HOW TO HYPERCHARGE THE VULCAN 800 by: Cap'n Kirk kbristol@harman.com VROC Member #928 I've seen a lot of posts here and there on installing the KuryAkyn Hypercharger on the Vulcan 800, but it's difficult to put together all of the information that one needs from these posts. I found that out when trying to do this mod to my bike. Well now that everything is running really good, I am doing this write-up on how to do the mod. This is to help anyone considering the Hypercharger or installing it, plus there is some information in here that would help with any aftermarket air cleaner install. I'll start with some Frequently Asked Questions and then details on carb jetting, the install, and EPA emissions control equipment. Again, this applies only to the Vulcan 800, I don't know about how it applies to other bikes. Plus I'm not taking any responsibility if you screw your bike up and actually listen to what I say. I'm just giving you guys my input based on what I've learned with my bike. You might run into different circumstances, so foremost use your own head. Q - What is the Hypercharger? A - The Hypercharger is an air intake/air filter/air cleaner produced by KuryAkyn. It replaces the round stock air cleaner on the right side of the bike. Q - Are there any advantages to adding a Hypercharger? A - Yes, there are two, looks and performance. Looks: Check out the picture of the Hypercharger at KuryAkyn's web site: http://www.kuryakyn.com/hyper.html There's also a picture of a Hypercharger on a Vulcan 800 at: http://www.vroc.org/pics/1998-06/jpg00007.jpg These pictures kind of speak for themselves. The butterflies are linked to the engine's vacuum, so they open and close as you rev the engine. Also, the round side cover and butterflies are removable. So you can easily customize them however you want. KuryAkyn sells several different colors, gold and chrome or you can custom paint them yourself. Don't want to paint something on your tank? Then paint the side cover of the Hypercharger and put whatever you want on it. The part is small, so it's easy to paint or interchange, and it's relatively cheap, so you can buy extras to interchange. Performance: If you've ever taken the tank off of your bike you'll know what a mess the stock air intake system is. With the stock system, air is drawn off of the top of the rear cylinder into a small air box up under the right side of the tank. The air then goes down through a small opening in the bottom of this box into the air cleaner housing that you see on the right side of the bike. The air then goes through a standard paper air filter to get into the carb. With the Hypercharger it's hanging out in the wind, so it's able to suck in cool wind directly, no maze-like duct work for the air to fight its way through. Plus the COOL air, I'm told, will give you better performance than the warmish? air coming off the rear cylinder. In addition, you've got that extra ram air effect, as you speed up air will be forced into the Hypercharger 'cause it's in the wind. Finally, you've got a K&N filter in the Hypercharger. This ain't no cheap paper filter. It's actually made out of thin cotton linen, treated with an oil that helps collect all of the crap you're trying to keep out of the engine. The K&N filter, if treated nice, will last for about 50,000 miles (which is much better than stock). The real key to the K&N filter is that it's more free flowing than the stock air filter. To reap any real benefits from the Hypercharger though you've got to put more free flowing exhaust pipes on (aftermarket pipes, not the stockers) and re-jet the carb. Are you getting the equation now? More Air (Hypercharger) + More Fuel (carb re-jetting) + Getting It All Out Fast (aftermarket pipes) = More Power. Q - Where do I buy a Hypercharger? A - You can buy Hyperchargers from many Harley accessory outlets. However, you don't just need the Hypercharger itself, but you need a spacer, mounting bracket, and carb bracket made for your bike. Steve Lacewell at Sherm's Cycle Products (800)488-6671 or stevesparts@presys.com can get you everything that you need for about the same price, maybe less than what you would pay for the Hypercharger alone at a Harley shop. I think that this is where most people have bought their Hyperchargers from. Q - How much do they cost? A - This may fluctuate, depending on the deal that Steve Lacewell can get. Most folks in VROC got theirs through a group purchase for around $200, but it may be higher if Steve has to order them one at a time. My local Harley shop had them for $200 for just the Hypercharger, no adapter. So, expect to pay $230 - $250 through mail order or local shops. Q - Are there any problems with the Hypercharger? A - Yes, the Hypercharger is very sensitive to having the carb jetting just right. So, if you do this install plan on spending some time tweaking out the carb jetting. I've had to fiddle with my carb settings at least a dozen times, but hopefully some of what I've learned will help you to skip some of my mistakes. My experiences related here are for elevations between 600 and 900 feet above sea level. Different elevations will warrant some changes in the carb settings. A professional mechanic can certainly help in this endeavor. Also the Hypercharger appears to be very sensitive to headwinds, which degrade its performance. I haven't found a fix for this as of yet, except taping the butterflies shut when you've got a really strong headwind. Getting the carb jetting just a little on the rich side should help minimize this problem. Enough of this basic FAQ stuff, let's roll up our sleeves and get into the nitty gritty of this post. AIR CLEANER REMOVAL Remove the bolt (8mm) that holds the seat on. Remove the seat, it is normal for this to take some force, try hitting the seat towards the back where the pillion starts. Remove the bolt (8mm) that holds the instrument panel on the gas tank. This is the bottom-most bolt near the warning lights. The instrument panel is hooked into the back of the gas tank, so after the bolt is removed you'll have to lift it up and towards the front of the bike to remove it. Unscrew the speedometer cable connection to the instrument panel. Disconnect the electrical connections to the instrument panel. The instrument panel should now be free from the bike, set it aside somewhere safe. Disconnect the fuel and vacuum lines from the gas tank petcock. Note that the fuel line may spill out the fuel that is in the carb's float bowl, so catch it in a gas can. Now remove the gas tank. There are two 12mm bolts that hold it on, one below where the instrument panel was and one near where the front of the seat was attached. There may be one or two hoses connected to the bottom of the gas tank. Pull these hoses out with the tank or disconnect them. Set the tank aside somewhere safe. Now remove the black air box that's right below where the gas tank was, it's held on with two 10mm bolts. Put this in a spare parts box, anything that I tell you to put here won't be needed again. Now remove the chrome cover for the air cleaner (10mm bolt) and the air cleaner filter. These can go in your spare parts box. You should now be looking at a big, black air cleaner housing and the throat of your carb. There's a small knob on the right of the air cleaner housing that's connected by a cable to your carb. This is for idle adjustment. Slide it off of the air cleaner housing and let it hang. Towards the bottom of the air cleaner housing should be a small hose that runs down to the front of the bike. This drains oil from your crankcase and should drip oil into a little plastic bottle (on 1996 and later models) or it's simply plugged at the end (1995 models). Remove this hose from the air cleaner housing and take it and the little bottle (if present) off of the bike, they go into your spare parts box. Finally, there should be two hoses connected to the back of the air cleaner housing, one medium sized and the other large. Both should be disconnected from the air cleaner housing. The medium sized hose should be connected back to the lower part of the rear cylinder. This is the crankcase breather hose. The large hose should be connected to the gold, vacuum switch valve under the left side of the gas tank. You should now be able to remove the air cleaner housing from the bike by removing the two 10mm bolts that hold it in place. Save these two 10mm bolts, but put the air cleaner housing in your spare parts box. You've now removed all of the stock air cleaner stuff that you need to for now. CARB JETTING Carb Removal At this point you should have easy access to the carb. So you might as well go ahead and re-jet it now before you put the Hypercharger on. This is going to probably be the most fun part since you get to use power tools and drill into the carb! Since you're going to be doing some drilling it is best to take the carb completely off the bike. This should be the only time that you have to do this though, since adjustments later can usually be done with the throttle cables, choke, etc. still attached to the bike. First, there's fuel in the carburetor float bowl that you'll want to make sure is all drained out. So, attach a small tube to the little nipple that sticks out from the very bottom of the carb and run it into a gas can. Right next to this small nipple is an allen bolt (3mm). This is the carburetor drain plug. Loosen the bolt and the gas will drain out. Once the carb is all drained, go a head and tighten this allen bolt back up just so that you don't forget it and dump gas all over your engine later when you try to run it. There's a black metal bracket that goes across the bottom of the carb and holds it into place. This bracket is bolted directly to the engine with two 10mm bolts. Be very careful when messing around with these bolts, you don't want to strip out the threading in the engine. It's probably best not to force them, especially if the engine is hot. Remove these two bolts and remove the bracket from the carb. Note how a rubber nodule on the mounting bracket fits into the carb. There's a rubber boot that holds the carb onto the manifold now. This boot is held on with two clamps. Loosen one with an allen wrench (3mm). Note how a notch on the boot lines up with the carb for alignment. Now rock the carb back and forth a little and pull it off of the manifold boot or take the boot off with it. You'll now want to take all of the miscellaneous stuff off of the carb that's still hanging onto it. Take the choke knob off the bike, but leave it connected to the carb. Disconnect the vacuum line at the back of the carb and the overflow/drain line that's attached near where the choke is attached. You'll also have to remove the two throttle cables. Pay attention to which cable goes where. You should now have the carb free from the machine. Take a clean, lint-free cloth and stuff it in the now open manifold to keep little bugs and stuff from getting into your engine. Fuel Mixture Screw Take the carb to a clean work bench or table and take a deep breath because this is where the fun really starts. You'll need an electric drill and a small drill bit. If you're lucky maybe the drill bit even came with your jet kit. Now flip the carb upside down and take a look at the bottom of it. What you're looking for is a small hole with a plug in it. I hope they sent you a diagram with your jet kit because it's going to be pretty hard for me to describe. The plugged hole that you're looking for is in the middle and is the closest to the rubber manifold boot. Once you've found this hole go on and start drilling into the center of it VERY carefully, I used a 5/32" drill bit. Just under this metal plug is a fuel mixture screw (also called the idle mixture screw) that Kawi doesn't want you to mess with. Drill slowly and pull up frequently to check your progress. Just when you break through the plug stop. You should have gotten a sheet metal screw with your jet kit. If not, then just use one that will fit the hole you drilled. Screw this screw into the little hole that you've just made in the plug. Once it's seated in there fairly well, give it a couple tugs and you should be able to pull the plug completely out. Did you screw it up? If you see the top of a flat head screw that's still in good condition than you did good. Give yourself a pat on the back. Take a small flat head screw driver and carefully turn the screw clockwise, counting how many turns you make. Write down somewhere what your bike was set at, in case you ever need to return it to stock. Be careful when turning in this screw. You want to be gentle with it so you don't ruin the seat. Now turn the screw back out 3.25 revolutions. If you decide to go with a different setup than what I'm recommending, then adjust the screw as needed. Make sure that before you proceed that you clean up ALL of the metal shavings from the drilling. Main Jet Replacement While you've got the carb off of the bike, go ahead and replace the main jet. There are four philips head screws that hold the bottom (float bowl) of the carb onto the main body of the carb. Remove these screws and gently work the bottom of the carb loose from the top. There's a rubber gasket attached to the bottom part, try not to damage it. There's also some rod/pivot thing on the right of the carb (near where the throttle cables attach) that remains attached but will still allow you to drop the float bowl. Once you've got the bottom part of the carb dropped down, look at the top part for the main jet. It's made out of brass and it slotted for a flat-head screw driver. It should be located right in the center of the carb, directly below where the needle is. Got it? The fuel float is the white plastic thing around the main jet. The float can be adjusted as a part of carb tuning, but this is tricky, so let's not screw with it for now. Okay, there's an emulsion tube attached to the main jet. Either take the whole thing out with an 8 mm wrench or use the 8 mm wrench to hold the emulsion tube in place and just take out the main jet with the flat-head screw driver. Now simply screw in the new main jet (I recommend a 170 main jet) with as little torque as you can get by with. Snug the thing up, but also remember it's brass and you can easily overdo it. You're done with the main jet, button the carb bottom back up. Needle Replacement This part is kind of fun too, so make sure you're in a good mood. The needle is readily visible when you look in the throat of the carb. It's sitting inside the slide. Before you do anything else, try moving the slide up and down to see how it works. Make a mental note of what its action is like, because you'll need to do a comparison later. There are four philips head screws on the top of the carb that hold the black, plastic top in place. Remove these screws and hold down the top as you take them off. Now carefully remove the top and the large spring underneath it that is pushing it up. You should now see a black, rubber diaphragm that is attached to the slide. Be VERY careful with this diaphragm. If you screw it up, you'll have to replace the whole slide assembly. The diaphragm should be sealed at the outside edges pretty well. Carefully pull the edges up so that you can take the entire slide assembly out of the carb. Got the slide out? Now carefully push the needle up out of the slide and remove the white, plastic thing on the top. Store the needle somewhere in case you need it again some day. Look down into the slide. There are two holes, one in the middle for the needle and one offset to the back (engine side) of the slide. This second hole, the offset one, allows air to flow in and out as the slide and diaphragm move up and down. The theory is that if you make this hole bigger, then you will allow the slide to move up and down faster and thus increase throttle response. Folks will recommend that you take an electric drill and a steady hand and drill this hole out with a 1/8" drill bit. I have done this and not noticed any negative results. However, I and many others in VROC have also not noticed ANY positive result either. It's up to you, do it if you like. If you do drill this hole larger be sure to clean any burrs off the hole and clean out any metal pieces. Some folks have also modified the front of the slide to get better air movement past it. The details of this modification are at the web site listed below: http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/hdcvcarb1.htm I have tried this modification of the slide and have not noticed any difference. Russ (another VROCer) also did this mod and found no positive impact, so it's up to you if you want to give it a try. Some folks may opt not to buy an aftermarket needle, which is the majority of what you pay for in a jet kit. That's fine, but I have little experience with this type of setup, so you're mostly on your own. If you do try to use the stock needle I would suggest shimming it up a little and using it with maybe a 172 main jet and the fuel mixture screw turned out three turns. I did this setup on an 800A1 but with a 168 main jet and the bike ran a little lean, so I think a 172 or 175 might be about right. If you've bought a jet kit, pull out that new needle and compare it to the stock needle. It should look significantly thinner, a thinner needle will give you more fuel flow. Put the e-clip in whatever position you decide on (I recommend 3rd). When doing this, try to do it with the needle and e-clip held in a plastic bag. Thus, when you drop the e-clip (which you will) you'll drop it into the bag and avoid spending hours looking for that %&*#@&$ thing. You should have gotten some washers with the jet kit. Put these on top of the e-clip and put the needle back into the slide. Place the white, plastic thing back on top of the needle and washers, being careful that it doesn't cover the other hole in the slide. Now put the slide back into the carb and make sure that the diaphragm will seat properly when you put the top on. I'm told that if you want to make sure that the diaphragm seats really well, you can put the slide assembly in a freezer to get the rubber to shrink. Then install it while it's still cold and you can get a tight fit on the edge of the diaphragm. I haven't tried this though, so don't take my word for it. Put the spring back in place and screw the lid back down (be careful about that diaphragm seating). Now try moving the slide up and down again, and confirm that it's smooth (the diaphragm is seated right). If you've drilled the slide, see if you can feel any improvement in its movement. Carb Installation Cool, you're carb's now officially re-jetted and you can put it back on your bike. Hook up all of the cables and crap that you disconnected (fuel line, overflow tube, throttle cables, and choke). Now slide the carb onto the manifold's rubber boot. A little spit will help lube its way in there. Tighten the boot's clamp down on the carb and it should be a tight fit all of the way around. Remember the variables here are the main jet size, the needle's e-clip position, and the number of turns out on the fuel mixture screw. I've recommended a 170 main jet, e-clip in the 3rd position, and 3.25 turns out on the fuel mixture screw. Other settings may work better for you though, but I think that this is a good starting point to tweak from. HYPERCHARGER INSTALLATION Wow, we've come a long way and that beautiful Hypercharger is still sitting in the box! First pull out the shinny, chrome bracket with two holes at the bottom (package labeled MV-1 Hyper Mounting Bracket F/Vulcan 800, part #8589). This thing is supposed to be bolted to the stock air cleaner housing mounting bracket (the black thing that also holds the carb in place). Hold the chrome bracket up to the black, stock bracket and see if the mounting holes line up. If you've got a '95, '96, or '97 you're probably screwed and the holes don't line up. If you've got a '98, then you'll probably find that the holes line up perfectly and you're good to go, so skip some of this stuff. If you're in the screwed condition, then take out the round, aluminum bracket that came with the Hypercharger and which slips over the carb. The package for this should be labeled adapter F/Mikuni HS 40, part #8526. Slip it over the carb, put the stock bracket on the bike and now line up the chrome bracket to get an idea of how you're going to modify the thing. You can either drill larger, longer holes in the chrome bracket or drill larger, longer holes in the stock bracket or use a hacksaw to cut the chrome brackets into slots. Be creative and have fun.......NOT! I'll leave the gory details of the bracket modification up to you, just don't screw it up. Okay, you all should have a functional mounting bracket now. Put the black, stock bracket onto the bike, making sure the rubber nipple is holding the carb in place. Now put the aluminum, carb adapter bracket (package labeled adapter F/Mikuni HS 40, part #8526) on the carb and use one of the included allen bolts to bolt it onto the carb. Does it fit on nice and snug and not move around? Mine didn't and I tried using it any way and it just ended up flopping around kind of loose, so you might want to do something about this. I took a hacksaw and made the gap in the bracket bigger, so that the thing could be closed tighter. The same could be achieved with a file or sand/emery paper. One alternative that someone did was wrap the edge of the carb with something to make it bigger. Either way you go, get that bracket on there tight. Now put on the chrome bracket with one of the two paper gaskets going between it and the carb adapter. Now put on the spacer (in package labeled 7/8" spacer F/91-96 XL Hyepr, part #8510) with the other paper gasket going between it and the chrome bracket. Now bolt on the Hypercharger with the three longest allen bolts (you need to take off the Hypercharger's side cover to do this). There's no gasket provided to put between the spacer and the Hypercharger. You may want to make one yourself out of card material or just go without. I didn't get any gaskets with my Hypercharger and it's worked fine without them. I've also received a report from another VROCer who's gone without the gaskets just for convenience. Either way, make sure everything is on there nice and tight and the Hypercharger is lined up how you want it. Put the side cover back on the Hypercharger. You need to run vacuum to the Hypercharger to get the butterflies to open and close. The vacuum connection is made to the nipple at the bottom, front of the Hypercharger. The vacuum line that you want to connect to goes from the carb to the fuel petcock with one T connection sending a line to the vacuum switch valve (the gold thing under the left side of the tank and between the cylinders). You don't need the vacuum switch valve (it's part of the EPA emissions control stuff), so you can remove it and use the T connection that it provides. See the EPA emissions control section for more details. Alternatively, you should have received a plastic T-connector with the Hypercharger which you can just splice into the vacuum line. Get a usable T connection in the vacuum line and run the vacuum tube supplied from the vacuum line to the Hypercharger. In my case I did not receive a vacuum line with the Hypercharger, so I thoroughly cleaned the oil drip tube that was on the original air cleaner housing and used that. Yes, KuryAkyn gave you more stuff than what you need for the Vulcan install, so you'll have a few miscellaneous bolts and pieces left over. The Hypercharger is now installed and ready to go. However, you've got some loose hoses hanging around that need to be attended to, that's next. EPA EMISSIONS CONTROL EQUIPMENT REMOVAL I've said quite a bit, so now I'm going to let someone else speak. The following is adapted from the VROC Gazette Volume 2.3, March 1998 in an article by Tom Moudry. I've added my notes specific to the Hypercharger with an asterisk before them. This is a fairly simple operation, so take your time and you should have no problems. I learned this by trial and error, so you reap the rewards of my work (it was fun so don't feel guilty)! I didn't really see any performance increases, maybe you will, maybe not, but the engine area will be less cluttered, and you are doing your part to fight the government. Speaking of government, this process is not approved by the EPA, the DOT, the ABC, or Bill Clinton. Off road use only. You know, the standard disclaimers, so don't sue me. So if you are worried about that, don't do it. Of course it just as easy to put the pieces back on, so warranty concerns are no problem. Any questions or comments, e-mail me. Items needed. two 1/2 inch rubber vacuum caps four 3/16 inch rubber vacuum caps one 5/8 inch rubber vacuum cap duct tape 12 inches of 3/16 inch hose (optional) Procedures. Be sure to label all hoses and items removed if you intend to replace them. Use some masking tape around the hoses to remember where they went. Also, if you have some cardboard, it is nice to lay out the parts and your tools, in a neat fashion. You should be able to get all the parts listed at an auto parts store, like Kragens, Pep Boys, Autozone, Napa, or whatever you have close. >snip See the hose between the valve covers, looks like a T and goes to an ugly gold thing? Take it off of the valve covers, and place the 1/2 inch vacuum caps over the ports. Now remove the small hose from the gold air valve, you can take it off the T fitting that goes to the petcock vacuum line, and plug it with a 3/16 vacuum cap. *This is the T connection that I was talking about that you can use for vacuum to the Hypercharger. Remove the large hose that goes from the gold air valve to the back of your air cleaner assembly. >snip *Remove the gold, vacuum switch valve. If you own a 49 state bike, you are done, Californians, stick around for more fun. CA models-plug the two downtubes on the bottom of the tank (remember where you removed the red and green hoses?) with 3/16 vacuum caps. Be careful not to tip the tank so much as to spill fuel! Remove rubber grommet and hose from the back (near the top) of your air cleaner assembly. You are going to have to cover this hole with a piece of duct tape.....I know it sounds redneck, but it works! Now remove the hose from the carburetor, it is near the back of the carb, where the air cleaner goes on. It goes on a black plastic petcock. DO NOT PLUG THIS PORT! Your bike will not run right if you do. Next, take a look at the vacuum line that goes to the fuel petcock. On the 49 state bikes, this is a T, but on the CA bikes, it is more like a double T....TT , one line went to the air valve, and the other one goes to the emissions canister. Remove the emissions line, and cap the port with a 3/16 inch vacuum cap. You may wish to make a new line instead of having two caps on it, just measure the line and cut a piece of 3/16 hose to replace the original. Now comes the fun part. Under that right side cover, you see the emissions canister and pump. They are held in by rubber mounts, just pry em loose. Now route the hoses out of the bike. I left them connected to the canister and pump, and ran them out that way, but whatever way you choose, go for it. I went a few steps further and removed the housing they mounted to, and drilled out the rivets to remove the brackets. You have to take the exhaust pipe off to do this. Now I have a new storage area. Also if you take off this housing, you have access to the shock and may wish to adjust it with a large screwdriver and a hammer. The shock comes from the factory at the lowest setting, and is too soft. That's it! Okay, enough of this stuff from Tom Moudry, it's the Captain here again. If you don't want to do this stuff, that's fine, but it should help to eliminate the 800's problem with carburetor farts. If you leave the EPA emissions control equipment hooked up you'll need to put a filter on the large hose going to the vacuum switch valve. This thing allows the engine to suck filtered air into the engine to help in burning any unburned gases in the exhaust pipes. If this air is not filtered, then you run the risk of plugging your reed valves and screwing the system up. You'll note that you should still have a medium sized hose coming from the bottom of the rear cylinder which doesn't have a home. This is your crankcase breather hose. You'll need to put a crankcase filter on it. I used a nice Custom Chrome crankcase filter (part #12-018) that I got at the local Harley shop for $15, and I mounted it off the left side of my tank. You could also go with a cheap one and hide it up under the tank with all of that space that you've got now. I think you're supposed to mount the crankcase filter higher than where the hose comes out of the rear cylinder. Also be warned that this thing will spit out some oil (which used to be collected in that little bottle), so you might want to take that into consideration when mounting it. SUMMARY Okay, you should be done now. Move the idle adjustment knob to wherever you want it to hang, mine's under the tank. Put the tank back on, hook up the fuel and vacuum, put the speedo and seat on, etc. When you go to start the bike you'll need to switch the fuel petcock to the prime position for a little bit. Take the bike for a spin and see how it works. Please understand that the carb settings I have given you have worked for me and a few others, but they are not the only way to do it. Different bikes and/or elevations may warrant different carb settings, once again, my recommendations are based on elevations between 600 and 900 feet above sea level. So you may need to play with these settings a bit to get the jetting perfect. A professional mechanic may certainly help along these lines. I hope that this has helped and good luck. If you have trouble, before you throw that Hypercharger in the trash, let VROC know. We're all here to help. Here are some web sites that may help if you're having carb tuning problems: http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/carbadjust.htm http://www.factorypro.com/carbtun.html Cap'n Kirk kbristol@harman.com VROC#928