Colortune and Carbtune questions

I recieved my Carbtune and Colortune from Chacal (Thanks!) and tried to use them this morning.

First, let me say that the Colortune is very cool to look at. Someone needs to invent see through sparkplugs that can stay on all the time.

Now, on to the mornings issues. I only got as far as cylinder 1 before I thought I better stop and ask questions. The bike started fine on the 1st try and warmed up normally, I removed choke incrementally. The idle was a bit high (2k) so I adjusted it down to about 1k.

The first problem I noticed is that none of the rods in the Carbtune moved. I figured this was because of the 2k idle. Once I got idle down to 1k, three of the rods were vibrating/bobbing slightly but not coming out of their holes.

I figured maybe my Carbtune setup was wrong (I don't think it was) and moved to the Colortune in #1 cylinder. It was a nice blue flame but a bit pale. Adjusting the idle/mix had an effect on the idle of the engine but no effect on the color of the flame. Even fully seating the screw maintained the same blue color. The idle got choppy and I could see the individual sparks on that cylinder but no color change.

Any thoughts on why the Carbtune isn't registering vaccum and the Colortune spark color isn't changing? :?:

 

IMHO the color changes are slight when observing the blue. I open my mixture until I see a yellow flame, then tune until the yellow goes away. I then go a bit more lean and use plug chops thereafter.

I'm not familiar with the carbtune but it sounds like your getting leaks maybe?

 

You must have a Major Air Leak.

I found this situation on a Bike I worked-on recently. The Manifold wasn't seated to the Head. Until we could repair a broken Manifold Stud; we "Sealed" the edge of the Manifold with RTV Black.

The Air Leak was plugged.
The Vacuum Gauge registered as it should.

 

CarbTune - sounds like leaking air somewhere - do you have the restrictors in the lines right? Are the tubes pushed fully onto the stems? One thing I've noticed if you've got the CarbTune II version is that it needs to be perfectly vertical, and occasionally needs GENTLE tapping to get good readings. The newest versions I'm told have corrected these issues.

ColourTune - Two things (actually 3) I know of can cause this behaviour:
1 - your throttle isn't closed all the way, and/or the enrichment circuit (aka choke) is stuck on.
2 - your carbs are seriously gummed up and the idle circuit isn't working properly.

 

Thanks for the ideas. Yes, the restrictors are in. I took the Carbtune apart and cleaned the rods and brass sleeves with alcohol. It could be my imagination but they seem to move more freely. Haven't re-tried it yet.

I sprayed carb cleaner all around the intake / head area and noted no change in idle or anything unusual at any cylinder.

The need to have the Carbtune verticle is a possible issue. I wasn't far off but I do see where the rods are reluctant to move when it isn't verticle. It honestly never occurred to me to give it a tap. I'll try that too. I could buy the air leak idea if it was just one rod that wasn't working. The Carbtune is essentially four seperated vaccum guages in one housing. A leak should only affect one line.

As for Colortune, I'll try again. My last project was a full carb rebuild. So, it SHOULDN'T be gummed up. Never say never though. I polished and clunk tested the "choke" pistons and they were good. It's a maybe on the throttle not closing all the way.

Today was too busy and fraught with interruptions to come to any conclusions. Tommorrow will be less hectic and I'll come at it a bit slower. Thanks for the help. I'll report back on what I find.

 

If you had the mixture screws out make sure the o rings and washers are in right. That could cause all kinds of problems too. Just a thought.

 

I'd like to know for sure if you MUST insert a YICS tool before beginning with the ColorTuning? I asked this question once before but can't find the question or response now, can anyone confirm?

 

No for color tune - yes to sync

 

As Bill said, Colortune, no; synchronizing, yes. To expand a bit: YICS is nothing more than a large-volume "balance tube" CAST INTO the head and feeding the intake passages directly. It feeds intake charge from cylinders whose intake valves are closed into the ports of cylinders that have their valves open, "swirling" the charge and (supposedly) increasing power while increasing cumbustion efficiency. When trying to vacuum synch the carbs, it will throw everything way off. For color-tuning, I don't believe the "added" charge from the other pots by way of YICS is enough to drastically alter the mixture.

 

Once I get the Sync done with the YICS Tool in there ... I pull it to do the Fine-tuning.

I Colortune and then go to a place where I can finish-up by doing some Plug Chops.
You might as well have the Bike running well inn a real world situation.

 

Gotta love the search function. Today I sync'ed my carbs with a Carbtune, and was happy with the results. Actually, I was happy after I remembered to put in the YICS tool...

Then I tried to use the Colortune. I left the sync gauge hooked up thinking I would do another sync after the Colortune. I hooked up the Colortune in cylinder one and started the bike and the vacuum lines blew off either manifold one or manifold two. I quit for the day and went for a ride ))

Could that extra pressure that blew off the lines be from leaving the YICS tool on while trying to Colortune? If so, I'll give it another go in a couple of days. If not, what do you think caused it?