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Speedometer Too Fast?

Bodeen

Bodeen

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So I was out for a ride this afternoon after installing my new grips and a good washing. I was tooling along and look down at the speedo and it is reading 80! Now I may be crazy but I swear I couldn't have been going more than 60. It seemed to be to fast at slow speed too. I come home have my son jump in the truck and we take off for main drag to check speedo. Keeping in mind I shut the bike off when I got home and restarted to do the test. It was really close to being dead on.
'03 Road king with 8K miles nothing major ever done to it.
I have been getting terrible fuel mileage lately and am wondering if the speedometer is acting up more than I pay attention. Any ideas?

Bodeen
 
I guess the real questions to get answered first before we can reply:

1.) How was the performance of the bike before the washing, and what exactly was the fuel mileage before?

2.) What kind of modifications were made to the bike i.e. Stage I, air, exhaust, fuel and what was done most recently that you noticed fuel mileage or other performance degradation (other than the speedo-electrical symptom possibly related to your washing)?

3.) Is there any evidence of rich fueling...i.e. fluffy deposits on one or both exhaust outlets or plugs? When pulling away at a stop, do you have full accelleration...and when you "roll on the throttle from 30 up to 80 quickly, any bogging or misfiring or when chopping the throttle at 60-80 anything unusual?

Just some food for thought, so readers have something to work with...
 
I bought the bike and it had Rinehart TD's, A/N Big Sucker, and a V&H carb kit installed.
The bike would seemingly take forever to warm up and it would pop back through the carb at first throttle response. All other speeds it ran great. I opened idle mixture screw another 5/8 turn and the pop was gone and it enrichment knob doesn't spend as much time pulled.
The best fuel mileage I have gotten was 31mpg. Last tank was 28mpg. The plugs look good, no fuel running out of the tail pipes, no black on the inside of the pipes. No performance issues.

I have been trying to figure out if the V&H carb kit included the procedure of drilling the vacuum port. But dont know. I do know that slide opens very quickly with the throttle.

hope that helps.

Bodeen
 
Well after the initial problem. It went away on its own. I will chalk it up to washing and something got wet. When it dried, its normal.

Bodeen
 
The problem happened to me this morning on the way to work again. I was going along at probably 45 to 50 look at the speedo and it is almost to 90mph! No washing this time so water was not involved. Just a cold bike.
When I got to a stop sign that I had a minute to try something. I killed the motor with the kill switch, turned off ignition, turned ignition back on, reset the kill switch, and started the motor. Back to normal readings.
My guess is here that it wouldnt be the speed sensor if I can reset it like this but dont really know.
Anybody seen this?

Bodeen.
 
I read somewhere today that it maybe the order in which I use the switches to start the bike. I have searched and read the many discussions on this and didnt see anyone mentioning a speedo issue happening.
I always kill the motor with the bar kill switch then off with the ignition. However I start by putting the kill switch to run then the ignition on and start.
Somebody on the net suggested that if you do it like this the speedo doesnt get booted properly before the start and would be inaccurate. It would suggest to me that I may be to quick on the starter switch as well.
Makes some sense that the speedo would have to sinc with the speed sensor first to realize zero mph as a start.
Not looking to start a switch sequence thread, it has been beat down. Just wondering if this makes sense?
What say yall?

Bodeen
 
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