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2003 Road King Throttle Body

jigglestick

Member
I have a problem. Both with my Road King and with Harley Davidson, the company. Wondering if anyone else has, or is currently experiencing my issue(s). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Let me start with the bike issue: I noticed that my 2003 FLHRCI was having problems at idle. It was idling extremely high. To avoid the boring details of the process I used to discover the problem, I will jump right to my findings. The shaft that holds the "butterfly" within the throttle body was cracked. There are two screws that hold the "butterfly" to the shaft that it pivots on. I opened the "butterfly" and noticed that it was cracked right at one of the screws. Thus, it didn't allow it to close completely at idle and was sucking in extra air. Wow! Never seen that before. On ANY vehicle.

Now. The HD Inc. issue. And this is where it gets aggravating. I go to my local dealer and they told me that the part was on back order until a release date of 8/20/12. But, there are 4 dealers in the country that say they have one. I called all 4. Same answer. They don't have one and it is on back order. I called a few others that I thought might have one. All to no avail.

Part # 27603-01 Throttle Body Assembly

I searched e-bay, craigslist (nationwide), all the parts houses such as Dennis Kirk, JP Cycles etc. I searched the internet for 3 hours. Used. New. Whatever. Called some local bike shops that I know to see if they had a take-off throttle body. Nothing. Apparently, there is not one of these in the entire country.

Sure, I could spend $600 for an aftermarket part, but this is an '03 with 70,000 miles on it. I just want the stock part for $175.00.

I put the part on order and paid for it at my local dealer. The date that Harley was going to release it was 8/20/12. That date has come and gone and with repeated calls to my dealer, they don't know when it will be released to them. Today is 8/23/12. The last I heard is, the dealer called Harley to get a new release date on the part. Harley said that they will send out an e-mail giving the date. That was 2 days ago! The dealer is in the dark just as much as I am.

I wrote a letter to HD and voiced my displeasure. I asked them "How can a company of their size and stature, allow this to happen? HD customers are the most loyal customers to any manufacturer on the planet. We proudly purchase and wear their clothes. We put HD stickers on our vehicles. We accessorize our bikes until we can't no more. We even tattoo our bodies with their logo. All of this paid for by us! WE PAY THEM TO ADVERTISE FOR THEM! How can HD let this happen that a loyal rider is forced to park their bike for 3-4 weeks waiting on a simple $175.00 part, that shouldn't have broken in the first place? The riding season in Minnesota is short enough. My bike has been parked for 2 weeks so far!"

I elaborated a little more than that but, you get the idea. So. I was wondering if I was the only one with this issue or are there others? Any suggestions?
 
Harley-Davidson® Parts and Accessories Try these guys for better pricing, Seems to me you are not alone with this problem , I remember a while back of a thread like this. You are in Mn right? See if you can find a number for Kokesh Motorcycles and ask for Bug:s Welcome to The Forum
 
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Thanks Jack. I'll look 'em up.

Good Luck, Harley gets funny any more about weak parts and does not like to admit a problem like this one, you will find a lot of these broken and 10 years out they do not like ton keep in stock Go Figure, there should be a lot of them laying around some where JMO
 
Exact same problem on my '03 RKC last year. A real booger to find the problem. My Harley shop gave me a two week lead time on a Thursday. I called Ft Worth on a late Saturday and they had one in stock. However, lo and behold, my dealer got the part in on the next Monday.......shocked us all.

In my quest to try to diagnose my problem, I found a shop in Austin called Bud's Motorcycles. Google it, literally thousands of parts, mostlly used sitting on the shelf. Hole in the wall, but a great shop. I got parts there at 50-70 off what Harley wanted. Then again, they were used, but guaranteed.
 
Thanks Amish. I will absolutely be looking them up.

Yeah, I got lucky finding the problem. I started with the temp sensor and the throttle position sensor. (I do all my work myself. This website has helped me allot.) The guy at the service counter gave me the heads up as I was leaving with my new sensors. He said: "One thing you might want to check. Open your butterfly and look at the shaft. See if it's cracked. I've seen it before." Sure enough. I got home and that was the first thing I did. Cracked. He saved me allot of time and frustration.
 
Part # 27603-01 Throttle Body Assembly. Isn't that a Magneti Marelli throttle body. If so, I could see why the part is hard to get. Harley doesn't have the part made for them. Another vendor comes into play right?
No different than all the Delphi sensors. Delphi can have production run issues and it's out of HD hands to a large degree.
 
Not sure Hoople. I asked the parts guy and he didn't know off the top of his head. I'm still kinda researching that. Going thru all this I sort of got side tracked with finding out who makes it. I guess, more than anything, I would simply like some answers out of Harley. Something. Anything.
 
These days I would be thankful that they even continue to support 10 year old products. Believe me, they make no money keeping them alive. Mentally they are now focused and forced to design a water cooled bike that works, meeting emission standards and selling new product. Most of the time manufactures price old parts really high to discourage repairing the item. $175 is cheap for a new complete 10 year old throttle body that was designed by another vender.

Hey I understand your position. I am a tech by trade. Everything I own (and I mean everything) is old. I fix things until all the screws are stripped out. I have a 3 year old big screen TV that parts are no longer made for them. All manufactures are under the squeeze right now. No-body wants to invest in stocking inventory that doesn't turn at least once a month.

Trust me, your doing good.
 
Auto Makers are to keep parts available for ten years by law. Don't know if that applies to bikes though.
Is the shaft brass? If so it could be brazed, had to do that on a car once.
 
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