Carb wet setting: Am I missing something?

Hi all,

I am in the process of rebuilding my carbs.
So far everything goes wll. Cleaned every part, made sure all passages are open, replaced diaphragms with pinholes by beter ones from my spare set of carbs, mechanically aligned the carb bodies when I mounted them on the mounting strips and done bench sync.

Now I must set the float levels and I think I missed a part of the info in all manuals and write ups.
The first part of the process is clear: set carbs up level, fill with gas, attach clear hose and measure high of fluid in hose relative to carb body.

But what happens next?
The instructions say something like: 'Adjust tang to correct level and repeat for all four carbs. Oh yeah this is a PITA.'

Here I miss a more detailed instruction.
What about the heat shield below the float bowls, which blocks access to she screws? When I remove the heat shield I may loose the alignment of the carb bodies.

I think that when I remove a bowl to adjust the float, first all carbs must be emptied, or is there a way to make the fluid go to just one of the carbs?

Can I reuse the gas from the first measurement for the next measurements? After all the carbs are clean, so the fluid should stay clean also.

Or is this all just in the PITA part?

Thanks for any clarification.
Joris

 

On the 550, if you put the rack back together properly, you can remove the heat shield and not lose your carb body alignment. The long bar on the upper rear of the rack and long bar between the carb bodies and heat shield will hold them together. It is easiest to take the measurements for all 4 carbs and drain them before you make your adjustments. You will spill less gas on your work bench. The gas can be reused for further measurements if it is clean and uncontaminated. It is a PITA. Before you go much further than this, make sure that your valve clearances are in spec. You will never get your carbs synched properly if they aren't.

 

When you check the fuel level with the clear tube be sure that there is no air bubble in the tube or you will get a bad measurement. I always check them at least twice before feeling good about the fuel level. It is a PITA, but it is even a bigger PITA to have to remove the carbs for a second time to get it right.

 

It's a good idea to "cycle" them (fill, drain, fill, drain) a few times before even attempting to get a reading.

Never ever assume your initial reading is accurate. Take two or three before deciding on any adjustments.

 

Heat shield? I never knew I was missing this part. Haven't seen it in the parts diagram. Are replacements available?

Sorry to hijack the thread... good luck with the carbs, Joris.

 

To complete this thread I will share my experiences.

First of all, thanks for the tips they were really helpfull.

My rig looked like this:


First attempt found the effect that Bigfitz mentioned, on repeated measurements the carbs got better without any adjustment.
When I had done enough measurments to trust them, I only had to adjust carb #4 a little.

But then I had found the bigger problem: bad leaking from the connecting tubes between #1 and #2 and from the T-tube.
When first rebuilding the carbs a couple of years ago, a had taken the old O-rings to a local car parts shop and they had mesasured and supplied new rings.
As I later found, one of these rings had sheared of completely on reassembly.

So I ordered new O-rings and T-connector from Chacal and broke the rack again.
After that the bench sync and wet setting were repeated.
This time no leaks and all levels were still exactly in spec (why would they have changed as I didn't remove a bowl).

A picture of the finished result, which shows the heat shield.

Then it was time to finally put the carbs back on the bike and start it up again.

I must admit that I made a test drive without further synching or tuning.
It ran very good already just a little choke required at start, good response.
Biggest problem was that I almost ran out of fuel...

Now I must decide how to get the tools to do the synchronuisation and tuning.
But that does not belong in this thread.

 

Nice job!
Thanks for posting a follow up, success stories are good for morale!