Not another colortuning question!

Hello Ladies & Gentlemen,

Just received my colortune plug today that I won off E-bay. I think it's a older one as it a Colortune 500. Once installed on the bike little bubbles appeared in the see through glass portion. I think it buldged out a little bit as well. Has anyone else experienced this?

One another note, should I be concerend about adjusting the mixture at a higher idle? No sooner than I hit the throttle the mixture turns orange. It's running pretty rich right now as you can smell it plus it back fires out the tail pipe. The #4 cylinder that I checked showed a nice blue(correct) color until I barley hit the throttle. This is the only one that I checked so far. I thought the plug was going to blow out. I also noticed gas around the rubber boot at the pilot circuit. I probably need to correct this before doing to much adjusting. Any help would be appreciated...

 

Ladies & gentlemen? Uh....dude....we ain't that formal round here! Welcome aboard. Ok. I have a colortune 500 and I got some distortion on the sight glass also. So far no other problems with it.
The orange color change is correct. When colortuning it is standard practice to blip the throttle and get the orange and see if it goes back to blue. If so then all is well. I don't adjust mixtures at higher idles. I set mine at about 1000 RPM. You can only adjust the pilot mixture screw which only affects the bike a little above 3K RPM. Setting at a higher idle will introduce fuel from the main jet and could cause you to tune lean. If it's right at 1000 then it's right.
Backfiring out the tailpipe is a rich condition. Backfiring through the carb is lean or a timing problem. So I would colortune the side that is backfiring first then the rest.
The fuel you see seeping out near the pilot circuit sounds like it is from the choke plunger. If so then make sure the choke is off. Push down on the plunger and see if it seats further. Check the cable for binding and make sure the plungers are seating. If they aren't then they are letting in extra fuel which is most likely causing your rich condition. You are correct that this needs to be taken care of first. Under the rubber boot is a 10mm wrench fitting that may be loose. Make sure these are tight.
Check these out and let us know what you find.

 

Thanks Blue, that helps out a ton. I'll most likely dig into the this Sat. I'll post my findings Sunday to let you know what I've found. I'll keep the colortune since it's normal to see the bubbles in the older ones.

 

Always a good idea to let those colortunes cool down a little between cylinders. Take note that I haven't seen the plug so what you se may be worse than what mine has. Use you best judgment. I'll look for your findings after I get back from my ride Saturday.

 

BUMMER! BUMMER! BUMMER! As you can see this didn't go over to good. Well, I took off the carbs as a rack just to go through them again. I found a ton of crude in the emulsion tube area. I cleaned and cleaned all day long. I adjusted the fuel / air misture screws to 2.75 turns out just to get a base line. I screwed in the colortune(HURRAY) as you should finger tight. I went to adjust the screw but the plug BROKE as the bike was running! The plug started acrhing from the middle electrode to the body of the plug. I placed a small piece of rubber hose over the electrode on the outside but that didn't work. It appears that it was arching through the middle of the glass to the body. The bike is running pretty good as is. I've returned the colortune for a replacement which I should have by the week end. By tighting up the pilot circuit screw it stopped the fuel leak. Thanks for the help again, hopefully by this weekend I'll have it tweaked out and painted like I want it.

 

Bummer is right. How exactly did the plug break? Did the electrode come out or did the glass break?

 

I guess I shouldn't have used the word broke. I think it melted a bit which let the electrode get off centered. I guess the spark coming down found the closest thing 1st which was the body of the plug. When the bubbling 1st happened I didn't have the plug in more than 20 seconds. The seller off E-bay thought that the mixture was to hot. AS far as I could tell it was a nice blue which indicated a proper mixture.

 

I still don't like that it melted like that. First time I have ever heard of one doing that. 20sec is not very long either. It usually takes about 45sec to tune a carb in. I had the arcing problem with mine and used heat sink to insulate it. Took about 3 wraps of it but it works. I would be tempted to sell that 500 colortune on ebay and get a motorcycle one. You can order just the plug from Morgan for about $35 USD. Don't know what shipping would be from England. But may be the best route. I just may do this myself. I know others have used the 500 version for sometime with no problem but safe is safe. I don't want to think about what that thing could do to my eye if it let go while I was tuning.

 

My color tune hasn't bubbled and the color turns orng when I blip the throttle which I understand to be normal.

Again, Gegan I am a big proponent of inline fuel filters, I prefer one that I can see into.
This is the cheepest insurance you can get, those gas stations in AZ have a lot of crap that comes out of the pump. The worst I ever found was in Las Vegas though.

Good Luck