have you tried starting it to see if it idles ? no carb runs with the throttle fully closed.

ZSteele wrote on 10/28/19 at 18:03:07:

Also while youre here has anyone used velocity stacks? How do they perform?

How many "stacks" would you need on a single?

If you are looking for power, carburation isn't the place to start....or end. A different carb will improve throttle response. That should be the primary reason for a swap. Since Velocity Stack(s) are tuned (fixed length) they usually work well in just one position - usually WOT. With a highly modified engine (high compression piston, cams, ported head and the like) a carb with a larger body diameter can get you an additional horsepower or so, but at the expense of low-end torque. DragBikeMike has a great thread on this subject. He did get gains with different carbs, but his engine is modified well beyond what a reasonable person would ever undertake.

To answer your first question, if you hear a "clunk" as the slide reaches the bottom, then it's bottoming out. If you find the slide can go further down by wiggling the slide or the needle, then there is a problem - likely a bent needle.

Can do, plenty to get done till then. Ive got a couple emails out for quotes on a 1 off header. If they end up too expensive I'll just buy a TIG welder and do some learning. I'll post a picture of the intake side sometime today. It definitely looks too open to me but I've never worked with a round slide so  

Gary- I meant velocity stacks as in one   figured if the performance was somewhere around a cone filter it would be fine and look clean. With the electronics tray in place there isn't enough room to just slap a cone filter on. I've got a 90* bend and a cone in the mail as well so I'll try both.

I would dial in that carb with the stock header.  That way you'll know the header isn't the problem if it's not running right.  Once you get the carb sorted, you can swap headers and adjust from there.

Is there a good way to tune without load? To slap the stocker on I'll be right pegless...

Its a vm38-"9" so jetted for Harleys. With the ufo I read I need to cut jets in half anywho so I suspect I'm going to get a crash course in tuning. I plan on getting the head ported and a stage3 or dr650 cam in the future so I'm well aware of the can of worms I've opened 😬 reading material is much appreciated

Interesting and good to know! Still worried about the idle adjustment however. Maybe I can cut the spring down a bit to allow it to actually raise the slide but hopefully it won't need any adjustment there. I'll follow this up when I get the bike running!