dirty plugs....

After riding for a bout a half hour or so my spark pluks become black. Not wet black but carbon black. Anyone got a quick fix for that???

 

She's running rich

Check air filter or for an air restriction of some sort.
Did you change anything that led to this?
like exhaust or carb work? Anything?
did this just start doing this?
Contaminated gas?

 

No, nothing changed on my part but it startded doing this when the weather got cold. It starts up after it has rested a bit just not right after I turn it off. At first I thought it was the battery but then I found the dirty plugs and relized it wasnt getting enough spark.

 

I'd take a close look at how the enrichment valves are working. When its cold ... we open those valves up for easy starting and smooth running until warmed-up.

If you leave them open ... you might have it too rich for long enough to soot-up the plugs.

But, when you close the circuit and get running good ... you should be back to normal and burn clean without fouling plugs. You might have a situation where they arent closing all the way.

Worth a peek.

 

will I be able to see the valves with out taking apart the bike? Where are they located?

 

these would be "choke" valves
with the choke off the little fork should not be lifting the brass rod at all

 

follow the choke canle to the carbs and there is a rod that has a lever on each carb. When you move the choke lever the levers on the carbs move up lifting the brass needles, when the choke is closed the needles should seat firmly in the seats in the carb body.
You need to check that they are closing all the way if you have them cracked open, you will be running rich.

 

yeah like Polock said.
A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

The valves seem to be closing just fine. I noticed a lot of smoke coming out of my pipes as well, not a great amount but enough to notice

 

Have you added any fuel additives? Like Seafoam or any other?
Is the smoke blue or black or white?
Does it only smoke under certain conditions?

Right now I have my bike laid up with seafoam in the tank, a couple of weeks ago my son and I went for a ride, when I got on my bike a little hard he said it puffed blue smoke.
I just figure it's the seafoam because it never did that before and I have it pretty rich in the tank.

 

No additives have beeen added and the smoke is blueish white, it smokes while warming it up.

 

ok I hate to jump to conclusions so you might check to see if you can adjust the idle mixture screws on each carb to get it to run clean, (stongly suggest a colortune for this)
the next thing I'd suggest is a compression check.
Do both a dry and a wet check.

At this point I kinda wonder if your petcock isn't leaking by and flooding the engine and when you start it, it's rich at first for a time?! (just thinking out loud)

No smoke when it warms up?

 

not much smoke. I havent checked the air filter yet so it might be there. How would I know if the petcock isnt leaking by and flooding the engine?

 

right oil at the right level?
check that air filter

 

If the petcock is leaking you should see fuel in the air filter housing and the air intake side of the carb(s).

If you think the petcock is the culprit, disconnect the fuel line from the petcock and see if any fuel drips from the petcock.
You may have to leave it disconnected over a period of time, the leak could be temperature related.

BE CAREFUL, the gas that might leak out is FLAMMABLE.
If it leaks and it's during the night you might not see the fuel spilling.

You could connect a piece of fuel line to the petcock and route any leakage to a gas can or other suitable container.

If it leaks then you have other options ranging from a new unit, a kit to rebuild the valve or an aftermarket valve that is manual and not vacuum actuated.

 

Is the right oil level when it comes half way up the window because mine reaches almost to the top of the window and its been like that since I bought it about 8 months ago. I recently changed it and put 3 qts in but it was cold when I drained it. Could this be a factor????

 

If the Petcock is leaking ... the Overflows will dump excess fuel out of the overflow tubes and you'll have gas, on the floor, under the bike -- which is a real bad situation if the bike is stored indoors ... with gasoline fumes spreading-out at the same level with any possible ignition source ... such as: the pilot light of a hot water heater.

 

1st of all if you are burning oil the smoke will be blue
if you are throwing black smoke youre running rich
if you have witeish smoke then you have coolant or some other fluid in the combustion chamber.

If your plugs look wet and oily then you might have a cylinder burning oil
If your plugs ar black and sooty then you are running rich
If you have whiteish soot on your porceline then you are running lean.

The list goes on but for an air cooled bike that should cover most situations.

So if your engine has a bit of blueish/black smoke when it is cold... that tells me that when you get warmed up, that something is burning off..... that narrows it down to either valve guide seals or carb/petcock trouble,

ok, so anyone else got any ideas?

 

i smoked a little bit when i was that age too