Removing a Harley Davidson Carburetor: A Step by Step Picture Guide

1.) Remove the air cleaner cover.

2.) Now remove the air cleaner.  Note there will be a gasket behind the air cleaner that fits on between it and the carburetor, you need to either hang onto this or if you can, replace it.

3.) Remove the two screws at the top of the air cleaner and the three breather bolts you see protruding above. 

4.) Now you should be able to see the carburetor and will likely have a hose between the air cleaner backing plate and the bolts attached to the jugs.  You can let the cleaner backing plate dangle while you remove that upper bracket.  I like to keep things as assembled as possible to keep track of parts and ease of reassembly.



5.) Now remove the bracket.  Be careful, there are likely a couple of washers for each bolt and you'll not want to lose these.

6.) Once off, losen the throttle cables before you remove the carburetor.  This step will make your life way easier.  If you're not sure which way to turn them to tighten or loosen them, a good trick is to just look at the where the cables are connected to the carburetor, feel the tension with your finger as you adjust it with your other hand and ask yourself "is this getting looser or tighter?"  No rocket surgery here...

7.) Now pull the carburetor out of the intake.  It's only being held in there by a rubber gasket and some hoses so pull gently but firmly and it should wiggle free.  Now you can disconnect your vacuum hose on the top of the carburetor and your fuel hose (pictured below).  You will also need to walk around to the other side of the bike and remove the choke or enricher cable from the bracket so you can pull it out through the carburetor side of the bike.

8.) You can do step 8 before 7 if you want but the vacuum hose is sometimes tight as is the choke/enricher cable so use your best judgement.  Remove the fuel hose and have a beer bottle or some other kind of container nearby as a little bit of gas may come out (not much but a little).  I know, I know, never put gasoline in a glass container and all that...so use your best judgement, it's probably better than mine anyway.

9.) Some fuel hoses are put on the carburetor with a disposable hose clamp.  Just cut those kind of clamps off and I strongly recommend using the little $1.50 adjustable hose clamps that use a screw tensioner in the future.  They're just easier to work with and God forbid you need to remove a hose on the side of a highway or something in an emergency.  If you have disposable clamps you're screwed. 

10.) Now turn the carburetor over and locate the throttle cables.  You did losen them right?  If not go back to step 6 and do that.  Before you remove these, make your life easier and take a pencil or pen and some masking tape and label them.  This helps you know where to put them back on when the time comes.  Once these suckers are off they will twist around and do their darndest to confuse you, so be smarter than your bike.

11.) If you labeled your cables it should look something like this.  you can't see my righting because I used a pencil and the camera in my phone sucks but you get the idea. 

12.) Now you should see your intake manifold.  You see to the right and the left of it?  If you ever need to replace your intake manifold gaskets because your bike is running weird, that's where they are.  Now, before you walk away, do you see that big hole?  Good, now stick a clean shop towl or rag in there before a bird decides to build a nest in it and ruins your engine the first time you crank up your bike after putting your carburetor back on.  Also, this will have a gasket that fits over the edge of the hole, this gasket will slip over the backside of your carburetor.  If you can replace this gasket when you reinstall the carburetor.

I hope this helps.  This picture "how to" was created using a 1998 Harley Davidson Dyna Convertible, your bike may have slight differences but this should still give you an idea of how this works.  It's a pretty simple job to get a carburetor on and off once you've done it so have no fear.  For those of you wondering how to get the carburetor back on, just follow steps 12 through 1 (do this list backwards).