Motorcycle Repair: kehein carb. flooding, harley manual, throttle gas

Question
QUESTION: hello mike....i am helping a friend work on a '77 flh 1200 shovel he just acquired and we are at a stand-still.... the old bike had been sitting in a building for a few years and was pretty bad shape. we cleaned it all up and changed the points, plugs, and condenser, changed the fuel line and cleaned the carb really good and installed a re-build kit in the carb. it cranks great and idles great. but the minute you twist the throttle she farts thru the carb; and more often than not goes dead. we have tried setting everything according to harley specs (harley manual) and nothing helps. far as we can tell we have no leaks at the intake or exaust and we have turned the idle mixture screw every direction to no avail. during rebuild of the carb we installed a 175 main jet and an 88 slow jet. the screw on the accelerator pump adjustment is also set according to spec. we took the air cleaner off and watched and just the slightest bump of the throttle gas just pours into the carb from what looks to be part of the accelerator pump orifice at the front of the carb throat. when it dies you can smell gas strong and the carb. throat is soaked in gas. this is NOT the kehein c.v. type carb that is on my 95 EVO. it is different. i am sure you are familiar with this carb. WHAT HAVE WE GOT WRONG HERE?? Please advise us on this one mike.....we are lost partner. any help at all will be greatly appreciated!!!

ANSWER: Go back the remove the carb and take it apart. Somthing is either plugged or you didnt get it back together correctly. Since the bike has been sitting for a long time I would take the carb apart and take it somewhere and have it soaked in carb cleaning tank overnight. there are small passageways int he carb that get blocked. Put it back together and try it again. Let me know if this helps
Good luck and happy riding
Mike

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: We did soak the carb in cleaner before we built it and I double-checked to make sure everything was re-assembled correctly. All is correct as far as I can tell. we went back and took the carb off the bike again and blew some air thru some of the ports inside and it seemed clear. (unless a small particle was present we could not see.) I re-set the bowl so it would cut the fuel flow off earlier and ran the screw in on the accelerator pump just a bit and after adjusting the fuel mixture screw a bit it smoothed out a lot from what it was. nowhere close to the flooding we were getting. the biggest problem now is that it seems like it takes longer than it should to return back to idle speed if you throttle it up. what direction do ya think we should go in now??? it idles great and accelerates pretty good but it just dont seem to drop the rpms back to idle as fast as it should. any ideas? thanks for the first response to our request. we are still at a loss but closer...

Answer
There is still a small vaccumn port that is probably slightly plugged and causing your problem. Letting a carb like that sit for a long time with gas in it really causes problems. It will varnish up and is tough to get it clean. I have seen some where they will never work correctly, due to being plugged. The idle not dropping fast is due to somthing in the carb not closing fast enough and probably slightly sticking. If you want to use that carb you will have to keeptrying to clean it over again and play with the settings. Personnally, if it were me, I would install a new carb. This will solve your problem and you will get better performance out of the bike.
Good luck and happy riding
Mike