Throttle cables : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

Peacekeeper · 12-27-2006, 08:27 PM

Okay, I'm probably gonna get flamed on this one but I find myself banging my head against the wall. 04 FLHTCI, I switched out the gips as I have done many times before without incident. Fire up the bike and go fo a ride and at idle only she is running rich, so rich it burns your eyes if you stand behind the pipes. Checked everything, nothing unhooked by accident. Runs fine just smells bad. Crank up the throttle it goes away. Pipes are getting sooty. So now I break out the service manual and it says that only a dealer with a scanalizer can adjust the cables?? WTF? Throttle cable hits the stop, idle cable hits the stop, I'm lost. Why do we need an Idle return cable with that big ole spring on the throttle housing anyway? I let go of the throttle and it snaps right back to idle by the spring.
Also, it was cold as a witches butt here today, never got up to full operating temp. Could the cold have caused this?

jasilva · 12-27-2006, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peacekeeper

.....
Also, it was cold as a witches butt here today, never got up to full operating temp. Could the cold have caused this?

Yep, that could do it.

jim t · 12-27-2006, 10:21 PM

Did you do anything with the choke cable while working on the carb and do you still have a bit of freeplay at the choke knob? Air filter clean? Something changed. Good luck. Jim

Peacekeeper · 12-27-2006, 10:58 PM

Its EFI, no carb. Only ran about 10 miles around town, not really long enough to warm up. Just re-adjusted the cables as per the REAL HD manual and not my POS Clymer manual. Will run it hot on the interstate tomorrow and see what it does. The carbon on the pipes has me thinkin something isnt right.

GrayRider · 12-27-2006, 11:30 PM

It may be that your TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) is confused. That's why they adjust with the scanalizer. You'll probably need to take it to a dealer for adjustment.

jasilva · 12-28-2006, 01:50 AM

TPS shouldn't matter. TPS reads from the throttle body lever not the cables.

khollister · 12-28-2006, 09:53 AM

And furthermore, there is no TPS adjustment I am aware of, with or without the Digital Technician. There is also no procedure in the electrical service manual. You would think there would be a procedure to close the butterfly, zero the TPS reading via the Digital Technician and then readjust the stop screw to set the idle speed, but there isn't. This si common practice on the Buell EFI, and it's a DYI process with some 3rd party software.

LAF · 12-28-2006, 10:07 AM

You could have something hung up in the throttle body under the butterfly? If it was fine before you did your work, it is in your work somewhere. Cable adjustment would be my focus. My EFI takes a long time to warm up, but idle should set in a reasonable amount of time. Rich is more gas then air so I would say you need to get your blade open a bit more for idle and you probably need the bike warm for the Throttle body to expand to operating temp.

LAF · 12-28-2006, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khollister

And furthermore, there is no TPS adjustment I am aware of, with or without the Digital Technician. There is also no procedure in the electrical service manual. You would think there would be a procedure to close the butterfly, zero the TPS reading via the Digital Technician and then readjust the stop screw to set the idle speed, but there isn't. This si common practice on the Buell EFI, and it's a DYI process with some 3rd party software.

TPS and IAC can be adjusted on a EFI bike. Not sure if the Scanalizer allows you to read it or not but BOTH are adjustable. IAC affects TPS.

In this instance I think the butterfly (cable) needs adjusted to be open a bit after it comes out of warm up sequence.

Peacekeeper · 12-28-2006, 07:48 PM

Well I think I figured out the problem. The modifications I made to keep the bike cool in the summer aren’t allowing it to come up to full operating temperature in the winter. Was having overheating issues in the summer so I did Jagg and a crash bar cooler, pipes, DFO and SE intake. These modifications kept the operating temperature around 210 max on the hottest of days, down from 280-300. Now after a 50 mile run it only came up to 168 at 43 degrees ambient. I could almost lay my hand on the front cylinder. The rear was a little hotter. The over rich idle condition wasn’t as bad as yesterday since I rode it a lot farther and it warmed up more. I think the fix will be to re-tune the DFO for winter riding, cover the cooler and bypass the crash bar cooler. Thanks everybody for all your input.

khollister · 01-01-2007, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LAF

TPS and IAC can be adjusted on a EFI bike. Not sure if the Scanalizer allows you to read it or not but BOTH are adjustable. IAC affects TPS.

I would really like some followup on this - do you have a pointer to this procedure? There is nothing in any of the manuals I can find about it. The instructions on replacing the TPS or IAC have no reference to any adjustment or reset procedure.