I pulled the carbs off this weekend and the float bowls were not totally clean of crud. In fact, there was an odd green/white residue in there that looked a bit like oxidized copper. Someone on another forum (or another thread?) had previously pointed to Seafoam as the cause...not sure about that, but I DID have Seafoam in the gas over the winter along with a bit of Stabil. Maybe a little bit of additive overkill.
After cleaning up the carbs again and making sure I had carb spray coming through every orifice, I bench synched them again and put them back in tonight. Of course, in my enthusiasm and surprise that they just popped right in I forgot to get the throttle cable hooked up. They have to come off again for the new throttle and choke cable on order, so I'm going to worry about it later.
With a freshly recharged battery I primed it, took the electric start through 3 cycles, and it fired up. I turned it off, let it sit for a while, and it started up again.
The new issues that have arisen are:
1. a hanging idle. A first for this bike, but I think the middle two airbox boots aren't quite seated
2. Backfiring on decel. Also (sort of) new. This could be related to #1 and/or #3
3. I wasn't getting any fire on #1 cylinder. This was evidenced by a cold header pipe and removing the plug resulted in no change in the firing pattern. The plug had previously given spark when grounded to the cooling fins. I swapped the lead with #4 cylinder and presto chango...ignition on all four cylinders. This also seemed to quell the backfiring. At least the one burble I got wasn't as violent as the first series when I didn't have fire in #1 cylinder. My diagnosis is that the plug cap is cracked, as it is a trifle shocky when touched while one's knee is grounded to the footpeg . I have new ones in the garage waiting to go on to test that theory.
The current battery numbers are:
Key OFF: 12.86V
Key ON: 12.70V but steadily dropping
~ 1500 RPM: 12.84V
2500 RPM: 13.79V
didn't dare go higher than that with the backfiring/hanging idle.
The new petcock MAY have issues, but I'm going to hold off on saying that is definitive until I get a full tank of gas in there.
When the bike was running for awhile with the petcock ON, it would eventually die (vacuum line to #2 is hooked up) and not restart. Turned it to PRIME again and it would start right away. This is a brand new Suzuki Genuine Parts petcock from Boulevard! It would be a shame if something is wrong with it.
I now have to pop rivet the baffle into the cone, and I'll be ready to vacuum synch it, and give it a road test.
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