1st gear sputtering

A smear of oil (or vaseline) on the motor side of the gasket is a good idea.

Were you air/fuel mixture anti-tamper plugs removed when you got the bike? Pondering if PO had things disassembled and put the washer in first and it is now wedged in the bottom of the screw hole(s).

 

They were removed. The screws are fairly worn like they have been turned quite a few times. Not stripped yet but definitely worn. So knowing that the washers should be there then that could be a source of the plug fouling. This bike has been heavily modified by previous owner or owners. Hardtailed, aftermarket exhaust, pods, not a whole lot is stock anymore. I have been working backward undoing a lot of the mods and think someday Ill end up with new maxim. The shims could not have been done in quite a while as there were zero clearances on the intake side. Looks like I need some washers...I can see pretty clearly that the bottom of the fuel air mixture hole there is no washer., It is a tapered opening Ill snap some pics tonight.

 

not really, for our purposes what is marked is good enough. now if you have one that you can't read....measure

 

I had a shim that was marked .270 and was really .266 . I had a 265 installed and then switched it out for the 270. Since the 270 was really 266 I gained next to nothing. 3 times during this job I ended up using an off marked shim. Anyways I'll always check them from here on it to see if they are as they are marked. FYI the shims I got from Chacal were perfect!

Tearing carb back apart tonight and hoping to be up and running by Thursday.

 

This of course, goes without saying!

 

OK the bike is reassembled. Mucho improvement. I have full throttle response through first gear and probably 20% more power. I did have a little trouble syncing one butterfly, but I am going to fine tune it after I get my color tune. Took it for a short ride last night and was very pleased with the results. Definitely throttle shaft seals were shot. I did tear the carbs back down and clean all the lithium grease off and redo everything with vaseline. So hopefully I can be done with that for the season. I did have a little bit of backfire but hoping the colortune will help that. Mixture screws were all set at 2 turns out. (81 xj 650 with course thread mixture screws) I also got all the mixture screw washers in. Feeling pretty happy so far and look forward to seeing what I got when it's all fully dialed in. Thanks for all the advice. Those valve shims were so past due...