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167,000 Miles Superglide: Jetting The Carb Update


 Jetting The Carb: UPDATE 167,000 miles on Superglide WOT

It’s fairly easy to tell if the idle jet is correct, but according to Nightrider website, if you don’t have access to a dyno, you need to do a W.O.T. run. Wide Open Throttle. 

WOT TEST: 


TO TEST THE MAIN JETTING, YOU MUST BE IN FOURTH OR FIFTH GEAR, AND RUNNING FAIRLY HIGH RPM (4000+), THEN OPEN THE THROTTLE ALL THE WAY TO THE THROTTLE STOP, NOTING THE FEEL OF THE BIKE.

And immediately afterwards, you shut her down, and check the plugs.

But anyway, I’d changed my pipes, and I just wasn’t getting the POWER, that I thought I should have, so I put in a bigger main jet.

The long hill on 84 west outa town

Rolling fast on the Superglide

No one in the right lane

95, 100 miles per hour some stupid SUV

Plodding along at 65 eases on over

check left, there’s room

hit the middle lane

And the plodding SUV

Can’t decide, straddles the line

So he hits the gap

Between lanes

And blasts on through

But just for a sec

he touched the rear brake

Oh…and don’t forget to check the plugs…

When new, my superglide ran really well with the stock exhaust, but I didn’t like the sound…so I bought “slip-ons.” Then it ran really well, and sounded good, too. But I was doing a lot of riding, running back and forth across the United States…and I was eating up some tires in the process. So every time I changed my back tire, I had to remove the damn muffler, because it blocked axle removal, and that became the pain in the ass of the entire process. Taking it off, then putting it back on…clamps…pain in the ass clamps. So I found a short exhaust…I bought a set of Vance & Hines “short shots.” And from then on, there would be no more muffler removal for a simple tire change….And they look good, too. Simple and clean.

Well, the Short Shots looked great, but, I thought, the sound was never all that good. Kind of tinny and raucous, at the same time. Ya see, they came with these eleven inch baffles, all metal, like pipe, vented all around, a little crimp in the middle, near one end. So I took it out on the highway for a “speed test” with the new exhaust; I wanted to check the performance and the jetting.

Idling was good, and the bike ran OK, but the main test would be known as WTO: Wide Open Throttle, a test that some might consider “less than legal,” but which, under the proper circumstances, can prove highly exhilarating, and when I performed this test, I was less than satisfied. So I went home and put in a bigger main jet, and was still not satisfied. So I went home again, removed those eleven inch baffles, and cut them in half. And I put in another main jet, a 200, and took her out for another round of WTO, and this run, though not as good as the slip ons, was much better. The bike, I felt, was rideable. I pulled the plugs, they looked pretty good. Gas mileage was good: usually 40 mpg, or better. Half baffles, I figured, are better than no baffles.

But it was still a little tinny and raucous; I don’t think the neighbors were pleased. Maybe it was me…but it seemed like they scowled a lot when I passed. So I rode the bike like that for a few years, until just recently, when I saw Thunder City Baffles…nice name, and the claim, was that these baffles would cut down on the tinny, raucousness, and give my motorcycle a deeper tone, and improve my mid-range. Wow. That sounds good. That sounded real good until I looked at the price. These guys wanted a hundred and forty dollars for a set of baffles. But I read all the “testimonials,” and no one had anything bad to say, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

So I followed the instructions, drilled a couple of holes in my short shots, and installed the baffles deep in the pipe. The bike seemed to run OK, but the sound was better. So now it was time to take her out for the main test: WOT, and I must say that, without any further jet changes, the bike passed the WOT test, and after several weeks of riding, I’m convinced that the baffles did improve my mid-range…she pulls harder, definitely, and seems yet “tamer”. But number one: it sounds better. Number two: I got better mid-range. Number three: I didn’t lose nuthin’ up top (WOT). And now…the neighbors bring me fresh baked bread and cut flowers. Nope. But maybe they scowl a little less when I pass. And the plugs look good…

Supertrapp Came Next

Compression Test At 136,000 miles

front cyl: 156, 155 psi, rear cyl:  165, 157 psi

I put on a 2 into 1 Supertrapp exhaust, which enhanced my performance considerably. This is how it's tuned. 

190 main jet. 48 slow jet. 2 1/2 turns out on the mix screw. 

Autolite Plugs 4164 - loose .040

Plugs were running a little whitish so I enriched the mixture by removing some Supertrapp disks: 13 disks with open end cap.

She runs great but I have not done the WOT test.

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