there trash in the old filter? If so let it be your guide on what to expect.Clean the carbs out, get the trash out of the needle and jet and the needle seat. Also make sure the tank is clean too.You do not have to remove the carb to clean it,just the airfilter housing and fuel bowl.Then you can remove the float the float-needle and jet. Remember no fuel will run out of the tank unless fuel cut off has a vacuum on the small vacuum line going to it.

the carbereter jets are blocked up,, strip it out and clean them out
but dont go pokeing a bit of wire into any jets or you will distroy them
if jets are blocked the bike will normaly only run with full choke on

Sounds like the needle jet on the carb is messed up, the low speed idle jet, just buy a new jet. it should idle at 950 to 1000 when warm without the choke