She's Alive Again, but idleing high and Lean

Well first of all I'd like to thank Rickomatic for all the threads you have replied in. Your info alone got my bike running again.

A little history. I cleaned the carbs but it was still running pig rich. So I replaced the coils, ignitor, needle valves and filters and rebalanced the floats to no avail.

I quit working on it for a bout 5 months till now. Pulled it apart again. Made all the floats the same height based on one that seemed to be spot on. Sanded the slides a bit with 1200 grit and the insides of the shaft as well but not much. Put it all back together and tested the slides, they would all clunk in about a second, I figured thats due to tight tolerances with them and the walls.

Anyways fired it up and still running rich on all cylinders. So I figured it has to be a common problem with them all. Looked at an old thread about the pilot and main air jets being backwards. Well this carb had been apart before I could tell.

The jets were backwards. So tonight I changed all the jets to the way rick showed in his pic of them and put them back together.

Bike wouldnt start after this for probably 10-15 minutes of cranking. Finally it fired but idled at like 4-5k and wouldnt come down.

So I wonder if I need to clean the slides even more. I am pretty sure the throttle linkage is fine since the cable has slack in it and i have never messed with it myself.

It is also running lean now so I guess I need to dial in the adjustment screws as well. I have them out about 2 turns right now.

I cant believe this thing is running again everyone told me to give up on it.
So what do you guys think?

 

First, you check to see that the attachment for the throttle cable to the carb linkage isn't hung-up under the back of the block.
Thats a common land-mine everybody steps on putting the carbs back on.

If it is ...
No bending or prying!
Pull the rack back and don't break that of bend it out of shape.

If the Slides don't fall ... Immediately ... work the BORES ... NOT the Pistons.

Check for air leaks.
Check the Idle Adjustment Rod for being too tight after a bench sync.

Then ... do a Colortune if you have access to the Tool.

 

Should the slides immediately fall when its back together or just when I put them back in the top? It seems that the diaphragm is what is slowing them down since it has a suction when they are together. When I put them in the slot though after clean they clunk in fine.

gonna make the single gauge sync tool, and yics tool tomorrow. Question is though where is the yics tool inserted, I really have no idea. Also where can I order the colortune tool. Ive seen some sites that sell them, who has the cheapest one?

 

The YICS plug is located just below the intake manifolds on the head. Should be a 12mm bolt on either side of the head. Pull one or the other to insert the tool.
Chacal stocks the Colour Tune and offers a very reasonable price.

 

The slides need to fall immediately when there is NO Top on the Carb and the Slinky-type Return Spring is OUT.
You should be able to raise the Diaphragm Piston and release it and have it just fall right to the bottom of its travel without a shudder, hesitation or drag.

With the Hats on and the Springs IN ... there will be a Slow movement to closing. You have a Vacuum in the Top that is being reduced by the volume of air coming in the breather holes at the bottom of the Piston.

You need to do the test with the Diaphragms uncovered.

 

I cleaned the shafts again tonight to the point that all slides immediately drop into place.

The bike is being a pain to start though. I finally got it started after cranking forever and it idled well but sounded rough, and was running a bit rich compared to last night when I had it running lean. I had to have the idle mixture screws way out in order to get it to start though which would explain the richness. It wont start with them out only 2.5 turns out.

The fuel im using is almost 5 months old so I thinking thats one of the big problems and I am going to get some new fuel next time I work on it which wont be until I get my new float bowl screws in the mail from arizona steve.

Ill keep posting as I figure it out. I also screwed with the idle tonight thinking that might be one of my problems too so hopefully I didnt open a new can of problems.

 

Get rid of that old fuel!!!!!

Todays fuel is usually junk after 30 days and won't burn right. Drain the tank and put some seafoam in it for a day or so. Drain the sea foam and fill with fresh fuel. You can put some sea foam in the fuel to keep it clean but not so much as to make it smoke

 

And tweak your screws out to 2 3/4 to start with.

 

Alright so got Arizona Steve's stainless screws (Thanks BTW) and put those bad boys in after pulling the carbs again!

I also bench sync'd the carbs with a business card, to the point where there was a little resistance pulling it out and pushing it into the bottom of the butterfly on all carbs.


I got some new 92 octane gas and she fired right up. At first I had it on a little funnel with a valve in it supplying flow, but it was sucking it down way too fast and it wouldnt rev.

So then I put on the tank and that did the trick except as soon as I start it, it immediately goes to about 5000rpm and stays there.

I tried to choke it out but that only works for a second and them bam it flies back up.

I cant imagine I have a sticky slide since I have pulled them out and done the sanding and clunk test twice now and they were fine.

The throttle cable is fine I checked that.

Only thing I can think of is my idle adjustment? Should I tone that back or is there something wrong here?

She seems to run really well though. I have the idle mixture screws all out 2.5 turns and its running fine on all cylinders it seems.

I just dont know where to go from here accept idle adjustment.

 

The Butterflys have to be OPEN to make that kind of power.

Look to see that the Linkage isn't being held open by the Cable attachment point on the linkage being stuck under the Cylinder Head.

It's the MOST Common error when putting Carbs back on.

If it is ... DON'T PRY or bend it trying to get it loose.
They break easily.
If you bend it ... it will start hanging-up the linkages.

Just back-out the Carbs ... free it up and hold it up with some wire or a tie-wrap until you get the Carbs re-mounted!

 

Alright Ill make sure tomorrow, Ill just unhook the linkage and start it to see if thats what the problem is.

 

It's so easy to let that happen when you are mounting the Carbs ... chiefly because sometimes its a fight getting the Carbs to seat in the Intake Manifolds thaht you overlook that little devil getting stuck under the Head.

When it does ... the engine just runs right up the tach when its fired-up.
Too much power for anything other than Linkages to be held open for some reason ...

 

I too was thinking that the butterflies had to be open somehow because I just didnt see how it could be revving that high with such a little amount of air, just didnt seem possible. We'll see tomorrow.
I'd be out there right now but the fiance came into town from school sooo I guess that has to take priority...

 

Oh, the fiance' came into town ...

What bike?
The bike can wait.

If my fiance' came in for an over-nighter and I was a member of the Volunteer Fire Department ... and she was there and the Fire Alarm goes
off ... all I'd do was quickly get out of bed and feel the walls.

If they were all cool ...
I'd jump back in bed!

 

so got a chance to mess with it for a few minutes today.

Unhooked the linkage since it was holding it open a bit, bike will not start, not even a hiccup.

I really dont understand the problem with this thing it was 40 degrees in the shop so I was thinking maybe that was it.

someone told me to maybe get some hotter plugs I dunno. I am just tired of this thing and want it to run, I cant think of one reason at this point why it shouldnt fire. Do I need to warm up the motor or something before I try and start it.l

 

Hotter plugs won't help.

You shouldn't need to preheat.

See my post in the other thread.

 

Micarl,

Thanks for the post, I must have clicked the wrong link or something when I posted in that thread.

I did as you said today and got it started. It took adjusting it in and out about 5 times before it finally hiccuped and fired.

My idle mixture screws are at 2.5 turns and it doesnt run rich or lean, but doesnt run well at all.

It keeps popping a lot and back firing into the intake. Adjusting the idle screw seems to have little or no affect on it, and it revs and stays rev'd if I adjust it out, but when its adjusted closed it revs great but wont idle. Its not running rich though, hell it smells kinda weird, not like exhaust. I tried to ride it down the block and it doesnt have a really any power and bogs out pretty easy. I ended up walking it back since it died on me.



I cant figure this damn thing out, ive never had such trouble with anything. I think im just gonna bite the bullet and send my carbs to rick to have them done perfect. I think my starter is about shot with all the cranking its done in the past few days.

 

Ok, sounds like idle circuit not working. Popping through carbs can be lean, or valve adjustment.

1) Check valve lash and adjust as necessary.

2) Check compression.

If compression is good you need to go back after the carbs.