2002 Road King efi to carb conversion - free bike

Topics on all other models that fit in no other section
Post Reply
flatheadDave
Member
Posts: 449
Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2019 8:07 pm
Bikes: 1948 G 45", 1969 FLH, 1963 FLH, 1965 FLH
Location: LA
Has thanked: 243 times
Been thanked: 99 times

2002 Road King efi to carb conversion - free bike

#1

Post by flatheadDave »

So I was offered a free 2002 road king. It was sitting in a friends drive for 2 years. It was his friends, and got the title for it. It was George’s bike and he considered making a stripped down chopper of it, but that idea was scraped. The bike is all there. I asked what the catch was and he said it only been sitting and it has the efi system. And kept reiterating it’s the EFI system, and it’s a pain in the ass. So I guess my question is if I really wanted to convert it to a carburetor, how much trouble is it? Has anybody ever done it.

I also have a friend of the shop in Hollywood and he’ll hook it up to the computer, troubleshoot it, and re-map it for me for like 50 bucks. It’s pretty ugly but it’s all their minus a small part of the back exhaust on the right, and the right foot board. I couldn’t say no, free bike. it did have some funky things installed in it, one being a Pingle automatic shifter. I don’t know if you’re ever seeing one of these but it’s a solenoid system that’s put on the clutch in the shifter and you can push a button on the handle bar at full throttle and it will ships smoothly for you, not my thing, some kind of race mod? probably take it off. But I looked it up and it was $1600 new.
Attachments
F92F96CB-94DC-4DEB-8AD4-5A0AAEDBCF0B.jpeg
F92F96CB-94DC-4DEB-8AD4-5A0AAEDBCF0B.jpeg (89.91 KiB) Viewed 717 times
0549FAD9-3264-4A74-96BB-1B18D988847C.jpeg
0549FAD9-3264-4A74-96BB-1B18D988847C.jpeg (76.68 KiB) Viewed 717 times
6448E099-7358-4439-83F5-3DF97354E90C.jpeg
6448E099-7358-4439-83F5-3DF97354E90C.jpeg (94.6 KiB) Viewed 717 times
droptopford
Member
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:02 pm
Bikes: ...
48 EL
57 FLH
78 FLH
86 FXST
98 ROAD KING
66 Honda CL 160 Scrambler
Location: OHIO
Has thanked: 209 times
Been thanked: 94 times

Re: 2002 Road King efi to carb conversion - free bike

#2

Post by droptopford »

Well... I can't help. But damn... the price was right!
Andygears
Senior Member
Posts: 1396
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:25 am
Bikes: 1950 panhead, 1999 FLHTCI, 1987 FLHTC custom
Location: Daytona Beach
Has thanked: 438 times
Been thanked: 648 times

Re: 2002 Road King efi to carb conversion - free bike

#3

Post by Andygears »

I have a ‘99 with the dreaded moto marinelli fuel injection. It runs great, but I have kept it up since 2007 when I bought it with only 20k miles. It has the 95 inch upgrade, 304? SE cams and a power commander & Dyno tune from Carl’s speed shop in Daytona.
So the shop down the street has, in the past, done a number of those conversions. I am not sure what f.I. Your ‘02 has and if it’s the early Delphi, parts should be available. The M.M. System I have, parts are not available but I have a stash of used. From what I’ve heard you just need conversion fittings for the gas tank, the tank hoses inside the tank often used rot away and need replacing so address that. And a carb with manifold kit. I think but am not sure that the ignition will just run, look into it further but they sell a “chopper” ignition wiring setup for twinkies. Quite often the crank sensor goes out and kills the engine, replacement is straightforward.
My dresser is worth little but is a very nice rider, I refuse to give it away because the chrome is peeling, paint fading and it has THAT fuel injection. Be careful, you can spend more than that bike can resell for.

Andygears
Panacea
Senior Member
Posts: 2087
Joined: Fri May 24, 2002 1:00 am
Bikes: 64FL 99FLHR 01FXSTD
Location: Mpls. MN.
Has thanked: 72 times
Been thanked: 145 times

Re: 2002 Road King efi to carb conversion - free bike

#4

Post by Panacea »

I bought a 1999 Roadking used late summer 99, drove it stock for a couple years but couldn't keep my hands off the motor. It came stock with a carb so of course I had to throw on a Mikuni HR42, and then the big boar kit, woods #6 cams, exhaust etc. it's been a great and reliable bike. Finally re did the cams with gear drive to get completely rid of the chains and tensioners, had less than .oo15 pinion runout so it's nice and quiet. I'll keep it until I can no longer hold it upright, fun bike!
Mongrel505558
Senior Member
Posts: 1418
Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2020 5:46 pm
Bikes: Rigid Panhead bobber, 68 Shovelhead, 2000 Road King Police bike, 2000 Dyna Wide Glide
Location: Rhode Island
Has thanked: 991 times
Been thanked: 701 times

Re: 2002 Road King efi to carb conversion - free bike

#5

Post by Mongrel505558 »

A few years ago I bought a 2000 Road King police bike (FLHPI) from a friend for extremely cheap money. He is slowly going blind and he wanted to do one last big ride across the country and back, so he bought this bike from a retired Lowell, MA cop and set off. He has a '66 Triumph T120R in his living room and his '66 FLH in his sun room, so the Road King served its purpose for him and he eventually contacted me with an offer I couldn't refuse (not that kind).

The bike sat outside for a couple of years before I got it, so I had to replace the fuel pump and filters in the tank to get it running. It has the early Italian Magneti Mirelli EFI (made for Fiat), which I've heard horror stories about, but no problems so far. The original owner added a Power Commander module to it. I cleaned it up a little and pre-emptively changed the cam chain tensioners, inner cam needle bearing, oil pump, and the other items guaranteed to grenade at some point in those early TC88 motors. Put a couple of Andrews TW21 low end torque cams in it and new tires on it and I've come to really enjoy riding that bike. It doesn't have the "soul" of my panhead or shovelhead or any of the old bikes I've owned, but it is comfortable and smoooooth. Only drawback is it weighs so much that sometimes I really don't feel like wrestling it around in heavy traffic situations.

The early TC's still had the superior Timken sprocket shaft bearing and much less crank runout than the later models. A large percentage of owners of the later models can't even use the S&S gear drive conversion because of too much crank runout. If the MM EFI does roll a seven I will get the Pingel fuel tank conversion and stick a CV carb on it. From what I understand it's not a difficult conversion. Until then I'm just going to keep changing the oil and do the regular maintenance, and just ride it as it is.

Jim
Post Reply

Return to “Other models”