Road trouble

[Anonymous]

What would I be looking for in this case?

[Anonymous]

Bad Plug Wire

Start the bike in a dark place like in a garage with the lights out during the day or anywhere after dark and look for a spark jumping from the spark plug wire to the cylinder head. The reason it is hard to see in daylight is that it may be pale blue or pale yellow so the brightness makes it not visible.

[Anonymous]

If this were the case, would the plug for that cylinder be wet with raw gas? My plug is coming out dry and I think that the "signs of use" may well have been the spray type carb cleaner I used and not gasoline. If there is a way I can check the carbs' fuel intake without removing the whole bank I'd love to hear about it! Also I've been told that my throttle linkage could also be the culprit, any input here would be appreciated as well.

[Anonymous]

open the drain plug on the float bowl and see if anything comes out but if that plug is dry then it sure sounds like a fuel problem
if the other cylinders are getting gas what is it that causes you to want to check the fuel flow from the tank???

[Anonymous]

Is this as simple as removing the drain hose?

[bybowtie]

Undo the float bowl drain on the bottom I believe its a 10mm screw.. If gas comes out your getting it that far and most likely have either a clogged jet or a bad float... Sounds as if you have carb adjustment issues maybe even a sync problem.....

[Anonymous]

There is no way to remove the float bowl on number three without removing the whole bank so I'll order up four rebuild kits and clean-up and rebuild every-one of 'em. YEAH!

[bybowtie]

on the four bank you can get to the 3rd carb its a bit of a pain but with a lil effort it will go....I used (if my memory serves me) a 10mm box wrench, worked ok... but I would recomend the rebuild wit the problems you have if you havent properly cleaned them than that may quite well be the issue

[Anonymous]

This bike was not well taken care of and periodic maintenance obviously never happened. The "air filter" was seat foam(really!) and the points were probably the same ones that came from Japan(condensors too). So I doubt the carbs were ever removed(no apparent tool marks on the screws) let alone cleaned. Hopefully I'll be riding Everywhere in a week or so(with a whole lotta luck and a whole lotta help ). I'm glad my first bike, 78 GS400, wasn't this much involved.

[bybowtie]

what bike is it? The best thing you an do is work the carbs and just get it over with, My 1100 was the easiest job Ihad done(abit of a pain to get off then on).. Youll thanks your self once you do it..

[Anonymous]

I had a similar problem with my 850. Idled fine but poor when trying to drive. What I found (I'm sure you would have noticed, I'm quite new to the mechanic thing) was that when connecting the fuel line to the cabs I must have pushed down a bit hard causing the fuel intake nipple on the carbs to roll downward pinching the fuel hose slightly, I straightened things back up and it seemed to operate well, that fixed just one of the number of things I've found since to fix.

[Anonymous]

Before removing aand cleaning the carbs I noticed that the third AND fourth cylinder were not firing. If I hit the throttle hard a couple of times the fourth would fire right up but the third never would. I removed and cleaned the carbs up and checked the jets before reassembly and they were clean. All the carbs are getting fuel, all the float pins and floats are working just fine. After putting it all back together I still had the same problem. I am currently cleaning number three and four again and wonder if I am missing something in the cleaning that would clear this problem up.
What is the purpose of the connecting hose that runs above the float chamber connecting hose between 1-2, and 3-4? Could my problem be that this is clogged?

[bybowtie]

When you clean your carbs clean all of them ..includng the connecting tubes they carrie the fuel between each carb...... But since 4 is getting fuel its not likely the issue but you may have a clogged screen in the pick up (where the float needle is) that will prevent the fuel from going any further....