Cleaning the carb for the 90 Sportster…

I pillaged some parts and pieces from the 1990 Sportster to get the 1988 Swedish Style Sportster running. Mainly the from the intake, including the manifold, the CV carburetor, and the carburetor support bracket. I picked up a used intake manifold and a used CV carburetor on eBay. Ordered a carburetor rebuild kit and a new carburetor support bracket to get her back on the road.

Put the 1990 Sportster back up on the lift to start working towards replacing the parts she donated to the 1988 Swedish Style Sportster project. The used CV carburetor I picked up is suppose to have come off a running bike (I believe it came off a Dyna) but it is in need a good cleaning. I am going to disassemble it and clean it up. Then I’ll rebuild it.

The carburetor still had the factory plug over the mixture adjustment screw, so I removed that since I am going to replace it with a thumb screw for easy access and adjustment. Pretty simple to do, just use a 5/32 drill bit to carefully drill a hole in the plug, then use a machine screw to thread into the hole and pull the plug out. Be careful not to screw up the mixture screw ,which is just behind the plug, or you’ll have a hard time getting it out. Make sure you get the spring, washer, and o-ring out as well. It can be a little tricky but just take your time.

Here is the vlog I did of disassembling the CV Carburetor for cleaning.

Once I got it all stripped down I put it in the ultrasonic cleaner to get the gunk off. When it came out of the ultrasonic cleaner I gave it a good rinse and then used compressed air to make sure all the passages were clear.
Harley Davidson Carburetor Cleaned and Ready for Rebuild
The carburetor is all clean and ready to go back together…

I’ll rebuild the carburetor using an All Balls Racing Carburetor Rebuild Kit but that’ll be another vlog.

Until then… Build. Tinker. Ride.

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